The drama is getting old

The media hyperbole is getting a bit old -- and we're barely past the midway point in March.  This week's winner is the Port Charlotte (FL) Sun Herald -- in its coverage of a story about two teenage girls that were attacked by a pit bull over the weekend.

Here are some lines from the story:

"However, (the dog's) friendly demeanor turned into a maniacal rage."

"The pit bull began to bite Baltrusch's fingers and clamped its locking jaws on her clothes. Startled, the girls ran down the street, but the animal pursued and began biting at their backs."

"She tried to get the animal off, but it continued to bite her."

"It was scary because he was on top of me in the road," Baltrusch said. "He was going for my neck."

Stinson shoved her arm in between the dog's jaws and her friend's throat, and the dog clamped down.

"I felt really threatened for my life," Stinson said.

The distraction allowed the girls to pile into Carmichael's vehicle, although the animal was unfazed and continued to bite at its fleeing prey.

"We thought it was going to come through the windshield," Stinson said. "If it wasn't for(Carmichael), we would've been dead."

There is also a weird account of the dog standing on the car, tearing off the paneling of the side of the car, and biting at the windshield wipers on a couple of different occassions.

Here is the picture that was posted in a different article of the injuries from this life threatening attack on these two girls.

You'll note that both victims are present in the picture -- one has a pretty bad bite on her back, and one has her arm bandaged up -- but these girls look to be in FAR better shape (two days after the attack) than the first article would imply.

Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for the girls. It'd be great if no one ever got attacked by the dog, and I'm sure it was quite scary to be there during it all.  I just think the scene described in the first article, and the picture on the left, don't look like the same scene to me.  And a little accuracy in reporting would be great, instead of feeding the hysteria.

Comments

[Caveat]

I came across that lurid story yesterday as well. I'm sick of this penny-dreadful style of reporting too.

It sounds as though Florida has a real problem with incompetent dog owners. Maybe it's the heat.

They should try a little enforcement of their regulations. Radical, I know, but it might work!

[Cheryl]

Well gee golly, another dog running loose, owner had previously had incident with dog biting someone.

Don't we have real crime to report and real political issues to report?

[Shannon Wells]

Locking jaws? If the jaw is locked how is it the dog kept biting?