The Details Matter

Yesterday, a story was broken about a 4 month old Onslow (NC) child who had his toes chewed off by a 'pit bull'.  According to all of the reports, the mother was "on medication" and apparently slept through the infant's crying as the dog gnawed off the baby's foot.

Headlines broke out everywhere -- less than 24 hours later, the story has been picked up in over 230 media outlets around the world.  All with more or less the same lack of detail thanks to this story from the Associated Press.  Some stories even mention how the dog "mauled" the infant.

The AP story says that the child's parents were dog-sitting the "1 year old" pit bull for a friend who had been arrested on gun charges.

But there appears to be more to the story - -and not everything in the AP story turns out to be true. 

The Jacksonville News (the hometown of the incident) tells a slightly different story.

According to the Jacksonville News (and most local media outlets) the dog is 12 WEEKS old -- not 12 months old. Taking the dog from an adult dog to just a small puppy. Anyone who knows much about puppies is that puppies chew.  A lot. Breed is irrelevant. 

But the info on the dog's owner seems relevant.  Apparently the dog belonged to Aaron Watkins -- who was in jail under bond for possession of marijuana and discharging an illegal firearm.  They keep good company.  It also makes one wonder what type of "medication" was being taken that would prevent two adults -- who say they were sleeping in the same room with the child -- from waking up to the child's crying (I assume the child cried while having its toes chewed off).

But none of that ran in the hundreds of newspapers that carried the story. Nope, just the 'pit bull' and the child's toes -- with the age of the dog being incorrect. 

And we wonder why there are irrational fears about certain types of dogs....

Comments

[Rinalia]

Watching that story unfold was fascinating. It would have been fun if the story hadn't been so sad.

As of 8 pm last night, 80% of all the stories were using the false AP story. 80%! Ridiculous.

[Brent Toellner]

Yeah, that's just how the news works any more. Most newspapers are so reliant on the wire services for their information -- and the AP is by far the most popular (and usually the best) wire service. So it's no surprise that's the story most picked up...but it's pretty sad that the AP made such a blundey...