Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Zanesville | Daily at the center of an exotic story

The Times Recorder of Zanesville, Ohio, is at ground zero of one of the strangest stories in a long time: Local resident Terry Thompson released caged lions and other exotic animals from his property, then fatally shot himself Tuesday night, law enforcement authorities say. By late today, 49 of 56 animals were dead, and only a monkey was still loose.

21 comments:

  1. I cannot believe they killed all of those animals. It's disgusting!

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  2. I cannot believe that article has no quotes.

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  3. The monkey is going to corporate to start a new vertical. It's the perfect Gannett manager. Accepts bananas for pay and flings crap.

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  4. Lions, tigers and bears. They're magnificent creatures but they're also Godless killing machines. Going into the night, you don't want them wandering around looking for a snack. Hate to say it, but shooting them was probably the best option for community safety.

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  5. Jack Hannah, former director of the Columbus, OH Zoo was interviewed on ABC News and he said that, sadly killing the animals was the best option.

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  6. "They're magnificent creatures but they're also Godless killing machines." Wild animals or Gannett executives?

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  7. "I cannot believe they killed all of those animals. It's disgusting!"

    One of the lions ate a monkey.

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  8. For 9:04, they of this brilliant gem:

    "They killed the final wolf. What a bunch of backward idiots! That's all these white trash people know how to do — it's an animal, lets shoot it"


    From a Reuters story:

    -- The sheriff said they tried to shoot some of the animals with tranquilizer guns but encountered problems.

    "We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger that must've weighed 300 pounds that was very aggressive," Lutz said. "We got a tranquilizer in it and this thing just went crazy."

    Barbara Wolfe, a veterinarian, said she shot a tranquilizer dart into the tiger, but it got up and charged her from 15 feet away. A deputy shot the tiger dead.

    ALSO

    -- A macaque monkey, possibly carrying the Herpes B virus, remained at large.

    -- One of the escaped big cats reached an interstate highway and was hit by a car

    -- Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told the news conference Lutz and his deputies did the right thing.

    "These are dangerous animals," Hanna said. "If you had 18 Bengal tigers running around these neighborhoods, you wouldn't have wanted to see what would have happened."

    So, to sum up, 9:04, you, my friend, are a misinformed fool.

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  9. I see useless Tweets and wire on the site. Is there no one left to actually cover this unfortunate event?

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  10. Is there any reporters left after layoffs to report the story?

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  12. the issue with tranquilizing them was that they didn't have anyway to contain them once the darts took effect. what would your criticism have been if these animals had killed someone?

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  13. "Bill Cooper, who lives on Whites Road, said he was concerned for his cattle and calves on his farm when he first heard about the animals being loose. He said he didn't see any animals out but he and his wife heard several "pops."

    He said in the past heard animals moaning on the property and always thought something should have been done about it"

    That guy sounds like people here -- someone else should have done something.

    Also, the 9:04 p.m. post should be deleted on the basis of willful ignorance.

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  14. The issue of course isn't what happened in Zanesville, the issue is how poorly the newspaper covered - and continues to not cover - this event.

    Zanesville is one of THOSE Ohio papers. Poorly managed, lots of bad history of mismanagement, centralization of "resources" that hasn't worked. "Group" projects in editorial that never materialized.... the list of poor management from Newark goes on and on.

    It has been that way for a decade.

    Sorry to see such a major story happen in a community with such a poor "hometown" paper.

    Remember that this was the group of papers that also has the embarrassing Chillicothe, where an ad said "Every bitch is unique" instead of "every birth is unique."

    This Zanesville story is being covered much better from neighboring metros and TV stations.

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  15. 10:45: The Ohio group isn't perfect by any means, but what are you seeing that wasn't done in Zanesville's coverage that should have been?

    Seven (I think) stories, multiple photo galleries and videos, lots of social media and other updates.

    What's missing? And let's see some links to the "better" coverage by TV stations and metros.

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  16. The point of 10:45 a.m. was clear - anyone can catch up with coverage two days later.

    The poor coverage was mainly for the initial, all-important first 24 hours.

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  18. 12:19 pm: If you can't see how poorly that story was covered from the initial stages as well as throughout the news cycle, you're part of the problem. Unfortunately, being severely understaffed was just part of the problem. The quality of stories and coverage leadership was embarrassing. What others should take from this is this is the quality of news others can expect under this woeful operational model being touted as the future. It's sad.

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  20. Way to offer those examples, 7:17. Fail on your part.

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  21. I think they did all right considering their resources the first 24 hours. They weren't outdone that much by Columbus media (in comparison to Zanesville's TV station, which was whipped like the proverbial stepchild during the entire process).
    In that vein, some of what 10:45 said is spot on. Their management is incredibly afraid of pissing anyone off. They act like a paper for a town of 1,000 instead of one purporting to serve most of three counties. Everything has to be fair and pleasing to everyone, which of course is impossible (having been a copy editor that dealt with them for a while, it made things very difficult at times). That's an attitude that's been around as long as I can remember and isn't changing now. That the leader of the pack in Newark could not care less about anything not named the Advocate doesn't help at all.

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