Gratuitously Covering a Story Just Because of a Weird Name/Weird Crime?
So some context. I live in Southern NM and we are in the El Paso DMA.
Yesterday, there was a story on KVIA regarding a man attacking a friend with a broken beer bottle partially amputating his nose.
So in this world of tons of murders and terrible crime, it’s not exactly the worst thing you hear on the news.
My issue was:
The story was on the Mescalero Apache Reservation which is not in the DMA… they are in the Albuquerque DMA, 250 miles away
Like a lot of natives, he has a unique name. Lewis Bigmouth. (For the record I’m part native)
The amount of times the anchor mentions Bigmouth in the one minute story seems gratuitous. There’s no live remote regarding the story, feels like something that was on a press release somewhere and flipped into a filler story.
The way the story is discussed, (Native friends getting drunk with each other, getting into a fight and then something very disturbing occurred) kind of tiptoes on stereotypes to me that are very prevalent in this area.
My question to you as journalists is: Did this story only have a life simply because of the suspects unique name and the weird injury? Are there instances where you or someone you know ran a story like this?
Could this story possibly have been done to gather some easy clicks and traction on social media because of said name and situation?
Always appreciate the honest and great input when i ask these questions on here. Thank you!