Last
night at night, I did a story on Idaho Senator Larry Craig, and his bust in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul Bathroom.
You can watch it here. The story broke in
Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper
Monday afternoon. A viewer saw it
reported on MSNBC soon after, and called our news desk. So we started working the story.
Because
it was after 4 p.m., we couldn't get a copy of the police report, nor could we
get a mug shot. Crazy, right? Editor & Publisher wanted to know
why it took the media so long to report
on this arrest [
via].
I have a few thoughts on why the Minneapolis/St. Paul media didn't catch
the story.
1.
Dealing with Airport Police can be a pain in the neck. Even yesterday, no one would come back to the
office to send us the report or give us the mug shot. "They close at 4
p.m." is what I was told. Even
after the public affairs people at the airport reported getting slammed with
phone calls, starting at 4:10 p.m. and CNN.
2.
Because Airport Police is separate from Minneapolis Police, or the Sheriff's
office, reporters would have to go to the airport to request reports. The
arrest information doesn't leave their property, and as the charge was a minor
charge, I don't think it even went to the county attorney. It was like a
ticket.
3.
No one locally would raise an eyebrow about a "disorderly conduct" at
the airport for a guy named Larry Craig even if they saw the report's front
page.
4.
The plea deal at the courthouse happened the week after the bridge collapse. So
the usual suspects who would have tipped someone off, were too busy with other
things to even concentrate on this.
I
just got off the phone with the extremely helpful records manager of the
Airport Police. She tells me they have a
tough situation, because unlike a city police department, reporting to a city
manager or a mayor, Airport Police report to an entire commission. Even though there's a chair of that
commission, that person isn't the chair of the public information committee. And before Airport Police release
information, they share it with the board first. That's part of the reason for the delay in
getting out more thorough information on the scope of the sting into lewd
behavior.
She
did tell me that at least 13 people have been arrested in relation to their
sting. She's compiling the data (it's on
hard copies, not computerized), so we should know more tomorrow.
