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Berekelyside's editor-In-chief says homeless death is low priority news
Roberto Benitas, a homeless Berkeley resident, died in his sleep. His body was found the next morning on September 18th. Frances Dinkelspiel, the editor-in-chief of Berkeleyside, was asked by a local reader why the death was not reported by the website, and the response was "people die all the time". Dinkelspiel continued by writing that the death was a low priority and didn't have as great an impact on the community compared to the stories they did cover.
Berkeleyside posted a brief article on a vigil held for Roberto Benitas. Prior to the vigil, the website did not inform its readers that the event was going to take place. Members of the public were left uninformed that there was going to be a gathering, even though the website knew ahead of time. The website was able to send both a reporter and a photographer.
After the article about the vigil was posted on Saturday, a reader asked in the comments section why Berkeleyside did not cover the death which took place a week prior. The reader also asked why information about the vigil was not posted so more of the public could possibly attend. Frances Dinkelspiel responded by posting "People die all the time", and added that Benitas' death "took lower priority" than other issues reported by the website. Dinkelspiel said that Benitas' death did not have a great impact on the community compared to other stories covered by Berkeleyside.
According to Dinkelspiel, the staff at Berkeleyside was focused on big news stories that had great community community impact. Benitas died on on September 18th. On September 19th, there was no news story posted about his death. Instead, Berkeleyside reported on a semitruck which caught fire on I-80; no injuries were associated with this mundane event.
Dinkelspiel claimed that Berkeleyside writers were busy on September 18th covering the shooting of a teenager in West Berkeley. The shooting actually took place 2 days before, on September 16th. Berkeleyside had already posted a news article about the shooting on 11:25PM on the night of the 16th. The article was only 11 sentences in length. No updates were posted in the following days. There is no indication that coverage of the shooting would have impeded any possible reporting on Benitas' death.
According to the Dinselspiel, the resignation of the Berkeley police chief took priority from covering Benitas' death. The chief of police did not resign until September 21st, which was 3 days after Benitas was found in his sleeping bag in front of the UHaul building. It is not clear how the chief's resignation could have prevented Berkeleyside from writing about Benitas in the days before the chief made his announcement to step down.
Other events such as a shooting on the 21st, and other crimes later in the week, happened days after Benitas was found. It seems like Berkeleyside could have made some mention of his passing. Berkeleyside didn't need to a write a biography on Benitas, but they could have posted a story that the homeless man was found dead. Clearly, at the time Berkeleyside would not have had access to Benitas' name, but Berkeleyside could have used John Doe as a place holder until a name was given by the coroner. The website, which had knowledge about the vigil before it occurred, could have easily given the public advanced notice so others could go in solidarity.
Benitas was said to have died of natural causes. But the homeless population in the United States has a life expectancy of 52 years on average. For the homeless population, a death by natural causes can occur much sooner in life. Dinskelspiel wrote that "people die all the time", but some people die sooner than others. Some people die more alone that others. Some people die in a sleeping bag on the ground outside. Bentitas' death may have an impact, if we change the way we think about homelessness, and if people are driven to demand housing and services for those in need.
After the article about the vigil was posted on Saturday, a reader asked in the comments section why Berkeleyside did not cover the death which took place a week prior. The reader also asked why information about the vigil was not posted so more of the public could possibly attend. Frances Dinkelspiel responded by posting "People die all the time", and added that Benitas' death "took lower priority" than other issues reported by the website. Dinkelspiel said that Benitas' death did not have a great impact on the community compared to other stories covered by Berkeleyside.
According to Dinkelspiel, the staff at Berkeleyside was focused on big news stories that had great community community impact. Benitas died on on September 18th. On September 19th, there was no news story posted about his death. Instead, Berkeleyside reported on a semitruck which caught fire on I-80; no injuries were associated with this mundane event.
Dinkelspiel claimed that Berkeleyside writers were busy on September 18th covering the shooting of a teenager in West Berkeley. The shooting actually took place 2 days before, on September 16th. Berkeleyside had already posted a news article about the shooting on 11:25PM on the night of the 16th. The article was only 11 sentences in length. No updates were posted in the following days. There is no indication that coverage of the shooting would have impeded any possible reporting on Benitas' death.
According to the Dinselspiel, the resignation of the Berkeley police chief took priority from covering Benitas' death. The chief of police did not resign until September 21st, which was 3 days after Benitas was found in his sleeping bag in front of the UHaul building. It is not clear how the chief's resignation could have prevented Berkeleyside from writing about Benitas in the days before the chief made his announcement to step down.
Other events such as a shooting on the 21st, and other crimes later in the week, happened days after Benitas was found. It seems like Berkeleyside could have made some mention of his passing. Berkeleyside didn't need to a write a biography on Benitas, but they could have posted a story that the homeless man was found dead. Clearly, at the time Berkeleyside would not have had access to Benitas' name, but Berkeleyside could have used John Doe as a place holder until a name was given by the coroner. The website, which had knowledge about the vigil before it occurred, could have easily given the public advanced notice so others could go in solidarity.
Benitas was said to have died of natural causes. But the homeless population in the United States has a life expectancy of 52 years on average. For the homeless population, a death by natural causes can occur much sooner in life. Dinskelspiel wrote that "people die all the time", but some people die sooner than others. Some people die more alone that others. Some people die in a sleeping bag on the ground outside. Bentitas' death may have an impact, if we change the way we think about homelessness, and if people are driven to demand housing and services for those in need.
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By which I do NOT mean in any absolute sense of truth (that the death of a homeless person IS unimportant). Just in the sense the the editor is probably right that it is not of great interest to the readers of the paper, which makes it of low priority from the point of view of the paper.
Look, the paper spends a lot more column inches on sports news and the doings of performing celebrities than on the deaths of the homeless. You probably think that is a strange assignment of priorities and I might agree in the absolute sense because I have close to zero interest in sports news, celebrity news, etc. But at least I know that my taste in news content does NOT match that of most readers of papers. Do you? Do you think a paper that catered to what you (or I) thought important to cover and ignored what you (and I) consider irrelevant would sell very many copies.
Look, the paper spends a lot more column inches on sports news and the doings of performing celebrities than on the deaths of the homeless. You probably think that is a strange assignment of priorities and I might agree in the absolute sense because I have close to zero interest in sports news, celebrity news, etc. But at least I know that my taste in news content does NOT match that of most readers of papers. Do you? Do you think a paper that catered to what you (or I) thought important to cover and ignored what you (and I) consider irrelevant would sell very many copies.
The Berkeleyside editor is absolutely correct. Natural deaths are not covered in virtually every newspaper unless it's someone who's notable such as Arnold Palmer or someone prominent in local affairs. The obituary column is where the names of average folks who pass on of natural causes are mentioned.
Thank you for this news, News Junkie and for all the follow-up comments that were written, such as the additional comments by Dinkelspiel.
News Junkie is working at social change when News Junkie addresses the existence, that is the lives and deaths of a group of people known by the label, "homeless", by calling attention to a particular person, in this case, Roberto Benitas. In this case, Roberto Benitas died while sleeping out of doors, in his sleep, due to being "homeless", which is a condition that derives it's existence from a cultural, and a political-economic situation that I will simply call, "Capitalism". To die outside, while living on "the street" is a particular form of violence that poses difficulties for us to address in our culture of journalism.
Most of us, including myself here, do not learn enough, if anything at all about capitalism as we are growing up. Yet, Capitalism is the force that shapes virtually everything we think, do, speak and it is the major, or "overarching" form of existence that we are living in and under.
News Junkie is working, therefore, to critique the larger, journalistic cultural form, for example, by calling out Dinkelspiel, in this particular case, a case of omission. The journalistic form, as the other commentator pointed out, when they spoke about news that "sells", is a form of commodity that develops under this larger form of existent framework, called, (for convenience here), "Capitalism". Within the larger framework of Capitalism, this author posits, violence is everywhere, always increasing.
Violence exists in a plethora of forms, blatant, invisible, culturally acquiesced to, or not. I am maintaining that homelessness is a violence that is engendered by the larger form, called, Capitalism. Largely, we as a people who live in the United States, acquiesce to this form of violence. News Junkie is attempting to address and change this acquiescence.
Homelessness itself, this author also maintains, is an extreme form of violence that appears to be not that (not an extreme for of violence), and not engendered by Capitalism, and not a form of torture. However, this author/commentator is asserting that, in fact, the existence of a class of people who are "homeless" is a condition that is created by the cultural form of Capitalism which has developed to a certain stage of development.
Another large group that I will refer to here, other than the grouping of people labeled, "homeless", is a group that might be referred to as "Americans", or even more generally speaking, "people who live in the United States". Generally, most of us who grow up in the United States do not learn what the political-cultural-economic system we are immersed in is all about.
Generally speaking, most of us do not learn, ever, or hardly ever, what Capitalism is all about. How it feeds and exists on violence, all kinds of violence. Most of us never learn the social-economic structures inherent within Capitalism, let alone what those structures create in terms of various types of existences for various groups.
Homelessness is a form of existence created to a large extent by the housing situations, or markets that develop under Capitalism.
However, this author risks alienating readers, simply by using the overused word, "Capitalism". But, even though it is overused, it is hardly understood. Nevertheless, it is a particular form of existence that we all keep replicating, which results in profound and multifarious forms of violence. News Junkie is attempting to arrest this blind form of replication.
What it is? Why it exists? How is it maintained and developed, this Capitalism? We need to educate ourselves and each other, and think about forms of journalism that develop under the larger form of Capitalism. If we do not engage in these kinds of discussions and critique, we promote ignorance, maintain the inherent violence and contradictions, situations and various events of existences that occur under this vast condition, called, "Capitalism".
Not that homelessness would not exist under another form of culture or political-economic system, it might. However, we must at least understand the torturous existence and the violence that is, "homelessness" qua homelessness. It is an extremely violent, torturous from of existence, though in a weird, strange, slower way, what some may call, "invisible violence". If one understands Capitalism and the inherent types of violence endemic to this form of culture and/or political economy, than one might understand how News Junkie writes to critique a website that fails to understand the violence of something known as "homelessness".
Sincerely, and in solidarity with News Junkie, while appreciating the whole discussion,
Elise Casby
News Junkie is working at social change when News Junkie addresses the existence, that is the lives and deaths of a group of people known by the label, "homeless", by calling attention to a particular person, in this case, Roberto Benitas. In this case, Roberto Benitas died while sleeping out of doors, in his sleep, due to being "homeless", which is a condition that derives it's existence from a cultural, and a political-economic situation that I will simply call, "Capitalism". To die outside, while living on "the street" is a particular form of violence that poses difficulties for us to address in our culture of journalism.
Most of us, including myself here, do not learn enough, if anything at all about capitalism as we are growing up. Yet, Capitalism is the force that shapes virtually everything we think, do, speak and it is the major, or "overarching" form of existence that we are living in and under.
News Junkie is working, therefore, to critique the larger, journalistic cultural form, for example, by calling out Dinkelspiel, in this particular case, a case of omission. The journalistic form, as the other commentator pointed out, when they spoke about news that "sells", is a form of commodity that develops under this larger form of existent framework, called, (for convenience here), "Capitalism". Within the larger framework of Capitalism, this author posits, violence is everywhere, always increasing.
Violence exists in a plethora of forms, blatant, invisible, culturally acquiesced to, or not. I am maintaining that homelessness is a violence that is engendered by the larger form, called, Capitalism. Largely, we as a people who live in the United States, acquiesce to this form of violence. News Junkie is attempting to address and change this acquiescence.
Homelessness itself, this author also maintains, is an extreme form of violence that appears to be not that (not an extreme for of violence), and not engendered by Capitalism, and not a form of torture. However, this author/commentator is asserting that, in fact, the existence of a class of people who are "homeless" is a condition that is created by the cultural form of Capitalism which has developed to a certain stage of development.
Another large group that I will refer to here, other than the grouping of people labeled, "homeless", is a group that might be referred to as "Americans", or even more generally speaking, "people who live in the United States". Generally, most of us who grow up in the United States do not learn what the political-cultural-economic system we are immersed in is all about.
Generally speaking, most of us do not learn, ever, or hardly ever, what Capitalism is all about. How it feeds and exists on violence, all kinds of violence. Most of us never learn the social-economic structures inherent within Capitalism, let alone what those structures create in terms of various types of existences for various groups.
Homelessness is a form of existence created to a large extent by the housing situations, or markets that develop under Capitalism.
However, this author risks alienating readers, simply by using the overused word, "Capitalism". But, even though it is overused, it is hardly understood. Nevertheless, it is a particular form of existence that we all keep replicating, which results in profound and multifarious forms of violence. News Junkie is attempting to arrest this blind form of replication.
What it is? Why it exists? How is it maintained and developed, this Capitalism? We need to educate ourselves and each other, and think about forms of journalism that develop under the larger form of Capitalism. If we do not engage in these kinds of discussions and critique, we promote ignorance, maintain the inherent violence and contradictions, situations and various events of existences that occur under this vast condition, called, "Capitalism".
Not that homelessness would not exist under another form of culture or political-economic system, it might. However, we must at least understand the torturous existence and the violence that is, "homelessness" qua homelessness. It is an extremely violent, torturous from of existence, though in a weird, strange, slower way, what some may call, "invisible violence". If one understands Capitalism and the inherent types of violence endemic to this form of culture and/or political economy, than one might understand how News Junkie writes to critique a website that fails to understand the violence of something known as "homelessness".
Sincerely, and in solidarity with News Junkie, while appreciating the whole discussion,
Elise Casby
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