BocaBeacon.comThe Boca Beacon is Boca Grande's weekly community newspaper.

Subscribe via email

Grab our RSS Feed

Commentary: Why you aren’t reading It

To answer the question, no we’re not printing It. If you aren’t sure what It is, feel free to skip to Delores Savas’ Eco-Watch column about butterflies. (Print edition only).

I’ve always said that a newspaper in Boca Grande is redundant. This week proved the point.

The story is that a local man was arrested in Port Charlotte on charges of misdemeanor simple battery. There’s more to it, of course. Always is.

Sometime Monday it became clear to me that the story was no longer the story. Everyone, it seemed, already knew the story.

Whether we were going to print the story had become the story. And, sometime Monday, I had already made my decision. Actually, it had been made more than 12 years ago.

The Beacon has a long-standing policy (or policies) that governs our coverage of crime-related stories.

While these policies have evolved slightly over the years, I’ve pretty much kept them in place even though they are somewhat outside the mainstream and are a bit outdated.

Here’s how it works:

• We do not report misdemeanor arrests off-island that involve island residents or those employed on the island. We do report misdemeanor arrests for crimes that take place on-island.

Why the difference? The community has a compelling interest in any crime, misdemeanor or felony, that takes place here in Boca Grande. This interest extends to the nature of the crime and the identity of the suspect.

• We do report the identity and nature of the crime when the suspect is an island resident charged with a felony that took place on- or off-island. A felony is a major crime that carries with it a presumption of compelling community interest.

• We do report off-island misdemeanor arrests involving island residents if that resident holds a position of trust on the island. This includes those elected to office as well as those holding appointed positions with government agencies or on government boards or panels. A law enforcement officer, firefighter or park ranger would fall under this exception. This exception also covers those who have chosen to thrust themselves into the public limelight.

Of course, no policy can hope to possibly anticipate all situations. Some decisions will be made, and have been made, based on the specifics of an individual case.

Five or six years ago our policy was to only print names of those arrested on felony charges regardless of the location of the arrest. As you can see, it has evolved.

I would have preferred to simply not print It and let things go at that. It became clear this week, however, that this wasn’t going to be an option.

• Both Dusty and I received phone calls from folks seeking to influence our decision. We didn’t disclose that the decision had already been made. We both shared a concern – a very real concern – that some of these well-intentioned people might be inclined to tell others that they were responsible for keeping It from being published.

We do welcome input from the community. But the phone calls and curbside conversations played no role in the decision that was made.

We simply followed our policy.

• Some candidly speculated that we would bow to some form of economic influence and not dare to publish the story. We have published many stories that have cost us advertising revenue. Losing an ad has never been a factor in our decision to either publish a story or not publish a story.

We simply followed our policy.

• Some suggested we didn’t have the “guts” to report it.

Whatever.

• The majority of those who voiced an opinion were opposed to us publishing It. As noted, we appreciate your input.

Writing this column about this incident became necessary.

It would have been unfair to use this incident to ignore our policy simply to prove or disprove a point. It would have been unfair to you, it would have been unfair to the individual involved.

The nice thing about policies is that they can be changed.

In this column I’ve outlined our policies on crime reporting. And, as I’ve noted, they are somewhat outdated.

Most newspapers print everything. Well, actually, they don’t. When the owner of the car dealership out on the bypass, the one that runs all those full-page color ads each week, demands that his kid’s name not appear in the police blotter, chances are the kid’s name somehow doesn’t make it into print.

Funny how that tends to happen.

We want your opinion.

• Should we keep the policy the way it is?

• Should we scrap the policy and print everything?

• Should we not print anything involving island residents who have been arrested?

If you are among those favoring printing it all, remember that the next name you see in the Beacon could be yours.

If you don’t want us to print the names of island residents, why would it be fair to print the names of off-island residents?

Post a comment to let us know what you think.

As I said, we value your input.

• • •

This recently came from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Think Community Panel when reading it:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection, wants to work with city and county governments on the best way to regulate boats that anchor outside of permitted mooring fields. Currently, local ordinances for anchoring are unenforceable outside of mooring field boundaries.

The FWC is collecting letters of interest until November 13 from those local governments that have an interest in establishing mooring ordinances. Of those governments, the FWC will choose five locations throughout the state to participate in a pilot program. The five sites will be selected prior to July 1, 2011.

Under the pilot program, the FWC will work with the selected local governments, who may establish and enforce FWC-approved mooring ordinances outside of a mooring field. The program does not include ordinances for live-aboard vessels.

“We want to engage all local governments to consider this,” said Maj. Paul Ouellette, leader of the FWC’s Boating and Waterways Section. “It is important to promote boating rights and accessibility, but it is also important to protect the marine environment and maritime property, and reduce the number of abandoned or derelict vessels. We hope this pilot program will help us shape uniform and consistent regulatory regimes that do not overburden the recreational boater.”

The FWC will submit a report on the pilot program to the governor and Legislature by Jan. 1, 2014.

A mooring field is an area of water set aside with delineated boundaries marked with permitted uniform waterway markers. It must have permitted mooring buoys in which boats are required to attach, in lieu of dropping an anchor.

For more information on the mooring program, visit MyFWC.com/Boating, or send inquiries to anchoring.mooring@myfwc.com.

Gary Dutery is editor of the Boca Beacon.