Is Merritt’s Media Doing Its Job?

MERRITT – On the same day it was announced that Allan Schoenborn, the man accused of fatally stabbing his three children, had been officially charged with three counts of first-degree murder, several citizens in Merritt expressed concern that the local media had overlooked other, significant stories.

It’s no secret that many of Merritt’s 7,000 people felt the wall-to-wall coverage of the Schoenborn murder went too far. Media outlets across the country reported that many felt the press had “invaded” their small town and sensationalized the story.

“For four days the story seemed to be on every channel,” Patrick, a gas station attendant complained. “You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the man’s name on the radio or the t.v. or seeing it in a newspaper. It’s like the entire city was populated by just one man.”

But others said the coverage was fairly typical of Merritt’s media. “The local newspapers never tell you what’s really going on,” a waitress named Alicia said. “There’s a lot of stuff in this town that they just don’t want you to know about.”

As an example, she related a series of gas station robberies that have been going on recently. Two gas stations had been robbed in recent days and a third in Kamloops. “But there was nothing in the local papers about the robberies,” Alicia claimed. “The only reason I found about them is because the stepson of one of my co-workers works at one of the stations that was robbed.”

And it’s just not just recently she felt the Merritt media has been negligent. She said there is a lot of stuff that goes on during the Merritt Mountain Music Festival that is never reported. Just last year, she recalled, a person at the festival left their truck parked in neutral and it ended up running over someone that was in their tent.

“The papers didn’t say anything about that,”  Alicia said. “Again, the only reason I even heard about it is because one of the customers here is one of the people that worked on the Jaws of Life.” Asked why she believed this event was underreported she replied, “Because the papers don’t want the locals here to know what goes on there because if they did, then they wouldn’t want the festival here. And we all know how important the festival is to the businesses here.” She also alluded to some rapes that have taken place at the festival “that of course never made the paper.”

Alicia admitted she was “a little grateful” the big media outlets came to town. “For once, we actually knew what was going on in town.” She thought the coverage was a little “overboard”, but at least it was up-to-date information, something of a rarity, she said, where the Merritt media is concerned.

But, like many of Merritt’s residents, Alicia was annoyed that the big media outlets tried to make it sound as if the City of Merritt had been forever transformed by the recent murder of the three children. Back in 2003, she explained, a student at Alicia’s highschool had been abducted and tortured.

“Everyone seems to forget about that,” Alicia suggested. “We have the same problems that every city has,” she said flatly. “It’s just that you never hear about them.”