These sensationalistic headlines on January 24th ‘above the fold’ on the front page, plus a header on the online edition within hours of the January 17th accident shows the NVN must be desperate by using the misfortune of others to sell newspapers.

“Driver hits RSE wall after falling asleep at wheel”
“A Yelm man got quite the wake-up call after he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a wall fronting the home of channeler JZ Knight and her Ramtha School of Enlightenment.”

“Joshua A. Lambert, 28, was driving home from work around 8:30 last Friday morning when the accident occurred.

He fell asleep, stayed straight in the curve and left the road, said Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brandy Kessler.”

While the NVN quoted the Ramtha School of Enlightenment public relations firm’s statement,
“Despite this extremely unfortunate event, we are pleased to report that the driver, although shaken, suffered no injuries and we extend our thoughts and well wishes to him and his family, nothing was said of the true story they COULD HAVE reported from a compassionate, human-interest standpoint.

Mr. Lambert is a Yelm resident working a graveyard shift to support his family in Olympia/Lacey and recently-returned Iraq War Veteran in service to our country.

As the NVN’s local contact for the Ramtha School, reporter Megan Hansen called me for comments. I asked Megan to have compassion on this man as he was shaken enough, as anyone would be, especially with an NVN photographer at the scene just minutes after the accident. I suggested the newspaper not use the engagement of the RSE wall from the misfortune of a serviceman & night-shift worker to sell newspapers with Ramtha’s and/or JZ Knight’s name.

Ms. Hansen said, “We have to report a story.”

Interesting, the NVN chose NOT to mention anything nor send a reporter to cover new County Commissioner Sandra Romero’s first public open house in Yelm last Monday, as a vital story to report on the front page!
That Monday was a national holiday and they could not send a reporter does not hold water!

Nisqually Valley News newspaper Editor-Publisher Kevin Graves printed an editorial in the January 10th edition touting his studies that instilled in him proper journalism practices…
“Having studied journalism – things such as journalism ethics, reporting and news style – I take great care to keep this newspaper’s coverage fair and objective.
I believe it’s up to readers to interpret the facts of a story, not to have some egomaniac bloviate and twist information to serve his or her own ends.”

HOW CAN THE READER INTERPRET THE FACTS OF THE STORY, WHEN KEY FACTS ARE OMITTED?
WHERE IS THE ETHICS IN PUTTING A SERVICEMAN’S ACCIDENT ON THE FRONT-PAGE?