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LATEST LETTERS

Zoo sensationalism

Saturday, April 28 at 2:00 PM

Doug McPeek of Denver writes:

The front page article "Risky Business" written by Todd Hartman on the 12th of April is pure sensationalism. I have two main issues with his article: 1. Mr. Hartman did not provide any comparison with other, similar zoos. 2. Using the data in the article, there has been one accident per every 648,000 contact hours. To say the least, the death of Ashlee Pfaff was tragic. By comparison, there were 1,075 alcohol related deaths from 2002 through 2005. Granted this is not a fair comparison, but Mr.
Hartman provided no comparison at all.
Mr. Hartman, I’m not sure what your intention was, but I found it to be nothing more than negative filler for the front page.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

Mr. McPeek,

I usually leave my Rocky papers in the plastic bag until garbage pickup day. One day, I decided to open the paper and see what the headline is. The headline is about zoo accidents. Hm, what an odd story to headline with, let's see what the Rocky says about zoo accidents.

So, I read the article and find the accidents are so minor that I'm baffled as to why a newspaper would even bother doing a story about it. The paper is long gone now so I don't have exact quotes. But, some of the injuries were as minor as a scratched thumb while putting a monkey in it's cage.

I sat there dumbfounded as to why a newspaper would squander the immense power and privilege it has.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I were running the Rocky I'd double readership in six months.

Posted by John II on April 28, 2007 02:41 PM