Newspapers - Internet Responsibility

The Internet has taken reporting news to a new level. Today many people can report on news from blogs to chat rooms. The difficulty is deciding the agenda behind these citizen reporters,the facts being presented, and what follow up needs to be done.

All newspaper web sites are moving towards having greater public participation. Take for example this weeks unveiling of the new Asbury Park Press website. The new site seems inviting and emphasises local stories. It seems easy to navigate and submit stories.

So I checked out the stories submitted and found Bonny had written about homeless shelter's in the Red Bank area. She questioned the requirements to get into shelters and why there were not more options for such an affluent area. In my mind she raised several valid points and the timing of her story around the holidays and with colder weather moving into the State made for an interesting article. Only one problem, even though the story is on their website I can not find any follow by the paper. It appears that the topics discussed were not assigned to any reporter to follow. I have no idea if it is legal to turn away people from a shelter because they lack identification. I can not tell if any elected official is upset with the situation. I do not know how many people are turned away from the homeless shelter or how many are housed at the shelter. There is no perspective from the various religious communities about the situation. In essence I have a posting about a potential problem but no follow up.

If newspapers are going to create greater public involvement in their industry they still need to meet their burden of reporting on the stories they post.

No shelter for the homeless
By bonny • Reader Submitted • November 28, 2007

What’s this?
If you have a record, if you don't have picture ID, you cannot be referred to the area shelter at Fort Monmouth. Unfortunately, these prerequisites leave out quite a few people.

I can only speak in regards to the Red Bank area, where I have found no place to refer homeless men for over-night shelter in this progressively chilly weather.

CheckMate, on the grounds of Fort Monmouth, can only take people after a background check and picture ID. This leaves a gaping hole in the system.

Most of my contact with the homeless has been men, with a record and without ID.

The Salvation Army's new facilitate on Newman Springs Road, although huge, does not have any beds.

As far as I know there is some help for women and children through local churches. Could I be wrong, maybe there's some shelter just waiting to accommodate these unfortunate people.

Surely, in such a wealthy and caring county we provide appropriately for our poor.