City of Peoria, Peoria Journal Star

No bluffing, the JS got it wrong

14 Comments

In today’s Journal Star I read this headline: “Peoria woman has purse stolen in West Bluff.”

Well, that’s my neck of the woods, so I wanted to know what happened and where. Imagine my surprise when I next read this (emphasis mine):

The 34-year-old victim told police shortly before 11 p.m. that while she was headed west on Nebraska Avenue approaching Peoria Avenue, the men came up on her from behind.

That would be the East Bluff. You know, it’s this kind of sloppy reporting that will get some reporters/editors fired when Dave Ransburg buys the paper.

14 thoughts on “No bluffing, the JS got it wrong”

  1. From the report – “Inside the purse was the victim’s debit card with PIN number, personal documents and an undisclosed amount of money. She was not injured.”

    Carrying your PIN number with your card… priceless!

  2. Yeah, welcome to the club. That happens all the time in regards to the southend. I can’t believe the PJS doesn’t have a clue in this regards but after awhile, people begin to believe what they read and hear. I can’t recall but I think it was at Campustown that a crime occured and it was labeled as a southend crime.

  3. The Journal Star ran a story in December with headline something like “East Bluff man arrested for drugs” after drugs were found in the trunk of his BMWs – at his residence at 2418 Grandview Avenue – right off Grandview Drive. Googlemap it. Who knew the Peoria Country Club was so near to the East Bluff?

  4. You know, I’ve noticed this type of sloppiness throughout the media, local and national, print and broadcast, for several years now. I’ve never seen it occur before with previous generations of journalists. What does that say about this generation of journalists? They are sloppy. You can read or hear the same story from several different sources with the numbers, dates, times, etc. all different even several days after the fact.

  5. If you look at a map, Peoria Country Club is on the EAST side of the city and county and Campustown is sure closer to the SOUTH than it is the NORTH or even MIDDLE of the city.

  7. My point is that the PJS’s use of West Bluff isn’t really so far off. Maybe Middle Bluff would be better? You are nitpicking and I can’t believe I just began to defend the PJS.

  8. Police should just stand on that corner, the city would make millions in violation-citations.

  9. I filled my blog with these little observations back during its first two years of existence. Happened all the time back then. They’ve gotten better.

    And I doubt Ransburg knows the dif, either.

  10. MDD: On 7/7/2002, the Journal Star ran an article titled, “Migration to north leads Journal star to revise Peoria map.” In it, they defined how they would refer to various areas of the city. Here are some excerpts (emphasis mine):

    …migration of the city’s borders to the north and northwest has forced changes in the way people identify Peoria and its inner regions. So a committee of Journal Star editors recently revised the city map the newspaper uses in describing general areas where news occurs.

    The map, last revised in 1991, is a guide for reporters and editors as they link readers to parts of the city. For example, “Mossville Road in Far North Peoria will be closed for repairs”; or, “A West Bluff house fire left two people injured.”

    “It’s just to help our readers understand where news happens,” Journal Star Managing Editor Jack Brimeyer said. […]

    North of the hospitals and divided by Knoxville Avenue are the areas long known as West Bluff and East Bluff. Those designations remain, but they no longer rise as far north as War Memorial Drive on the newspaper’s map, and they will not be separated by a little used “Center Bluff” region.

    Generally encompassing those areas is the new “Central Peoria” designation. It stretches from north of the bluffs, alongside Peoria Heights and up to Northmoor, where the revised “North Peoria” region begins.

    Peoria street directions are divided by Knoxville also. So, for instance, the story I quoted in my original post happened on East Nebraska because it happened east of Knoxville. That should have been a tip-off as to which bluff it was.

    Does it matter? Only if accuracy is important. Only if you want to “understand,” as Brimeyer said, “where news happens.” Only if you care about the perception of where crime occurs in the city, especially as it relates to your neighborhood.

    Am I being picky? Maybe. But I think it’s justified. I didn’t draw the map — the Journal Star did. They should either revise it to the “MDD version” or make their reporting consistent with it as is.

  11. MDD: Campustown sits up on the bluff. The southend is in the southern valley. Valley as in not on the bluff. I don’t know what you would label Campustown but it wouldn’t be the southern valley area (southend) but if it’s closeness that moves you, then why not say it happened right outside of East Peoria?

  12. Renaming the west bluff, east bluff and the like are like renaming historic chicago neighborhoods.

    Historically, we know what belongs to the east bluff, I don’t think “redifining” the common references to these areas does any reader a service.

    West Bluff: bounded by the bluff on the south, W. Peoria on the west and I-74 on the north.

    East Bluff: bounded by Knoxville on the west, forrest hill on the north, and the bluff on the south.

    Northside: areas north(east) of downtown to Adbington.

    Averyville: North of Northside, below the bluff.

    Center bluff: I-74 on the west and south, Forrest Hill on the north and Knoxville on the east.

    Southtown: just south/west of downtown, below the bluff to MacArthur.

    Southside: south/west of southtown to Bartonville, below the bluff.

    The rest of the areas should be defined geographically as those old sections listed above have been historically known as those areas.

  14. Mouse are sure? Isn’t High Point Road south of Pioneer Parkway and so he would live in the ‘southend’ too?

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