Thoughts about predictable news coverage, my Ace Mohr "obsession" and top Turner Report/Inside Joplin posts for the week

There are times when a certain amount of predictability is a good thing for a newspaper and often that comes right around holidays and annual events.

When I was editor at the Carthage Press and Lamar Democrat, nearly all of page one on the Veterans Day newspaper (or the closest one to that date) featured photos and news coverage of community events honoring veterans.

Everyone knew we were going to do it every year, but it was the kind of predictability that let people know what our newspaper considered important.

The same type of coverage was featured on Memorial Day, as I covered the annual observance at Park Cemetery.

Important annual community events, including big ticket items like Maple Leaf Week and Marian Days, received extensive coverage. When it is the biggest thing going on in town, it deserves the blanket treatment.


On the other hand, predictability is also a curse for both newspapers and television stations. Black Friday stories bore me to death and so due tax day stories on April 15. They have a place, but not leading the coverage. If that is all you have on page one or at the top of your newscast, you are falling asleep on the job.

While I always provided coverage of those "events," I never carried it on page one.

In other words, I don't want to hear anything else about Black Friday.

And a month from now, I will feel the same way about the returning Christmas gifts stories on December 26.

Newton County Memories

A reminder that signed copies of Newton County Memories are available as holiday gifts at Granby Auto Supply, Always Buying Books, Changing Hands Book Shoppe and Pat's Books in Carthage.

Or you can order them directly from me for $22, including sales tax and postage by sending your money to Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. A, Joplin, MO or by using the PayPal button below.

If you use the PayPal button, be sure to leave your address in the message form.

My "obsession" with Ace Mohr

A couple of years ago, two readers told me I needed to find out about a man named Ace Mohr, who had been arrested for various crimes, but never seemed to spend much time behind bars.

I checked out the online court records and filed the name away for future reference.

It was just a couple of weeks later that a Joplin Police Department news release said Ace Mohr had been charged with an armed robby at 7th and Moffet.

I went back through the online records and also chccked old newspaper reports about armed robberies that he had allegedly committed, but the charges were filed, then quietly dropped.

I wrote my first post on Ace Mohr and discovered there was far more interest in him than I had anticipated and that has continued to be the case.

Ever since I began writing about him, there have been a few fools (and I am sorry for using the term, but I can't see what else you can call people who do not understand why this story is important). The stories have involved one crime after another, second chances, followed by third, fourth and fifth chances and a judicial system that has bent over backwards to keep him on the streets, creating a danger to the community, not to mention the extra strain it puts on our local law enforcement agencies.

I have no problem with giving someone a chance to start anew, but when these starts continue to reflect the same behavior, someone is not getting the message, and I am not talking about Ace Mohr.

I have written a number of posts about Mohr in the past couple of years and it is likely I will be writing more. I would prefer not to have to write any.

From your comments, it appears most of you understand why I have devoted so much space to this story.

The question that needs to be asked is why no one else has even mentioned it.



The top posts for the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and Inside Joplin Obituaries are featured below with links to each one.


The Turner Report

1. New armed robbery, felony assault charges filed against Ace Mohr, Carthage man held without bond

2. Police to KODE: No unusual problem with missing people in Joplin

3. The woman who made me take my belt off, the officer who checked it out and how my pants defied gravity

4. Attorney general launches investigation into Neosho City Council secrecy

5. Cynthia Davis: Judge's decision was wrong: CNN should have sent a reporter with better manners

6. So you want to be a Webb City R-7 assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction

7. Former Joplin Globe reporter was first to tell the nation of President Kennedy's death

8. Thank God for the First Amendment- Politicians don't get to pick which reporters cover them

9. Creve Coeur Democrat to pre-file seven bills to prevent gun violence

10. Arraignment set for Carthage man charged with making terroristic threat to get out of ticket

Inside Joplin

1. Carthage woman injured in accident north of Carl Junction

2. Man slumped over wheel at 7th and Maiden Lane arrested on DWI, felony meth charges

3. Three arrested, meth, weapon, stolen pickup confiscated during JPD raid at 2102 S. Kensington

4. Five arrested, meth, stolen car confiscated in afternoon raid at Carthage home

5. Jasper County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions

6. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests

7. Newton County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions

8. Joplin Police Department Weekend Arrests

9. Joplin Police Department Arrests November 19-20

10. Carthage Police: Do you know these people?

Inside Joplin Obituaries

1. Brenda Holmes

2. Greg Asbell

3. Pistol Baugh

4. Cynthia Hall

5. Jeffrey Timmons

6. Richard Betz

7. Nicole Shrock

8. Patty Wilson

9. Shirley Carter

10. Jay Mitchell