Viewers Voice: Bad manners, WSLS town halls

Our report on the latest court motions in Jeffery Young’s upcoming Floyd County trial, had one viewer pointing out a mistake.

Ginger McGhee wrote, “I just watched your news cast at 6. I noted that you said that the attorney was murdered. I think that you have to be careful in the terms that you use. The attorney was run over by a car while jogging. No one saw what happened! This could have been an accident; so you should be careful before you make the type of statements you made. Murder is defined as an intentional act. If someone has been convicted of the crime then you should have reported it as a murder.”

WSLS responds: Ginger, thanks and you’re right. In our script about the death of local attorney Thomas Ferrell, we said, “When Young was on trial in Roanoke County for the murder.” Jeffrey Young was acquitted during that trial, so we should have instead left out the “the” and said, “When Young was on trail in Roanoke for murder.” Thanks for the catch.

Recently, we announced a series of town hall meeting in preparation for our new community websites and Your Town specials in November. Our first four communities will be Salem, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, and Lexington.

This prompted this comment from one viewer: “Nice idea. But Blacksburg and Christiansburg are in the same county, Montgomery. What about Radford, a CITY? What about other locations?  I hope you plan to expand!“

WSLS responds: Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you like the idea and I promise we will be expanding beyond the first four communities. This is just the beginning and is an important part of how we plan to better serve the entire viewing area. So stay tuned.

Finally, after a week of bad behavior from Kanye West, Congressman Joe Wilson and Serena Williams, we ran an online poll on wsls.com asking you which one deserved the bad manners award. That sparked a flood of comments from many of you.

One viewer emailed in, “Yet not one word about having to deal with Pelosi’s ugly, plastic mug through the whole speech.”

And, Kyle Rose wrote, “West, Williams, and Wilson were the 3 choices. I suggest you broaden this somewhat and include the President, Pelosi, and the press. The President set back civility and race relations and called the police department “stupid,“ Pelosi called the people “Nazis,“ and the press call concerned voters “a mob.“ Is propaganda what you envisioned in journalism school?”