Drew Peterson: My Attorney Made Me Do It

Poor Drew Peterson. The guy who a few days ago said "I'm a media sensation" now whines about how he's suffering with the media attention.

That, of course, is after he did the People Magazine gig.

But, when asked why he was talking to the media almost non-stop, Peterson once again sloughed off responsibility. He claimed his attorney "made" him.

Astute reporters asked why he had done so many interviews before attorney Joel Brodsky, who himself has serious credibility issues, "made" him do interviews. No real answer there.

It's obvious that there's now a whirlwind of repackaging Drew Peterson. In this interview, he says that he's a jokester, and that he hides his pain with jokes and laughing.

When directly asked "what is your hurt and pain?" Peterson doesn't hesitate a millisecond with his answer.

"My hurt and pain is all the media in front of my house," he snapped.

Luckily, a reporter reminded him of missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, and asked him if he felt any pain about that. Oh yea, Peterson, quick to catch up, said. Sure thing.

Peterson also had a good laugh when he said: "I'd really like to mess with you guys (ed: the media) but I'm being held back."

Peterson and Brodsky are messing with the media. Brodsky, who briefly lost his law license in a scandal involving a client's funds, couldn't wait to run to the media with the anonymous letter claiming the sighting of Stacy in Peoria.

The game is afoot, as Sherlock would say. And Brodsky's game is to market Drew as a really nice guy whose suffering from the media--not the missing wife--is immense. The second offensive ploy is to tar Stacy's reputation. The second tactic is standard sleazy fare when a woman is the victim.

As for Peterson's claims that his attorney "made" him do all those interviews: give us a break. Peterson, despite that one firing, brags he's been a cop for more than 30 years. He's a father.

He knows the word "no."

But Peterson, showing his scorn for the women in his life, the public, the police, and the media, isn't going to give up the media spotlight. After all, he likes "messing with" people.

Still to come: the result of investigations into Peterson's actions as a Bolingbrook police sergeant. Although Peterson raced to grab retirement, officials have said that serious charges of misconduct on the job could divest him of his $72,000 a year pension.

The photo of Peterson is by John Smierciak of the Chicago Tribune. Smierciak has done some excellent work in covering this case.

A Few Seconds: Airliners Narrowly Miss In-Air Collision

In this case, when a controller made a mistake, a cockpit alert saved the lives of those aboard two aircraft over Indiana. What's even scarier than the near-miss: normally, the planes would have been flying even faster than they were.

For years, air traffic centers have been incredibly under-staffed. They have to fight for every job slot, and every new piece of equpment. It's another example of a crucial government agency which is over-tasked and under-funded.

What is "politics as usual " to the bureaucrats can be life or death to others.

A Chicago-bound jet came within seconds of a midair collision at 25,000 feet over Indiana, but a cockpit safety device alerted the pilots flying the other plane of the danger ahead, officials said Wednesday.

The near collision Tuesday evening was attributed to an error by an air-traffic controller who directed an eastbound Midwest Airlines plane to descend into the path of a westbound United Express jet, according to a preliminary investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Source: chicagotribune.com via PEP

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Missing Woman Case: The True Crimes of Bad Journalism

Get out the milk cartons, folks. Here's the poster children for missing journalism in a case that's at least a scandal, and may be a deadly crime.

Wife #4 disappears. Police re-open investigation into the death of wife #3, found dead in a bathtub after filing an order of protection against her husband.

The husband, 53-year-old Drew Peterson, is a veteran Chicago police officer. Not only do we now have a cop investigation of a cop, the 23-year-old missing woman's name is Stacy Peterson, eerily close to the infamous Laci and Scott Peterson case. That definitely makes it "made for a TV movie" fodder.

And, there's also a 30-year-difference in age that seemingly only matters at the start of the romance, when she was dangerously close to being under age. Maybe. In fact, the math of the case when you add up some numbers that this Fox News story doesn't tell you.

To get those numbers, a reader has to also find the Chicago Tribune article, which fairly screams in purple prose and lounges in lavender shades of Mickey Spillane. The Trib tells us that Peterson and wife #4 (the 17-year-old, not the dead 40-year-old in the bathtub) "met six years ago."

That would be 2001, roughly. In 2004, wife #3, Kathleen Savio, dies in bathtub incident. And, according to the Trib again, the current Peterson couple has two children, one of whom is four years old. That's a birthdate of 2003. You do the math.

But we aren't done yet. The Fox story, high up, includes a statement that Peterson isn't considered a suspect. Really? Then why trumpet the possible connections between dead wife #3 and missing wife #4?

OK, we'll grant that the combination is a natural for news coverage--unless you're writing for the Trib. Or unless you then muddy the waters with a hinted-at link to two other missing wives.

Fox News suddenly veers and slogs into a swamp: "But Stacy Peterson is the third wife to vanish in the last six months in the Chicago area, the latest in a series of mothers whose families say they would never leave their children behind.

Chicago police found a body believed to be that of missing 39-year-old Alma Mendez, a mother of three, who disappeared Sunday on a jog near a forest preserve."

So now Peterson is #3 in a series of women who've disappeared, and whose connection may be: they're wives and mothers. One of them is Lisa Stebic of Plainsville, Ill who disappeared six months ago. However, the Fox story tells us, her husband, Craig, has been named as a "person of interest" by police.

Then why drag her case, and that of Mendez, into the Peterson (Stacy) case, Fox? You creak open a door to a "wives gone missing!" macabre exhibit and then immediately slam it. That's called over-reaching to tie into other news stories, at the cost of clarity for readers.

Back to the Chicago Tribune though, which is long on sentiment, and short on up-front facts. "...
Sitting at a desk in his house Wednesday afternoon, unshaven and with bags under his eyes, Drew Peterson, 53, said his wife, Stacy, 23, called him about 9 p.m. Sunday and told him she was leaving....."Sorry, I get choked up about it," Peterson said, his voice cracking....
As the couple's two children, ages 2 and 4, scampered around the house, he talked about celebrating the couple's fourth wedding anniversary Oct. 18. "

Bring out the tissues. This is sob sister journalism.

The Trib story does have some facts, including Stacy's age and the notation that the couple married two years after they started dating. But wait! That would be (counting on fingers) in 2003, if they met six years ago.

Back to Fox, who identified wife #3 (dead in bathtub) as still Peterson's wife in 2004. Is your head spinning yet? Mine is. So was #3 his ex-wife at the time of her death? Buried deep, deep in the Trib story is some more insight into the whole numbers game. Why is the Trib more concerned with the baggy-eyed, cracking-voiced husband who also is found "chuckling softly" than with a straight-up accounting of facts?

Darned if I know. But I do know this: a woman is missing under suspicious circumstances, and between two major news sources, you still can't get the whole story.

And I call that missing journalism. Are we sure there isn't a milk carton category for that?

Note: Have you seen Stacy Peterson? If so, contact the Illinois State Police immediately.