McHenry County Blog calls it an "exclusive"

Cal Skinner got it right in his McHenry County Blog article about the Sheriff's Department handing the Northwest Herald an "exclusive" with the early and singular initial release of information about the death of Kurt Milliman.

You can read Cal's May 29th story here: http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2011/05/29/scott-millimans-brother-kurt-killed/

I had first called the Woodstock Police Department and the dispatcher didn't know anything about the death. Later I wondered why a WPD dispatcher wouldn't know about a shooting death 12 hours earlier and just outside the City Limits of Woodstock. Wouldn't it be routine for the sheriff's department to notify a nearby police department of a homicide just outside its jurisdiction?

Then I called the sheriff's department at 1:06PM yesterday and spoke with Lt. Popovits. I understand he is the head of detectives at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. That must have been right about the time that he was providing information to the Northwest Herald, because that paper published its first story at 2:16PM.

I added my two-bits' worth to Cal's article today:

"The public should demand an explanation of the exclusive handed to the Northwest Herald. If the sheriff's department wanted to release information before holding a press conference, then Zinke (where's the sheriff? Minocqua?) could have set up a conference call with reporters and active bloggers in the county (Cal Skinner, Pete Gonigam, me, and patch.com editors) and released the information to all at the same time.

"In fact, such a teleconference arrangement should be established already.

"Or maybe the sheriff's department should just buy the Northwest Herald."

With the existing "friendly" relationship between the McHenry County Sheriff's Department and the Northwest Herald, you can understand why there is no critical reporting. There won't be any hardball questions from a reporter that might put the undersheriff or chief of detectives on the spot. Not if you want to hang onto the inside track.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Milliman was a former process server for the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. I wonder how Zinke forgot to mention that...