Why was there no information on fatal crash in Hopkins?

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

When “fake news” continues to become commonplace, it is more than disconcerting that finding the truth seems more difficult than ever. Not only are we bombarded with lies, sometimes we aren’t told anything at all.

So what we don’t know won’t hurt us.

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, earlier this month when I learned there was a fatal motorcycle accident in downtown Hopkins, but it was not reported, neither by authorities, nor by area print and broadcast media that often brags, “We’re all over this story.”

I was told that Michigan State Police were on the scene of a fatal crash in the first week of June, but I never saw anything on broadcast or print media. I never saw any reports from any public safety agencies in this area as well.

I even searched for death notices and obituary information without any success in learning what happened and to whom.

Finally, this week a super sleuth friend came up with some information after doing some digging. This is what he found:

Rodney R. Bowden, age 61, of 500 W. Main St., Hopkins, died June 8 at Metro Health Hospital in Wyoming of injuries he suffered in that unreported accident. There was no funeral and he was cremated.

That explains why I couldn’t get any obituary information, but it still leaves the burning question — Why wasn’t this very public and tragic incident reported anywhere? These days, it seems that virtually any incident such as this cannot escape public notice because of the aggressiveness of broadcast media.

Granted, print media’s role has been receding in recent years, with fewer reporters and less financial means to do the job.

And why would public safety officials fail to report this? Inquiring minds want to know.

This reminds me of an incident about a dozen years ago when a teen-ager hanged himself in the Kent County jail and only his obituary was reported in the media. Apparently the family asked the sheriff’s department not to report the circumstances of his death.

Eventually, MLive, then known as the Grand Rapids Press, caught wind of it and published a big story, raising the question about authorities withholding public information because it might embarrass someone. The Press rightfully said it wasn’t fair to subject some people to negative publicity and then overlook the same for those who ask to be excused from that indignity. And it corrected the problem.

Now comes a public incident in which someone loses his life, and in the words of the late comedian George Carlin, “Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

I certainly don’t have all the information, which seems deliberately withheld from the unwashed masses. But I am very worried when legitimate news slips through the cracks.

What is going on here?

Though there is debate over whether he actually said it, George Orwell has been quoted as writing, “The news is something that someone else doesn’t want you to know. Everything else is advertising.”