{"id":29496,"date":"2013-07-25T16:50:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=29496"},"modified":"2023-02-24T10:44:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T18:44:49","slug":"fmmedit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=29496","title":{"rendered":"A Challenge to the Media on the Jonestown Story:
An Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 29, 2011 was a wonderful day, full of reconciliation and finality, of laughter and tears, of stories and memories and insights. It was a day for final goodbyes to the people of Jonestown, to be sure, but it was also a day for hellos, for rekindled friendships, for new connections.<\/p>\n

The people who addressed the gathering during the service spoke many names not often heard in conversations about Jonestown: Joe Helle, Poncho Johnson, Roosevelt Turner, Mona Young, Malcolm Carter, Steve Addison, Dan Kutulas, Joel Cobb. And once \u2013 but only once \u2013 someone spoke the name of Jim Jones.
\n

\"02-35-media\"<\/a>
Photo by Rex Morningstar<\/figcaption><\/figure>But you wouldn\u2019t know it from some of the media coverage. The television cameras were there, and the reporters listened to the same words from the podium as everyone else, but when it came time to filming, they all focused on a single name.\u00a0 \u201cThe name of Jim Jones on a new memorial\u2026\u201d \u201cA gathering at a memorial which includes the name of Jim Jones\u2026\u201d Story after story led with words of division, as if trying to stir up drama for an event that needs no extra drama.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to wonder too much about why former members of Peoples Temple and relatives of the Jonestown dead are a little reluctant about speaking to the press. The ones who did approach the TV reporters \u2013 the ones who pointed out that the day was about 918 names, not one \u2013 were described in one news account as \u201checklers.\u201d The people who consented to interviews weren\u2019t asked about their loved ones in Jonestown, but about the man who led them to their deaths.<\/p>\n

\"02-36-bishop_jones\"<\/a>And then there\u2019s the willful misrepresentation. What else can you call it, when a picture appeared in several newspapers that focuses on the name of \u201cBishop Jones\u201d? There\u2019s only one inference you can draw from the photo \u2013 the people of Peoples Temple still worship their reviled leader! \u2013 but the photographer who took the picture and the photo editors who ran it across the wire services knew it was false. Yes, there is a \u201cBishop Jones\u201d \u2026 except he\u2019s the 13-year-old whose full, uncropped and unedited name is \u201cJames Arthur \u2018Jimbo\u2019 Bishop Jones,\u201d and he\u2019s right next to the man of the hour, the devil incarnate himself, \u201cJames Warren Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media prides themselves on challenging sacred institutions, old beliefs, myths, and unfounded rumors. Perhaps, after 33 years, it\u2019s time for the media to challenge themselves on the telling of this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 29, 2011 was a wonderful day, full of reconciliation and finality, of laughter and tears, of stories and memories and insights. It was a day for final goodbyes to the people of Jonestown, to be sure, but it was also a day for hellos, for rekindled friendships, for new connections. The people who addressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":29505,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29496","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29496"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121858,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29496\/revisions\/121858"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}