Standoffs, suspected kidnappers, burning bodies, high-speed chases, animal abusers -- the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office sure has a lot going on.
But you'll see none of those cases on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's taxpayer-funded Web site. You can, however, read a column by Arizona Republic writer E.J. Montini.
As of today, all of the above-mentioned criminal cases don't rate a mention on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's portal to the public. Instead, Arpaio's control freaks fed those news items only to their favored media sources -- such favoritism is a way to keep the media in line. We reported a similar situation in January.
Despite losing a 2007 Arizona Appeals Court ruling, Arpaio's office still won't e-mail news releases to media outlets that want to receive -- and have requested -- them (like, for instance, New Times). Though the office promised after the ruling to post all of its releases to the media on the MCSO Web site on the same day they were e-mailed to its favored news outlets, it obviously doesn't do that, either.
As you can see from this screen shot from the Web site, most of Arpaio's posted media releases are political in nature.
Frankly, we're used to the lies, screw-overs, bad-faith efforts and delays when it comes to getting public information from the sheriff's office -- but we're not so jaded that we won't tell you about them from time to time.
You know, it's almost funny:
An escaped child rapist on the loose and deputies are busting people all over the Valley, and Arpaio suddenly wants people to read a newspaper he suggests be thrown in the garbage.
