Maine campers shiv press amid murder probe

By Ted Cohen/Patch.com

A popular Maine summer colony adjacent to a Crawford Lake murder scene is shooing away reporters as though they - and not an unsolved killing - are the problem.

The campers in Union, Maine are alienating what could be their best ally in helping track down whomever killed paddleboarder 48-year-old Sunshine Stewart on or near an island in the lake.

But rather than taking advantage of a true resource - the media - campers are ordering reporters to leave their alleged oasis.

The very people who could actually benefit from publicity over the search for an unknown killer are also using their Facebook accounts to ridicule - and block - journalists who are trying to gather information so they can get the word out.

Ignorance is a pandemic that's bad enough in a safe world - and potentially even fatal in a time of lurking danger.

'Journalism is essential for a functioning democracy and an informed populace.'

The campers ought to focus their ire not on reporters who can actually help them but on the cops for failing to keep the public apprised of the status of detectives' work.

The lesson is that the media can help put public pressure on the cops to get a killer behind bars before he takes out another innocent, unsuspecting camper.