Sacramento Hmong New Year Inc. pushes back on Sacramento TV news report on shooting deaths
n the aftermath of an early morning weekend South Sacramento nightclub shooting that left two dead, the organizers of Sacramento’s annual Hmong New Year’s celebration are pushing back on reports from a Sacramento TV news report.
A statement issued today by Sacramento Hmong New Year Inc., organizers of the annual event held during the Thanksgiving weekend at Cal Expo, called a report by ABC News 10 “disheartening.”
In one of their reports of the Sunday morning shooting, News 10 led their story by saying, “as Jeannie Nguyen found out that shooting happened during a Hmong New Year celebration.” One of the shooting victims was of Hmong descent.
The report noted that the South Sacramento nightclub where the incident happened had promoted a Hmong New Year’s celebration earlier that day on social media. In a follow-up report, News 10 sent a reporter to the Cal Expo event for comment from a SHNY board member.
In their statement, SHNY said, “The board member was under the impression that the interview would pertain to the three-day celebration; however, he was taken aback by the unexpected focus on the tragic events of the prior evening.”
While the News 10 report (see video below) did not say the shooting occurred at the Cal Expo Hmong New Year event, it was described as a celebration of the Hmong New Year. The SHNY said the report gave viewers the impression the shooting was tied to the three-day Cal Expo event, saying, “It is important for us to clarify that the SHNY organization was not involved with, nor had any association with, the event that took place on that night.”
The statement (see below) said, “The SHNY organization is disheartened by the connection drawn between our celebratory event and the regrettable occurrences of that night. As an organization, we hold the expectation that local media outlets uphold the highest standards of fairness and accuracy in their reporting. Regrettably, we feel that in this particular instance, the aforementioned station did not meet these standards. In this case, this station fell short.”
News 10 does not appear to have addressed the SNHY’s concern on their website. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has detained suspects but has not identified them citing an ongoing investigation.
