Sunday, April 18, 2004


Associated Press
EVERGREEN, Colo. -- Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker discovered the body of an unidentified man Sunday on his property near Evergreen. Walker called the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office after spotting the body while he was riding an all-terrain vehicle in the mountain community west of Denver, said sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Tallman.


The body was in a wooded area near a trail on his property and not near Walker's home, Tallman said.


"Mr. Walker is not a suspect," she said. "We don't know if the person was killed at the site or if his body was dumped there."


Walker is on the disabled list and not traveling with the team.


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This news story is weird. It implies suspicious circumstances. When a body is found outside of cities in less developed regions, the first thought is usually that the person is a victim of circumstance. But by discussing the discover of the body with very little facts about how the person died and by following that statement with the comment, 'Mr Walker is not a suspect...We don't know if the person was killed at the site or if his body was dumped there," it's implied that someone believes this person did not die of natural causes or by accident. By using Larry Walker's name in the same comment that attaches him to the shock words "killed" and "dumped," anxious images and associations are produced in a reader's head, resulting in these two things being associated together during the mental process of memory recall; the person making the comment subconsciously connects Larry Walker to the horrifying act of killing.

But I'm curious about this.

Did the AP writer subconciously or consciously include that idea in the article to create drama? Or did the person making the the statement, with her omission of facts and denial of a suspicion from a crime that was not even assumed, intentionally or accidentally allow a glimpse of their own suspicions?

The psychological workings of mass communications intrigue me...especially when coupled with seeing how an individual soul (person) is inherently incapable of keeping anything hidden from the collective (anyone who perceives this person) and will always end up communicating the repressed truth in subconcious yet mentally ingenious ways.