Discussion: MyBayCity's Coverage of the Hetzel Story & Farragut Street Fire

A Personal Chat With MyBayCity Publisher, O.J. Cunningham

August 4, 2008
By: O. J. Cunningham

As many of you (MyBayCity Readers) can imagine, my phone has been ringing off the hook over the past few days. My e-mail (in-box) is bursting at the seams with input pertaining to MyBayCity's coverage of the Hetzel incident. "The Buzz" is buzzing with Internet prattle.

MyBayCity has always professed itself to be the "good news oasis" in the coverage wasteland of newspaper and television death and destruction.

In quiet moments, I have found a personal satisfaction making a "go of it" on the Internet information super-highway without the need for sensationalism and/or scare tactics.

Perhaps you remember my first local venture into Bay City/Bay County News -- Bay County Sports Page (1976-1984) One other time during the 5-years history of MyBayCity, (Mrs. Salogar's Death), we ventured into the murky waters of local crime to cover an event that none of us here at the publication could fathom in terms of its evil stench.

This second brush with crime also strikes close to home for all of us at MyBayCity. Many of us knew Sharron Hetzel. Many of us knew Dave Hetzel. We ate, drank, mingled and often networked in parallel and criss-crossing life paths.

And so this recent blackness struck too close to home for all of us.

I truly love living in Bay City, Michigan. I've seen the big city and I'm not interested. Too many people. Too many problems. Too much traffic. Too much random evil.

Our initial coverage of the Hetzel story evolved like this.

In our group, Dave Rogers had the information first. Steve Kent, a partner at OJ Advertising and Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants was contacted and brought into the discussion. Kent knew both Dave and Sharron Hetzel very well.

The police (at the crime scene) refused to give out any information. As it turned out, it took almost 5 days for local law enforcement to publish an official position. In the end, we all agreed and decided to go forward with the story. I gave my blessing.


First, let me say this: "If I had to do it over again, I truly don't think I would publish the article.

Retrospect is always 20/20.

But yet, I stand behind the decision I made just a fews days back.

In recent weeks, we have had an unsettling series of violent acts that have many within the community on edge. Pamela Wilson and Holly Falasz (both young women) have lost their lives this summer to violent crimes in Bay City. Now the Hetzels.

Just as many of you, we at MyBayCity have been a bit overwhelmed by this new purveyance of evil in our community.

With respect to Saturday's early morning report concerning fire and body count on Farragut Street, all we could imagine was that "The Evil" that had rained down on the Hetzels must have come from outside the community.

The local authorities at the crime scene were tight-lipped. We were frustrated and could not understand why authorities would not release any pertinent and timely information. The source of on-scene information to MyBayCity was friendly, well-known "insiders" in the mainstream of government and those friends and families in the near neighborhood immediately around Farragut Street.

We knew Sharron and Dave Hetzel. Sharron was a subscriber to MyBayCity.

Did MyBayCity get our original story wrong?

Yes we did.

Do I feel badly? Yes I do.

Have we changed our news focus?

Not at all.

For the record, (If you're counting . . . and I am) this is article Number 2,939 in the database of MyBayCity. The Hetzel article by Dave Rogers is only the 2nd article in our publication history that has dealt with death and the ugliness of evil in our community.

Dave Rogers has written (literally) over 1,000 articles for MyBayCity that deal with the wonder, the joy, and the positive lifestyle that thrives inside our community boundaries. He should be commended for that accomplishment.

We've been publishing the positive slant on local events for almost five (5) years now.

We will continue.

We invite you to continue to read.

NOTE: I have closed "The Buzz" with respect to Article Number 2931
The Hetzel Fire on Farragut Street.)