The journolism of The Philadelphia Inquirer

We previously reported on how The Philadelphia Inquirer told readers about yet another two murder suspects being caught on surveillance cameras but not yet arrested, yet, despite the newspaper having the suspect’s photo available and publicizing the Philadelphia Police Department’s call for help from the general public, the newspaper declined to publish the photos of the suspects, to possibly help in their apprehension.

Cue Britney Spears and “Oops, I did it again”:

Another suspect identified in South Philly shoot-out that wounded 8 people

Nino DaSilvio, 22, is being sought in connection with the gun battle outside 7 Elements late-night lounge on July 5.

by Robert Moran | Friday, July 18, 2025 | 6:01 PM EDT

A second suspect being sought in the shoot-out that wounded eight people outside a South Philadelphia late-night lounge in the early-morning hours of July 5 has been identified, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.

Nino DaSilvio, 22, is facing charges of aggravated assault and other offenses, the U.S. Marshals Service said without disclosing where he lives.

Late last week, Michael Welton, 43, who was working as a security guard at 7 Elements when the shooting happened, surrendered to police and was charged with attempted murder and related offenses.

Welton, of Philadelphia, was released on $200,000 unsecured bail and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 1, court records show.

Naturally, the Inky didn’t publish the photo of Mr DaSilvio, but overnight breaking news reporter Robert Moran got around that by linking the tweet from the United States Marshals Service, which did include it. Then, in his final paragraph, Mr Moran included a link to a WPVI-TV article which did have the surveillance video images of another suspect.

My far too expensive Philadelphia Inquirer subscription. I could use a senior citizen’s discount right about now.

I honestly don’t get it. My digital subscription to the Inquirer costs $5.49 per week, or $285.48 per year, for the newspaper to not tell me the whole truth on a criminal suspect. Yeah, I now live far away from the keystone State, so the chances that I would ever spot Mr DaSilvio are vanishingly small, but I can’t be the only person who subscribes this way, and I’d imagine that many digital subscribers live in the City of Brotherly Love, some perhaps even in the poor^[1]In 2021, the neighborhood, which represents less than 1% of the city’s population, housed more than 10% of the city’s Section 8 residents. Gray’s Ferry neighborhood. If I can’t help, perhaps a few of the city subscribers could.

The newspaper’s policy is pretty silly. I could almost understand the policies of some newspapers to not print mugshots of criminal suspects already in custody, even though I disagree with it, but this backdoor method of showing the suspects’ faces to readers, by directing them to other sites, is beyond silly. If published Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Hughes is afraid that such is violating her mandate to make the Inky an “anti-racist news organization,” why even publish the suspects’ names, because anyone who can use this internet thingy that Al Gore invented could do a Google search for nino dasilvia philadelphia pa and find his photo.

Every newspaper, every journalist medium, has an editorial policy, but sometimes those policies are just plain silly. The Inky, which the main editorial writer has personally told me has seen an increase in subscriptions over the last year, could still be of more value to subscribers and potential subscribers if it stopped censoring the news. With the practically unlimited bandwidth and memory of today’s digital storage, the space limitations of the broadsheet newspapers of the last century is no longer a serious concern; newspapers no longer have to pick and choose what they will and will not cover in their online editions.^[2]Out in the country as I am now, online editions are all that are available to me; there is no home delivery of newspapers out in the sticks.

In a way, the Inky did not censor the news on this story: Mr Moran simply had to redirect readers to other sites to find certain information. That’s just plain funny.

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References

↑1	In 2021, the neighborhood, which represents less than 1% of the city’s population, housed more than 10% of the city’s Section 8 residents.
↑2	Out in the country as I am now, online editions are all that are available to me; there is no home delivery of newspapers out in the sticks.