ExploreClarion Mourns Limitations On Public Shame

We’ve all been caught up in conversations surrounding individuals featured on ExploreClarion’s website. This may involve someone landing themselves in jail, angering the community with a dumb statement, or accidentally causing a fender bender. Yes, this has happened on ExploreClarion’s website....

In a region like Clarion County, where a smaller population causes one’s poor decisions to stick with them forever, being featured on ExploreClarion’s website does a beautiful job of ensuring people are viewed poorly forever. Obviously, when you live in a small community, a dumb decision shapes the court of public opinion. Why not add to the fuel with a “news outlet” known to break the rules of journalism?

Whether it comes by unreliable witness accounts, or simply delivering news before information has been fully validated, ExploreClarion has a bad reputation that causes much of the public to think lowly of their news platform. It’s no surprise considering that they are on a Western PA budget. But apparently citing names of locals just isn’t enough fuel for their drama. They apparently need pictures too!

ExploreClarion nonchalantly complained that they can’t get mugshots from the Clarion County authorities. Despite Facebook being a viable option to rip someone’s profile picture off their profile, ExploreClarion desperately wants to see people with an orange jumpsuit holding up a sign with numbers on it. That kind of theatric really does sell for a news outlet located in the middle of nowhere.

To make matters more interesting, the journalist covering this story quoted the Clarion County Commissioner stating that he follows the advice not to release photos 99% of the time to protect his job. This quote came after a phone book size article arguing that news outlets have every right to get mugshots when they want.

For the Clarion County Commissioner who’s worried about feeding his family and paying his electric bill, we are sorry for our inability to empathize with your situation. We are much more concerned with ExploreClarion getting mugshots of people who have probably been seen regularly in your small town.

As for the author of this article, ExploreClarion describes him as the journalist who brings “readers stories that are often overlooked.”

This is true! He listed this one under crime, called this fender bender news, wrote a two-part marathon on a dam in Warren that nobody cares about, and also claimed an idiotic racist statement caused a “community reconning.” I don’t think he knows what a reconning is, considering racist people still make up half the county. But that’s not the point. He still is doing a great job covering news we still overlook after he writes it.

Oh, and let’s not forget, in early October of 2025, when within a three-week period, he and his colleague, posted two articles about people stealing a pair of shoes from local stores. One with a woman stealing a pair of shoes from a Goodwill, and another of a man they described as a boot bandit, all because he walked out of his store with a pair of shoes. Granted, it’s still stealing, but does this stuff really have to make the news? In Pittsburgh, a guy can get shot in the leg and not even be prayed for in church. Yet for some reason, some woman swapping shoes at a Goodwill warrants the 49 thousand followers on ExploreClarion’s page being warned "this woman is out to steal your sneakers." Protect your steel toes because the boot bandit is hiding under your bed people!

For ExploreClarion, the inability to post mugshots is a big defeat. However, for locals who have lives to rebuild after mistakes that don't have to define them forever, this is a huge win..... OK, maybe I am dramatization things like the "community reconning" headline...