A Freezer Filled With Inaccuracies

Tell the truth and nothing but the truth. It is a reporter’s duty to the public that his work has credible sources. After all, “news is the material that people use to learn and think about the world beyond themselves, the most important quality it can possess is that it be useable and reliable” (50).  Brian Thevenot of The Times-Picayune made a poor effort of finding the journalistic truth. His “Katrina’s body count could reach 10,000”, has a lack of verifiable sources.

            Thevenot’s first statement under scrutiny is the claim that, “Brooks and several other Guardsmen said they had seen between 30 and 40 more bodies in the Convention Center’s freezer.” There is no direct evidence to back up his claim. There are no photographs to document the bodies and Thevenot did not witness the bodies himself. Unfortunately, Thevenot only had observer eyewitness account, which is the least on the hierarchy of seeking journalistic truth.

            Thevenot reports that the “official death count from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana was 71 as of Monday evening, but that included only those bodies that had been brought to a make-shift morgue in St. Gabriel.” Once again, this is an example of unverifiable reporting. Where did the official death count come from? Did he get this information from the morgue? Did he receive the information from an accredited government agency? He gives no information as to the source on these numerical figures.                                                                                                                                                          Not only is it imperative to provide the public with accurate information, it is equally important for a reporter to use trustworthy sources. It is up to a reporter to evaluate his sources and to not be duped. Thevenot uses a myriad of sources that appear to be credible. These sources include: Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks, Daniel Martinez, a spokesman for FEMA, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, Captain Timothy Bayard, Deputy Chiefs Warren Riley and Steve Nicholas, all of the New Orleans Police Department, and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. A few of these sources gave information without verifying their claims.                                                                                              The first instance of an unverifiable claim is from Mayor Ray Nagin. He states, “the storm may have claimed more than 10,000 lives,” yet, Thevenot does not verify Nagin’s assertion. As a journalist, it is Thevenot’s job to support assertions with evidence. He fails to do so with Nagin. Following in the footsteps of they mayor, Capt. Timothy Bayard also makes an unverified claim. He says, “The highest concentration of casualties from Hurricane Katrina likely will come in the Lower 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish.” Once again, Thevenot does not give any evidence of this being true. He simply takes Bayard’s assertion as absolute truth. He goes on to report “Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu said ‘more than a thousand’ people had died in St. Bernard.” Both Bayard and Landrieu do not give any evidence that these assertions are true.                                                                                       Thevenot makes another journalist error when he reports that, “Officials surmised the drowning victims had tried to stay together.” These “officials” remain anonymous and unverifiable. An official can be any person with supposable authority. Not only are they classified as officials, but they are not completely sure as to what happened to the victims. To surmise is to assume something without any evidence.  In other words, they are making a guess.                                                                                                            Thevenot continues to weaken his own reporting by including anonymous sources and the usage of indirect evidence. Mikel Brooks, the National Guardsman from Arkansas, and his unnamed “comrades” was told “a girl they estimated to be 5 years old. Though they could not confirm it, they had heard she was gang-raped.” Not only are Brooks’ comrades unnamed, but also they heard that the 5-year old girl was assaulted from an elderly woman. The older woman is not named, is not interviewed, and therefore, not a reliable source. This is information that Thevenot should have never included in his article. This is considered to be “hearsay testimony” even less than secondhand testimony. The older woman may not be alive or even exist.                                                    Each and every journalist knows that truth is of the utmost importance. According to Kovach and Rosenstiel, “Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth” (49). Sadly, Thevenot’s news article lacks truth. His sources are not all reliable. There was a great deal of hearsay from sources that held titles of prestige. The article did not include “a practical or functional form of truth (56). Next time, Thevenot will look into the freezer himself in order to avoid inaccuracies in his reporting. 









 

Works Cited:

            Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. "Journalism of Verification." The Elements of

Journalism. London: Atlantic, 2003. Pp. 47-68 Print.  

            Thevenot, Brian. "Katrina's body count could reach 10,000." The Times-Picayune

[New Orleans ] 06 Sept. 2005: 8. The Times-Picayune. Print.

Editorial Essay

            There are a myriad of news outlets where the public can freely choose to gather information from. Some organizations lean more to the left while there are others that are more right leaning. All of the outlets make different editorial decisions including what article is the top story and the outlay of the site or newspaper. Four of the more prominent news organizations are: Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, and The New York Times.

            On Sunday evening, March 12, 2017, the top story on AP is McCain to Trump: Provide wiretap evidence or retract claim. The top story of CNN is similar to the AP, which is, McCain calls on trump to verify wiretapping claim. Fox’s top story is Numbers Game: Team Trump, GOP trying to downplay looming CBO report on ObamaCare Replacement. The NYT top story is Trump Wants Faster Growth. The Fed Moves for Restraint.

            The AP and CNN chose to use similar stories as their top stories due to President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the Obama administration tapped into the phone lines at Trump Tower in New York City. These two organizations want to let their readers know that a current republican senator is suspicious of Trump’s absurd accusations. While Trump is not a journalist, he should verify what he believes to be true is actually true. Kovach and Rosential wrote, “The discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda from fiction, or art” (98).

            Fox News chose to report that the upcoming Congressional Budget Office report is being discredited by the White House because of past errors the CBO has made. The NYT has their main story as Trump wanting faster economic growth for the American people and the federal reserve reports that they may raise the interest rates as soon as Wednesday. Fox’s reasoning for reporting this story is because the stock market keeps closing with higher numbers than normal. Fox is keeping their readers invested in the possibility of banks offering higher interest rates.

            The AP had all political/hard news in their top stories. I do not think the AP had a balance of stories Sunday evening. Although the stories seemed to be important, they did not seem to be interesting. CNN had a variety of top stories including a landslide that killed 46 bystanders, an undocumented teen fearful for his future, and a Jewish center that reopened after a bomb threat. These stories appear to be important and interesting depending on the demographic of people who are reading them. CNN had a nice mix of both hard and soft news, which will attract different readers.

            Fox had different stories that focused on the repealing of ObamaCare and promises that the new plan will insure all Americans. Fox’s stories were not particularly interesting. They were important in order to stay informed about the details of the reformed health care act that will come into fruition in the near future. The NYT always has a good variety of stories. On the left hand column, they have all the hard news concerning the 45^th president. There were also soft stories about farmland, the upcoming blizzard, and daylight savings time. The hard and soft news stories are important and interesting to readers.

            The AP wants their audience to know what is going on in the country ranging from politics to entertainment. They take part on everything from breaking news to investigative reporting. CNN does their best to remain unbiased in order to serve the interested public. Fox, on the other hand, is obviously right leaning in what they report. It is more noticeable in their broadcast news than their print news. The NYT is more of a left leaning organization. Their front page consists of political hard news on the left and soft news down the middle. The NYT does this layout so that their consumers know where to refer to in order to partake in the news that they desire to consume.

            The reason that the organizations picked the stories that they did on Sunday evening is because the public who generally consume these stories expect the reporters from the particular news outlets to provide them with facts as to what is going on in the world. People do not wish to discern what is true and what is not. That is the job of the journalists. Kovach and Rosential, wrote, “Journalists like to think of themselves as the people’s surrogate, covering society’s waterfront in the public interest” (96). While there are undoubtedly people who will not immediately believe an article they have read, there are citizens who have trust in the organizations they receive their news from. 

            The reason for the outlets covering similar stories is because news is constantly happening so it is only appropriate for different outlets to cover the same story. There may be times when a story is covered from a different angle and different information is within an article. The stories that were similar seemed to include all the pertinent information.

            There are a number of news organizations, which serve the public’s interest.  People are free to get information from any outlet they please. Citizens can read news outlets or watch broadcast news. In the digital age, people are able to get push notifications on the articles they are interested in. New information is constantly being published on news sites. Consumers must be wary of false news. It is better to engage with news that has a reputation rather than a flashy headline.

News Blackout

In this modern day and age, news is being shared through various mediums. Some of these news outlets are: social media, newspaper, television, and radio. It is extremely difficult to not be somewhat privy to what is going on in the world since information is easily accessible in the palm of one’s hand. This past Thursday and Friday, I undertook the task of being ignorant to what was going on in the world.

            Throughout the entirety of February 2^nd and 3^rd, I did not read or watch any form of news. When the assignment was given to me, I did not think it would be so hard. To my surprise, it was a challenging task. There was a magnitude of articles being shared on social media that I was tempted to read. I also am accustomed to checking the weather on a daily basis due to the sporadic warm weather during the winter months.

            Not only did I find the news black out difficult, I missed being able to freely read articles posted by news organizations and my friends on Facebook. I deleted my weather app on my iPhone and found myself looking for it in hopes that there would be unseasonably warm weather. Thankfully, Thursday and Friday were both cold as expected.

            The news blackout interfered with my daily checking of the weather as aforementioned. I was also unable to gain tidbits of knowledge as to what is going on in the world such as with the presidency, any accidents that may have took place, or information for this week’s Super Bowl. I like to glance through headlines at work occasionally and I found myself wanting to do so more than ever. The reason being is that I knew I was unable to do so and things are more attractive if they are prohibited.  I am not used to being deterred from reading or watching what I please. It was a strange feeling to not have the freedom of information.

            The news blackout led me to avoid certain conversations at work and to avoid the television that is constantly playing CNN. If I heard a coworker or customer talking about a new decision that President Trump had made, I made it a point to distract myself. Unfortunately, I was unable to avoid all conversations and I was in earshot and heard about the Trump rolling back a regulation that the Obama administration put in place in regards to Wall Street regulations. On Saturday, I was able to read up on exactly what it was. Other than work, I did not have any conversations pertaining to news with family and friends.

            I learned that I consume more news in my life than I thought. I did not realize how passively I actually research news on my own. I tend to check my CNN app twice a day to stay informed. I deleted it for those two days and was itching to download it back on my phone. I also learned that I read a great deal of what news organizations post on my Facebook page. I consumed twice as many articles on Saturday than I usually do since my news blackout was complete. It is a hard task to remain oblivious to news when it is flooded every which way. The best way to complete a news blackout would be to not leave one’s home and not surf the Internet.

            News is everywhere that one goes. News can be heard on the subway from a stranger, reading a newspaper cover in a grocery store, receiving push notifications on a smart phone, or logging into one’s social media account. It is almost impossible to not find out new information. To be oblivious is of the utmost difficulty. I did it for two days and I do not wish to do so ever again.

A Student's Nightmare from Avid Maldonado on Vimeo.

The Museum of the Moving Image

    I did not know what to expect when I went to the Museum of the Moving Image. I had just thought it was going to be a mundane activity being that it was a requirement for the class. But to my surprise I actually had a great time. I got to dub my voice over Jack Black’s voice from the movie School of Rock. I also was able to create my own video of a lobster losing his claw at ten frames per second. It was also exciting seeing a movie theater replica of King Tut’s tomb. I liked the flashiness of the theater and story within the theater itself. I understand why theaters are no longer like that as it can be distracting to viewers. It was great reminiscing on my childhood and seeing the costume that Robin Williams wore in Mrs. Doubtfire and the mask from Jim Carrey's The Mask.

   I liked the section where we could all see the evolution of the cameras and how compact they have become. We have discussed this in class but it was great to have a tangible visual for it. In class we learned how important it is to have sound incorporated within a film but during the tour this was further supported. As a group we all saw a clip of a film and four different pieces of audio along with it. The different sounds gave us different interpretations of what we thought we should be feeling. This is evident in movie Jaws. As viewers of the film, the audience knows that a shark will be coming when the jaws music is played. Overall, it was a great experience and I would highly recommend the museum to everyone. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Relationship Between Shots)

         The scene of Gwen Stacey’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Watson displays a great use of editing. The scene has a light piano playing in the background as Gwen is falling to the ground which gives the viewer a sense of the drama that is unfolding. Something very serious is about to take place. Will his web reach her in time or will she fall to the ground? The music stops and only Spider-Man’s cries for Gwen to wake up are heard. When he realizes his attempts are futile the music resumes.

            The scene itself is dark and gloomy as is appropriate for this scene. This is significant because of the saddening moment that is unfolding. The slow motion effect captures the intensity of what is happening at the moment.  I like the use of clock, which stops moving as Gwen stops breathing. The camera is constantly cutting from Gwen to Spider-Man as he attempts to save her from falling to her death. The camera also catches his web going to her in slow motion causing a nail biting scene for the viewer. 

            The close-up of Spider-Man’s eye in the beginning of the scene speaks volumes.  He realizes that Gwen has fallen and he needs to act fast to save her. At the same time his spider senses are probably kicking in, as he needs to direct his web to save her and not hit any of the rubbish that is falling next to him. Near the end of the scene there are medium close-up shots that express the sadness that he is feeling. Spider-man has now taken off his mask, which shows his vulnerability. At this moment he is not a superhero but rather he is Peter Parker who has just lost the woman he loves. 

Audio Portrait of Julia Beach