Michael's News Blog

In the wake of the third shooting on a city bus since early March, Metro Transit Police Chief Dave Indrehus said today that bus and light rail riders "shouldn't feel less safe because of these really isolated incidents." Police announced today that officer’s arrest of Jerome Pablo Cross, 17, on Sunday in connection with the shooting. His parents expressed disbelief that their son could have pulled the trigger. It was on a metro transit bus that Earl Freeman, 16, of St. Paul, was shot to death early Sunday while stopped in downtown St. Paul. While the Pioneer Press article focuses on the young man who was shot to death, the Star Tribune focused on the safety of the bus system.

Pioneer Press:
When Freeman was 7, his mother died of complications from Lupus, Kinsey said. The "always happy, always smiling" boy began to struggle in school and had brushes with the law. He might have developed a tough exterior, Kinsey said, but he was trying to turn his life around.

Star Tribune:
Indrehus said that other recent incidents on Route 74 have included a purse snatching, a domestic incident, three fights, two drivers spat upon and a suspected gunshot that turned out to be a rock thrown at the bus.

Both articles are written in the inverted pyramid style as well as encompassing the same core journalistic values of timeliness and impact.

Continue reading "Buses are safe, shootings are 'isolated incidents,' official says" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Eight buildings at the University of Minnesota were evacuated after a professor discovered a bomb threat. A professor found a note Wednesday in a classroom building that included a bomb threat against several campus buildings. The threat came days after a 23-year-old student shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday at Virginia Tech. Both articles paraphrase University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness in their respective pieces.

AP:
University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness said the bomb threat had specific targets and gave a time frame of before 10 p.m. Wednesday. He said he was aware of the empty threats made against many schools around the country since Monday, but he could not discount the chance of a real attack.

Star Tribune:
University Police Chief Greg Hestness said his department is in touch with FBI. He said he understands the possibility of this threat being a copy cat incident. "We feel there is a fair probability" of a hoax, but he's still taking it seriously, he said.

Both stories were filed around 7 pm central time on April 18th. Also, both stories were written in the inverted pyramid style and incorporated the same core journalistic values. Proximity, prominence, and timeliness are all extremely important for this story and present in these pieces. It should be noted that the AP is a national paper and the Star Tribune is a local Minnesota paper, yet both end in the same way but in a different manner. Both end with references to past bomb threats. The AP gives an example of a national incident and the Star Tribune gives a local incident.

AP:
In East Hartford, Connecticut, a man was arrested Wednesday on charges of taking a pellet gun to the mayor's office and telling a secretary, "College campus, here we go," a reference to the Virginia Tech massacre. No one was injured.

Star Tribune:
In December, two offices at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management were evacuated and some traffic rerouted for about an hour following a report of a suspected pipe bomb. Police detonated the package, which was found to have been harmless. Otherwise, no other operations were affected.

Continue reading "Bomb threat forces evacuation of 8 buildings at University of Minnesota" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 1:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A man was found early Saturday partly frozen to the pavement on the sidewalk of a road in Chaska. He died Sunday, the day he turned 19 years old. Sean Patrick Humphrey was found by a snowplow driver and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he had been listed in critical condition. These two stories both have a somber tone dealing with the death of this boy, but the AP article chooses to quote the father if the victim directly to provide color to their piece.

"All we know is that he was at a party and he was coming home, we believe, because he was just within a few blocks of here and due to some head contusions on his head that he slipped and fell and hit his head on the curb," said Robert Humphrey, Sean Humphrey's father.

The Star Tribune chooses not to quote the father and rather paraphrase a Sgt. Of the police department. This has to do with the type of story the StarTribune is writing. They, being a local paper, focus more on the loss of life and less on the unusal circumstances.

Sean Patrick Humphrey, a Chaska resident who appeared to have fallen as he was walking and hit his head on a curb, was spotted early Saturday by a city snowplow driver along Geske Road at Millpond Court, according to Sgt. Mike Duzan.

Both of these are follow-up stories that were written on Monday. They both have the inverted pyramid style and both are very contained pieces. The main focus of the Star Tribune article is on the emotional strain on the man’s family while the AP story is more on the circumstances that lead to the boy’s death. Also, the Star Tribune article, notably the local paper, included a number to contact the police with information on the death. The AP article does not include this information, they simply say that anyone with information should call the Chaska police.

Continue reading "Chaska man found frozen to the pavement dies" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One person was hurt during an overnight shooting on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Police are trying to determine what led to this shooting, which involved the occupants of two vehicles early Monday in north Minneapolis. Both stories are inconclusive regarding results of the incident and report that police are still investigating. The Pioneer Press article is a brief while the Star Tribune article is a full news story in the inverted pyramid style. This particular story is interesting because both of these separate articles quote or give reference to KARE-11 news, which neither newspaper is affiliated with. Both these articles quote a separate news entity in their story.

Star Tribune:
One person was injured and taken to a hospital, KARE-TV said.

Pioneer Press:
KARE-11 reported that two cars were involved in the shooting, which happened at about 2 a.m. near the Dowling Avenue exit.

This is one of the rare circumstances where both of these separate articles rely on a third news source and reference it in their story. Both reporters must have felt this information was crucial to the story for them to bring in a separate news reporter as a source. I found a very interesting quote at the end of the Star Tribune article.

"We always have some [shootings]," he said. "We don't know all the causes behind the shootings; maybe it's just angry motorists. I don't know. We need more research." said Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol.
While this quote may provide color, more so it illustrates police incompetence. The reporter included this quote, not to provide information on the shooting to the audience, but to illustrate the police’s take on it.

Continue reading "One hurt in Minneapolis shooting" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This story, covered by the AP and Star Tribune, deals with the contract extension of Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins. The Star Tribune focuses on the contract arbitration of Mauer while the AP deals much more with the contract itself and Mauer's history. Both sources quote Mauer about his excitement and relief over the new deal.

AP Quote:
"I'm real excited to be in Minnesota for the next four years and that I'll be playing at home with my family and friends being there," Mauer said. "I'm excited to be there for the opening of the new stadium."

Star Tribune:
"It's definitely a relief," Mauer said. "This year was a little bit different going through the arbitration stuff. I'm just happy to get it done. Now I can go play some golf with J.D."

The quotes do a good job illustrating the point of view and perspective of both pieces. While the approach of both stories is different, the AP focusing on Mauer himself and the Star Tribune focusing on the new contract, the basic information in each article is the same. The Star Tribune writer, noticeably for a local paper, believed that most people in Minnesota were already familiar with Mauer and chose to focus on the contract as apposed to his numbers. The AP story was written with the assumption that people reading it were less familiar with Mauer. The contract, 4 years for 33 million, is the same in both articles. While this is a sports story, there is no discernable bias in either piece. The AP story is an example of a news brief while the Star Tribune story is much more extensive and full of details.

Continue reading "Mauer gets $33M, four-year extension" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This story is regarding a man who killed two people and injured a third being charged in Waseca County District Court with two counts of second-degree intentional murder. Bail was set at $2 million. The AP article is much shorter then the Star Tribune article and deals with strictly the facts of the case. The Star Tribune story was filed February 05, 2007 – 1:49 PM, while the AP story was filed early in the morning on the same day. The Star Tribune article focuses much more on the details of what transpired when the accused eligibly committed these crimes. In comparing these two articles the AP story reflects a breaking news story, while the Star Tribune is more completely written. The Star Tribune provides more details and specifics in regards to the incident while the AP story simply gives the bare essentials of the case. In regards to bias and attribution, both papers refer to Michael S. Zabawa as being charged with this crime. This is a case where both reporters probably feel some bias towards this story. A man is accused of murder and it appears on the surface that he is guilty. Both reports do a good job in not including bias, drawing conclusions that the accused is guilty, in their respective pieces. Like in Lab 2 and the first style quiz, it is important to use terms in their correct context. Also, “According to a criminal complaint" and “Alec, 13, gave this account that Zabawa told authorities:" are both forms of attribution that each story used to communicate their information.

Continue reading "New Richland man charged in murder of Waseca father, son" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This news story deals with a driver who struck an 11-year-old girl Sunday. The van driver fled the scene but was later arrested and is being held by police. The Star Tribune reporter focuses on a summary of the content. Instead of using direct quotes he chooses to paraphrase St. Paul Police Chief Bud Shaver when he gives an update of the girl’s present condition. This was also the style taken by Brian Bonner of the Pioneer Press.

Star Tribune:
West St. Paul Police Chief Bud Shaver said today the girl's injuries are very serious.

Pioneer Press:
Police Chief Manila "Bud" Shaver, who spoke with the girl's parents on Sunday night, said the girl's injuries are severe. He was checking on her condition today.

Both reporters do a good job communicating the key information in a non-direct context. It's likely a direct quote from the police chief would have bogged down the story. While the Star Tribune focused mainly on an account of the events, the Pioneer Press focused on the "Good Samaritan" who helped save the girl. There is a direct quote from Shaver later on in the Pioneer Press article that does a good job summarizing the events that transpired.

"I think she would have been dead in another block or so. Without this Good Samaritan, this driver would have kept on driving," Shaver said. "He dragged her from almost Robert to Oakdale (Avenue), 300 to 500 yards. I don't know if he knew whether he was dragging her or not."

This provides great details about the event. It does the job of a direct quote very well. It lets the audience know exactly what transpired and how serious the circumstances were. The phrase "Good Samaritan" is used frequently in the Pioneer Press article and not at all in the Star Tribune. While it is common enough language to not be considered jargon, it is a cliché that can be done without in the story. The Pioneer Press article gives more information and pays more attention to interesting themes then does the Star Tribune article. The Star Tribune is just a quick summary of the events with virtually no color. Both related the information well, but the Pioneer press is more insightful and interesting.

Continue reading "Driver arrested after striking, dragging girl with van" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This article from startribune.com deals with Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget proposal that would give more then 1 billion dollars to education spending. The first line of this story is, "Flush with a projected surplus." Just like we talked about in class with the U of M athletic article, the word flush is a form of jargon that can possibly mislead readers. The article also uses the clichéd terms like "tax relief" and "an expansive $41.9 million in new benefits." Tax relief is a buzz word that has a positive meaning while an expansive 41.9 million is simply redundant. The article deals with how the new budget is laid out, but has many unnecessary terms that do not add to the overall quality. It is a bulky piece that could be trimmed down to better informs its audience with accurate information. The pioneer press has the headline: More money for top schools, property tax relief promised in Pawlenty's state budget. Both articles make a point to show that under Pawlenty's budget there are no new taxes. The pioneer presses article is much trimmer. It doesn't have the bulk that the tribune’s article does. Both articles are accurate to the facts of the story. For a reader seeking quick information the presses article is much better.

Continue reading "Education gets a boost under Pawlenty's budget proposal" »

Posted by Michael Deeney at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)