BDeutsch News Analysis

An article published in the Los Angeles Daily News uncovered that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s overtime pay has gone up 60 percent over the past decade while the number of firefighters has only gone up 17 percent. The article also compares the department’s overtime with other major cities including Chicago, which reported a sixth of the overtime as Los Angeles.
The writer would have used city documents since the departments are all under the city’s jurisdiction. The overtime rates would have been on pay stubs sent out by the city as would the data from pay stubs a decade ago. The story is prominent because of the comparison to other departments and the fact that Los Angeles’ figures are so much higher.
Computing skills would not have been difficult if all the data was correct and available. The most important figure for the article was percent change, which is a relatively easy figure to find.

Source: http://www.ire.org/extraextra/government-federalstatelocal/overtime-rages-for-la-fire-department/

Posted by deuts060 at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Langseth wrote an article in the Minnesota Daily last week on the university’s grading of international teaching assistants.

According to the article, the university is looking at using a new test to determine when an international student’s English is “good enough” for them to help other students as a teaching assistant.

In my opinion, the article only increases negative stereotypes that international students struggle to speak English. In an example of poor journalism, Langseth did not even speak with an international teaching assistant for his article.

He also hangs himself in the foot by saying international teaching assistants showed “virtually no difference in overall teaching satisfaction scores compared to other TAs.”

So the only relevance to the story is that the university potentially keeps international students with poor English skills from serving as teaching assists by using an outdated test that is going to be replaced.

However, Langseth does not follow up on how many students take the test and how many are kept out of the program.

Posted by deuts060 at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Sunday, the New York Times published an article by Kathryn Jones that showed bonuses to high-level executives in the United States actually decreased in 2008 – the first time such an instance has happened in the last five years.
While I assume Jones used the large numbers to attract readers and show that despite executives are still making a ton of money off of bonuses despite the decrease, her frequent use of numbers became somewhat difficult to follow.
For most of the story, Jones dealt strictly with dollar amounts – how much each company had withheld, how much some executives gave back and etc.
However, she did mix things up later in the article when she correctly used median total compensation instead of average compensation. While the difference between the two would not be as significant comparing executives to each other as say comparing executives to janitors, it’s still a better way to represent the data.
Jones also correctly uses percent changes in several instances throughout the article.
The article uses a data compilation from Equilar, but the study was very complicated and limited in its reach.

Posted by deuts060 at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press ran an obituary on Wednesday for Giovanni Parisi, an Olympic and world champion boxer who died at the age of 41.
The obituary was relatively short but in general followed the standard guidelines from class.
The lead paragraph was standard, using his name, what he was most significantly known for and the age he died.
Next, the obituary described the circumstances of his death: he died in a car accident in Italy.
The report followed that up with Parisi’s claim to fame: he was an Olympic gold medalist in 1988 and captured several other world titles in his lifetime.
The only thing lacking from the story was Parisi’s background information.
The only source quoted in the obituary was another Italian boxer. Using him was not unrealistic since it appears Parisi had no family.

Story link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/sports/othersports/26parisi.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

Posted by deuts060 at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Associated Press article published on Sunday highlighted the opening of the new Warner Bros. film “Watchmen.”
The film opened at the top spot in the box office claiming $55.7 million in its opening weekend.
However, the Associated Press writer used the angle that “Watchmen” did not meet expectations set on director Zack Snyder after his previous film “300” opened with $70 million.
The writer spoke with studio executives for his sources. The executives backed up their director by saying “Watchmen,” which runs 2:45 could not possibly match the earnings of the shorter “300”.
The article was primarily just a traditional listing. A similar article comes out nearly every weekend. The writer highlights either the top-ranked film or focuses on a new feature but by the end of the article simply lists the top 10 films in the United States box office.

Posted by deuts060 at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke during a news conference on Wednesday to discuss his trip to Guantanamo Bay earlier this week.

Holder said he only saw good things during his visit of the base, the closing of which was one reason the Obama administration pushed for Holder’s appointment to the position.

But nothing he saw changed the government’s decision to close the base.

Here’s the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_go_ot/holder_guantanamo;_ylt=AkFtQJmppgeJ4HDSZ5j.pp8NJ_wE

Analysis:

Writer Devlin Barrett followed the regular structure for covering a press conference in his story by stating a fact or point and then supporting it with a quote. As I’ve read with most press conferences, Barrett picked out the most important points of Holder’s news conference to include in the story. He also followed the traditional model by speaking with other people or groups effected by the news conference to get their reactions to the news.

Posted by deuts060 at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I really didn’t have a chance to do this analysis because of the incident I’m about to e-mail you about I figured I’d just write a little bit about what I know about updating stories. I cover the Minnesota men’s hockey team for the Minnesota Daily and while I don’t have deadlines on game nights, some of the guys I work by do. Since I would like to work in the sports world at some point, I often watch Bruce Brothers of the Pioneer Press and Roman Augustoviz of the Star Tribune write their stories.

Both Bruce and Roman often have to deal with deadlines for the late games, which means they are in scramble mode by the time the final horn sounds. They’ll both often have a complete article written once the story is done (depending on how late the game goes) and in some cases they’ll have to send it in immediately. It’s not poetry, it’s just a basic game story.

Then, while the first edition gets edited, Roman and Bruce will run down to the locker rooms and get quotes from coaches and players. Then they’ll run back up to the press box and rewrite their stories – usually making it more of a story than a scoreboard.

Posted by deuts060 at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Analysis of Yahoo! Sports/Associated Press coverage of the Alex Rodriguez steroid story.
I thought this was an interesting story because of the sources. Writer Ben Walker chose to talk to a couple unusual sources since he was unable to get anything from the Rodriguez camp. And since it was a little bit after the initial story broke, he could take a different angle by talking to a few current players and administrative staff. Walker did a good job of spreading out his sources throughout the story and then wrapping the story up by returning to the first attribution. However I didn’t like how heavily he focused on Curt Schilling’s blog. Yes it is a decent source, but it would have been better if he did that as a separate story – one that showed how other players in the league felt about Rodriguez’s failed test. The main point of this story was that the tests never should have been released. Hence why I like the use of Sean Casey as a source who felt unprotected.
It was also important to point out how nobody was really coming to Rodriguez’s defense other than to say the tests shouldn’t have been released to the public. I’ve heard in PR classes, that saying nothing is never a good idea and that sounds like the case here.
Story link:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AujW3qi7C.wiUxLd_HUq6kc5nYcB?slug=ap-rodriguez-steroids&prov=ap&type=lgns

Posted by deuts060 at 5:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lead: “A Texas man's family will return to a courtroom this week with the hope that they'll be able to clear his rape conviction from more than two decades ago, giving the state its first posthumous DNA exoneration.�?

Analysis: This is an AP story on Tim Cole, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a Texas Tech Student in 1985. Although Cole died of a heart attack in prison in 1999, his family is hoping to have his name cleared after DNA tests proved he did not commit the crime.

The most important aspect of the lead is prominence. The fact that this case might be Texas’ first posthumous DNA exoneration makes it extremely relevant. The man’s name is left out of the lead because it is not important. It would be different of the man was Jeffrey Dahmer. The lead also only says it would be a “posthumous�? exoneration. It leaves out that Cole died of a heart attack in prison, which would lessen the emotional reaction from readers compared to a story about a prisoner who was wrongfully executed. The lead is a hard-news lead. It tells the most important part of the story and includes just enough to entice readers but not enough to tell the whole story.

Read story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090202/ap_on_re_us/dna_exoneration_dead_inmate

Posted by deuts060 at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)