November 2011 Archives

An article by Jim Gomez with the Associated Press, reported on the arrest of the former president of the Philippines, preventing her from leaving the country which according to accounts from her was to obtain medical treatment.

The article offered minimal scene or descriptions much like the article that appeared in Inquirer News, which in actuality offered no descriptive or illuminating scene imagery.

The later article was written in a strict breaking news fashion getting right down to the details, while the article by Gomez offered some color, "Arroyo, who won a seat in the House of Representatives after her stormy nine-year presidency ended last year, once had strong ties to a group of loyal army generals who shielded her from four failed coup attempts sparked by a series of corruption scandals. All have since retired."

An article in the Star Tribune reported on the rough year Wisconsin has had in politics, focusing on the protests and petition signings that are going on right now to try to recall some of their elected officials, including their Gov. Scott Walker.

At the beginning of the article the reporter, Jim Ragsdale, sets the scene rather well, "In the Capitol rotunda one day last week, Chris Reeder stamped out a beat with his sandaled feet and led a rousing chorus of "Roll Out the Recall," while joyful demonstrators danced polka turns under the majestic dome."

Other articles surrounding this topic haven't had the time to give much scene to it as they were reporting on these events in a more breaking and hard news environment, like the one in the LaCrosse Tribune.

Further into the article in the Star Tribune, the reporter falls back into a more conventional news story telling jargon, keeping to the facts.

An article that appeared in the Minnesota Daily explains how the University's Facilities Management Landcare services are preparing for the snow.

The description during this article which is talking about a rather mundane topic, helps make it more interesting to read. "Last year's winter storms were not kind to Alex Ludwig. He spent it shoveling snow and scraping ice off of the University of Minnesota's campus sidewalks," said Yasin Muhamud, a reporter for the Minnesota Daily.

The article would have been better if the author had used more descriptions to go along with the rather dull topic.

An article in the Minnesota Daily reported on the opening of the first brewery in downtown Minneapolis.

The reported set up the scene by describing how the four co-founders of the brewery started brewing beer in a garage five years ago. "On a frigid Saturday in February 2006, four friends huddled around a small burner for warmth as they brewed their first batch of beer in a one-car garage in the Fulton neighborhood of Minneapolis," said Nick Sudheimer, a reporter for the Minnesota Daily.

The use of descriptive words through out this piece kept me interested and willing to read further on, he goes on in the article to describe anecdotes of the founders adding the human element to this story.

An ESPN article talked about the upcoming Sprint Cup race which as the reporter stated was really between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

"Edwards will take a three-point lead over Stewart into the 36th and final race of the season, marking the closest championship battle since the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format made its debut in 2004," the reporter said.

The explanation of how Jimmie Johnson who has had streak of 5 championship wins was easy to understand. "Sunday officially marked the end of Johnson's reign: He finished 14th and was mathematically eliminated from title contention," the reporter said.

An article in the Star Tribune reported on the voting results of the levie requests. The districts who asked for levy renewals were mostly approved while the those who sought increases in their levies were mainly denied.

One of those districts was Stillwater.

"The Stillwater district had sought to replace its existing operating levy, which raises $996.57 per student, with a new levy of $1,465 per student. The current levy expires in 2014. The new levy would have been in effect for seven years. But 52 percent of those voting opposed the request, " a reporter for the Star Tribune said.

Something that is missing from this article is exactly how many people turned out to vote compared to how many could have voted. That would add a whole other element to this story.

An article in Savage Pacer discusses the drop in enrollment in School District 191, which encompasses the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District.

The reporter goes into great depth and gives the numbers in a way that is easy to understand, "Fall enrollment for the 2001-2002 school year was 11,434 students. That means in the last 10 years, enrollment has dropped by 1,829 students, or 16 percent."

She also goes in depth into the report discussing the fact that more students are leaving the district than they have seen before and the changing demographics in the school.

Donald Sears was an auto dealer. He died Oct. 2 at age 85.

The Star Tribune decided to include that his cause of death was leukemia, which in this case I think is important, because leukemia is not a disease associated with old age, to my knowledge.

The author told this story in a rather chronological order, going right into the beginning of his life after the nutgraph. It was fitting for this story because each of the things that happened where quintessential to the next thing happening and added up to the explanation of why he was an auto dealer.

In the survived by section of this article, the author included where each of these family members were located.

David Olson was a broadcast journalist. He died on Oct. 19 at age 72 due to a heart attack.

The Star Tribune reported on this, including a statement from longtime friend Stuart Sanders, who said, "He could interview anyone about anything."

I particularly liked the kicker for this story where the author had a quote from a man that Olson used to work with. The quote was, "He came in as if he was saying goodbye." It's not often that you can get a quote that poignant.

Antonio Cassese a co-founder of the international war crimes tribunals died on Saturday at age 74 due to cancer.

The New York Times and Reuters reported on this. Reuters focused on his contributions to the founding of the international war crimes tribunals and did not include who he was survived by or any background information on his life.

The New York Times had an extensive article that went deep into his past and had quotes from people who knew Cassese well.

They included who he was survived by at an awkward point in the article, 5 paragraphs before the end of the article. After the survived by section they gave more personal details and examples of the kind of person he was which seemed to me to be a little sloppy, the author could have simply moved the survived by section to the end and it would not have hurt the article in any way.

On Wednesday Stan Bergstein a renowned harness-racing professional who worked in relation to harness racing for most of his life died in Tucson.

Throughout his life he received countless awards and performed at the highest level of profession in numerous professions according to Dave Johnson, his former broadcast partner who spoke with Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey.

The SBOANJ decided to put his cause of the death in the lede of their story while the Racing Daily Form, omitted it due to the fact that Bergstein was 87.

The article the Racing Daily Forum posted was also used by the New York Times. It was most likely chosen over the SBOANJ article due to it's shorter length and inclusion of only the most important details of Bergsteins life.