jakeinthe612

Rio Grande Valley officials say that the proposed border fence reneges on assurances that the river would be accessible to wildlife, recreation, and farmers, according to the Pioneer Press. The challenge of the article, in my opinion, would be to interview officials, farmers, and environmental groups on the subject. Also the response, if any, from the Bush administration. This article does this clearly and effectively. Interviews were conducted with both of Texas' senators, environmental groups, Homeland Security officials, local judges and politicians, and others.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Star Tribune had an article Saturday about the fatal crash of a Blue Angel jet at an air show in South Carolina. The jet apparently hit a pine tree, which led to the crash, killing the pilot. Remnants of the plane apparently hit nearby houses, causing at least one fire. The challenge of the article is to make sense of what happened for the reader despite an absence of official word on the event. To do this, two eyewitness reports are used to help explain the events. More than 100,000 people were expected to attend the air show, so there will be no shortage of eyewitness accounts.

The Pioneer Press covered the story, but had much more detail, as well as more interesting quotes, in my opinion. A man who lives in the neighborhood where the plane went down described a fireball descending upon him, which doused his truck in flames and debris.

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New York road signs come with a seven-year warranty, though may perhaps have a life-span of more than seven years. Residents of Monmouth and Ocean Counties might be interested to know that the replacement of faded signs will be completed by Memorial Day.

Sunday's New York Times Corrections Web page also had some other errors, which would have caused confusion in readers. A 10-kilowatt solar system would cost $77,500 to install, rather than $7,750. The difference may have prompted many to consider installing a system, only to find out that it cost almost $70 thousand more than they had learned from reading the Times. Credibility would certainly start to fall if these mistakes were frequent enough.

A New Jersey Assembly person didn't recieve a subpeona from the United States attorney for New Jersey, the rounds of the annual Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition is always two minutes, and actress-director Penny Marshall is not Jewish.

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Twincities.com reported that Monica Gooling, a Justice Department official under Alberto Gonzales, resigned Friday following her statement that she wouldn't testify about her role in the federal prosecutor firings. She gave no reason for her resignation. Gonzales' job appears threatened over the furor, and is scheduled to testify in the coming weeks.

The goal of the article is to summarize the history of the controversy, with some analysis on what this event means within that larger context.

The New York Times reported on the issue, albiet a more colorfully, using a boat analogy in the lead, a "casualty of the storm that has rocked the Justice Department." The article, written by David Stout and David Johnston, also mentioned Goodling's part in the firings that started the controversy. Overall, the Times does make the incident more interesting, and is therefore the better article.

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The Star Tribune published a national story with a local twist on their Web site today, about subprime lenders, who are "bottom feeding in the credit pool," and getting into trouble. These loans, to lenders with questionable credit histories, boast double-digit interest rates, but often result in non-payment. They were pioneered locally.

This article does a good job of explaining the nature and history of subprime lending, specifically at how it relates to Wells Fargo's home mortgage department, while using numbers a bit scarcely. Interestingly, non-payment, early payment, and falling interest rates on loans all managed to cut into companies' profits, and Green Tree Financial went out of business as a result, after first "cooking the books" in a scandal predating the Enron scandal by a few years.

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Republican support "eroded" for Attorney General Gonzales Sunday, as his honesty was quesioned over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

The challenge of this article, from the Pioneer Press is to summarize the events, while giving at least as much context as other news agencies. This is not the case. Reports have surfaced stating that he considered firing all of the prosecutors at one time, which is glossed over in this article.

The Washington Post not only elaborates on the short history of the story, it projects the meaning into something that readers can make sense of.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Protesters across the country gathered Saturday to express their support or opposition to the war in Iraq as the conflict enters its fifth year, reported the San Francisco Chronicle through their use of an Associated Press article.

In my opinion, the article gives voice to both sides, as well as a summary of similar protests in other countries, and in doing so gives the article contextual scope, even if it does seem to lack any remotely specific numbers of protesters in all but a few of the locations. There is also a strangely disjointed paragraph, reading, "People traveled from afar in stormy weather to join the march." It seems awkwardly out of place to me, perhaps more appropriate to a song or epic poem than a hard-news article.

ABC News also covered the marches, and, to my surprise, had the same article from the AP that nine of the top ten hits on Google News turned up.

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After being dragged by a fleeing motorist's car, a Minnesota State Trooper fatally shot the suspected drunk driver, the Pioneer Press reported Sunday. A cell phone tip triggered the Sherburne County Sheriff's Department to respond to the incident, and the incident left the trooper with minor injuries.

The article, written by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, is very brief, and reads as more of a summary than a story. This is no doubt due to a lack of information on the event, which occurred Saturday. Nonetheless, the information crucial to the story is all there, and the events are set up for a follow-up story to clarify the details, including the name of the deceased.

WCCO News reported on the incident with a little bit more detail, including the time of the incident, and an extension of the quote by Capt. Steve Doran of the Sherburne County Sheriff's Department, and is thus the better article of the two.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yet another veterans hospital is experiencing problems, reported the Washington Post on Sunday. The Walter Reed Medical Center's problems are at the forefront of both Senators and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

This is a follow-up story, and manages to delay any background on the conditions of the hospital until the fourth paragraph, and does so with a quote attributed to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. The story is the political response to the conditions, so that's probably sufficient, but it makes the article's purpose unclear.

A much more succinct and thoughtful article appears in the Boston Globe. The lead includes a mention of both deficiencies of outpatient care for wounded soldiers, the investigation by politicians, and the fact that the conditions at the hospital have given Democrats "ammunition" to criticize the Bush administration.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix became the country's first to begin testing on a controversial federal screening system that can see through travelers' clothing. The device takes X-rays of passenger's bodies, and is capable of finding concealed explosives and other weapons, in addition to showing the body's contours "with blush-inducing clarity," reported Terry Tang of the Associated Press on the Star Tribune's website Saturday.

The article attempts to describe the capabilities of the device, as well as representing the voice of opposition which says that the technology is too invasive. It does this succinctly, and continues to explain that use of the device is voluntary, and passengers who fail the initial screening will still be able to choose a pat-down instead.

Reuters also covered the story, but focused a bit more on the "virtual strip search" slant of the story, referring specifically to the American Civil Liberties Union's opposition to the device.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Reuters reported that the University of Illinois was bowing to pressure from "those who said the war-whooping symbol it used for more than 80 years offended American Indians." The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that schools with "hostile or abusive" American Indian symbols may not host post-season championship play, effective in 2008.

The challenge of the article is, again, to summarize the opposing sides of the long-running argument, with a little background on the controversy. The article mentions the name of the mascot, Cheif Illiniwed, but fails to mention that the athletic teams of the university are named the Fighting Illini.

It does mention a school in Pekin, Illinois, that once used but eventually dropped "Chinks" as its designation, which was a reference to the town's namesake in Beijing, but an offensive slang for Chinese.

The Associated Press went with a very brief story of a similar nature, and also failed to mention the name of the athletic teams. Perhaps it' s a well-known fact, but I think it still would have provided more context, as some readers don't follow sports but are interested in the political aspects of the story.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York Timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/09/business/08cnd-harvard.html?hp&ex=1171083600&en=d8e54ea3b5fb0fa1&ei=5094&partner=homepage reported today that Harvard University is poised to name the first woman president in the school's history. Drew Gilpin Faust is an historian who currently runs a the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, according to "university officials close to selection process."

The authors of the article, Alan Finder and Sarah Rimer, state that the Institute is by far the smallest of Harvard's schools, focusing on the study of women, gender, and society. The article isn't structured to give related information close proximity. Background information on Dr. Faust is sprinkled throughout and rather vague. Quotes and paraphrases of Dr. Amy Guttman's words appear many column inches apart as well, though both paragraphs are clearly in praise of Dr. Faust. In addition, information regarding other potential candidates appears in three separate places in the article. I agree with the information in News Writing and Reporting, that putting like information close together clearly makes a story more readable.

The article also takes a rather condescending tone regarding Dr. Faust. I'm especially unimpressed by the use of the word "apparently" in the following quote from the Times. "Despite her lack of experience running a large organization, Dr. Faust was apparently perceived by the nine-member search committee as an adroit administrator with considerable people skills, a valued commodity after the polarization that occurred under Dr. Summers, particularly among women on the faculty." This is also the type of ungainly sentence that would likely annoy William Zinsser in addition to being too long.

The Pioneer Press http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/16659759.htm ran a version of a story by Justin Pope of the Associated Press. His article keeps blocks of closely-related information in closer proximity than the article in the Times. In addition there is much more context provided about the history of women college presidents.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This article from StarTribune.comhttp://www.startribune.com/484/story/978850.html has an article from the Associated Press about a flock of 18 whooping cranes that were killed in a Florida storm. The whooping cranes are an endangered species, prompting scientists to aid the development of a second flock of these birds. The article first paraphrases a scientist: '"The cranes were being kept in an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, Fla., when violent storms moved in Thursday night, said Joe Duff, co-founder of Operation Migration, the organization coordinating the project.' It follows with a direct quote from Duff: "The birds were checked in late afternoon the day before, and they were fine," he said Friday. Later in the article, Duff, the only interviewee used in the story continues. '"It's a fluke. It's an unforeseen thing," Duff said. "So many birds and they were such good birds. It was our hardest migration and our most difficult one to fund."' The challenge here that's not sufficiently met, is that Duff seems like a quirky fellow, and the first quote that the author, James A. Carlson, uses (how the birds were checked in on the day prior) seems a little bit inane. In comparison to the quality of the later quotes used, this one could just have easily been omitted or replaced. The quote about how "good" the birds are is charming, as is Duff's opinion that the death of the birds is a "tragedy." Another news source provides a very similar version of Carson's story, with a notable difference in how it's attributed. The Floridy Times-Union of Jacksonville follows an attribution to a Duff quote with the words "who was contacted by phone." The Star Tribune's version lacks this phrase, and I think rightly so. I certainly don't think it lends any greater weight or levity to Duff's quotes.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Pioneer Presshttp://http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/16554769.htm has an article about a Seattle bridge popular amongst suicide victims. The article from the Associated Press states that there were six suicides in 2006, causing depression in the people who live and work in the upscale neighborhood.
The challenge of this article is to steer clear of the gory details as much as possible, giving the sad nature of the subject matter, while still covering the event. The reporter, Donna Gordon Blankinship, does this through the testimonial of a woman who "drives on the left side of the street near her office ever since a body landed on the hood of a co-worker's car." The impact of the deaths on a local woman highlighted, giving the story emotional weight, but it still vague enough to avoid being overly graphic.
The Seattle Post Examinerhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Suicide_Bridge.html has a slightly longer version of the story that I believe is attempting to add a humorous twist to the subject, which seems poised to offend some readers. "I'd like to request that you all stop trying to kill yourselves in my neighborhood. I realize this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now in your current state of mind" says a neighborhood resident. The quote is good, but I'm not surprised that the Pioneer Press decided to omit it. However, more background is given about the subject in the Seattle Post Examiner article including a comparison with the much higher rate of one suicide every two weeks of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which puts the subject in perspective. I think that both versions of the article are strong, though the wry quote from the area resident was in poor taste.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Both the Pioneer Presshttp://www.pioneerpress.com and Star Tribunehttp://www.startribune.com ran a story Friday about Ford's $12.7 billion loss in 2006. The story, written by Tom Krisher of the Associated Press, was very similar in both, though the Star Tribunehttp://www.startribune.com ran with a version of the article that was significantly shorter. The version in the Pioneer Presshttp://www.pioneerpress.com explored the history of other significant losses in the company's history which put the loss into context. Both included a quote from Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, "We know where we are. We are dealing with it and we're on plan." This longer version also included a summary of findings from analists that "Ford's future is cloudy at best, given the deficit that it must overcome." I think that the subject matter was significant enough to warrant a longer treatment, therefore I believe that the Pioneer Press covered the story better.

Posted by Jacob Malmberg at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)