Aussie College Baseball Playa Killed By Bored Teens In Ok Narrative

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Murder in Trenton is as common as spitting on the sidewalk. But the one that stood out during my 5 years there was the one involving 2 teens who beat a Tuskegee Airman to death in his home -- he was 84 -- so they could jack his car.

http://www.trentonian.com/article/20081106/NEWS/311069998/grand-jury-pins-betheas-with-murder-of-eure-sr

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Woah, woah, woah.

Of course they were managing the news. We all manage the news. Part of a reporter's job is to cull relevant facts from irrelevant facts to fit that day's news hole. Now, you may not like how they culled the facts here, and which ones they selected and did not select. But you can't indict the process of managing the news, generally. It's what reporters, by necessity and by definition, do.

Again, and I'm going to keep beating this drum, it took 11 days and a lawsuit/press conference for a mention 15 inches into a story about Trayvon Martin of the race of perpetrator and victim, which was then dismissed as a factor four or five inches later. The main focus, at that point, was the age disparity of the two involved parties, the nature of neighborhood watches, and the externalities of Stand Your Ground laws. Then black bloggers started stirring up the race angle, and the rest of the media had to follow suit at that point. It very much followed the Gosnell/Steubenville pattern. It was activist-driven. And the activists, at least at first, were not in the mainstream press reporting the story. If and when the Lane story reaches critical mass - it may not, because the arrests have been made - race's prominent position in the reporting will be activist-driven, too.

Also, YF makes fun of the "every parent's worst nightmare" angle, but I don't understand why it is so offensive that race would come up in the Martin case. He was not, certainly, a poster boy for the cause, but black people do get targeted for suspicion in this country more than white people. And particularly black teen-agers. And particularly black teen-age boys. For good reason, it could be argued. But it sucks for the ones not doing anything wrong, like Martin.

Now, I have conceded that the racial angle needs to be explored in the Lane killing. I don't think YF and I are too far apart. We're arguing about angels on the head of a pin, like Dooley likes to accuse me of. Ultimately, I don't think he's crazy to suggest that, in light of the Zimmerman case, there should have been a delicate way to ask if race might have been a motive. Then you write, "Although the three suspects were black and Lane is white, police said there is no indication that the crime was racially motivated." I get it: "Boredom" does not pass the smell test, in YF's estimation, as a real motive.

Now, YF cares about media motivations more than I do, though. I don't know that reporters are looking to push a narrative or keep from stirring up mouth-breathers, though, so much as they are extremely, extremely uncomfortable talking about race at all.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

But I do understand how it is done. I've witnessed it, and you guys have provided me with the behind the scenes look at how it's put together.

But I also know there's a problem when members of the media openly root for the perpetrators of crime to have names like, "O'Leary or McTavish or Smith."

But, you probably wouldn't see the problem with that, since you're the guy who rooted for it.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

But, you shouldn't be trying to manage the public's reaction to the news.

You shouldn't minimize, or omit, relevant information because it might inflame "mouth breathers". And, you shouldn't unnecessarily focus on irrelevant information to purposely inflame folks either.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

But I reject your premise that that's what the reporters in Oklahoma were necessarily doing.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

YF, it feels like this conversation would be so much easier to have if you cordoned off motivations as best you could, momentarily, and just focused on these questions:

Should reporters have mentioned the three boys' race in day 1 stories?

If so, why?

If not, why not?

Tying yourself up in knots about what the media's intentions were is just obscuring everything.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

You're personalizing this too much. In general, reporters are uncomfortable figuring out how to talk about race. I don't think this is new or controversial information. It's a delicate topic. Human beings are uncomfortable talking about race. Reporters are human beings. Complete the syllogism.

And it's not always a bad thing. I don't think there was a way to comfortably address race in the first-day, lede stories on the Lane murder. Discretion can be the better part of valor.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Yes, I agree.

I'm addressing the fraction of those 5 percent of stories where race would be relevant and is not mentioned, and speculating on a motive other than, "Reporters are afraid to stir up Rush Limbaugh's audience."

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

If that's not what is, and is instead this:

Then, I'm willing to believe you. But, I'd feel better if some others here would say that's the reason.

I also think that while that may be the reason, it's no excuse. You don't have the luxury of avoiding race because it makes you uncomfortable if you are a reporter.

But, again, when you ask this:

It makes me think you're planning out how to "roll out" a story.

PR professionals plan how to roll out stories.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

You have no understanding of how newsrooms work. None.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

It could be a first-day side bar. Not every branch of a story fits into the lede. An analogy: Academic papers have footnotes.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

You keep telling me how it works.

I think the way it works is often a disservice to the audience. You don't trust them. You want to spoon feed them information.