Work Like An Editor: Fairness Questions

Using four examples out of the think like an editor book on page 194, I am going to discuss whether these situations are fair or not. If they are unfair, then how can we make them fair?

1. Street fight example: In this example, a man’s fiancee is commenting on her relationship with the man, following his stabbing death. She makes a very strong statement about her fiancee and how he was always acting foolish and causing trouble.  I think the fiancee was just being truthful on her feelings (which makes someone wonder why they were engaged in the first place, but not a journalists room to judge). I do not think the women was representing her fiancee fairly but it leads to the question of whether or not the journalist was unfair. They obviously wanted to get a statement from someone close to the man. The journalist also wants to be fair to the woman, get an honest statement from her and not force her to say something that she does not feel. I think it might have been more fair to have the reporter ask the woman to reword what she was saying in a positive way. Something like, he loved to be crazy and have fun but we were inseparable. However, no one wants to be the person putting words into the woman’s mouth so they have to be careful how they approach the situation. Also, the woman did just suffer a terrible loss so sometimes getting a statement from someone in the midst of chaos can lead to some interesting things being said.
2. Child pornography example: In this example, they are showing a man’s home who has just been arraigned and charged with child pornography. The house looks like a dilapidated mess while the house next door looks neat and orderly. Although this may be what the mans house actually looks like, it may portray the man in a poor light and a reporter does not want to start showing bias from the start. It makes someone wonder what the condition of the house has to do with his crime at all. Another suggestion is they might be able to talk about the home he lived in without going into such detail or showing it so closely.  Focus on the facts, not the small bits of information or less important details.
3. Police example:  In this example, a town is doing a story on whether or not police use race as a factor in pulling people over. The results were not conclusive, and they give examples of two quotes that were gotten for one of the stories. I think that both of these people are quite non-credible sources to the story. One of them says that she does not even have an opinion and the other women gave a super vague example with no context. We have no evidence on whether or not her boyfriend actually got pulled over because he is not there to share his story. It also sounds like she was not there either and he just came home and told her about the incident. How can we believe that this is true? The second women just makes the comment that it does not really affect her and she could care less. I am unsure that these sources or quotes should have been used at all to tell the story.
4. Michael Jackson example: In this example they discuss a headline that was published was Michael Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation charges. This headline leaves a lot to be desired. It could lead readers to jump to their own conclusions about the situation. A reporter never wants to allow that to occur so it might have been a good idea to rework the headline. A reporter wants to allow  people to receive the proper information and not begin making their own connections or conclusions.