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Biased? Covering Nationals' Phenom Harper

Bryce Harper made his home debut Friday for the Washington Nationals' minor league affiliate the Hagerstown Suns. Harper, the Nationals' number one pick in the 2010 draft, went 0-for-3 with a strikeout out, and that is what most newspapers went with as the lede of the story.

The Washington Post article reported Harper's rough home debut, but they also went in a more in-depth direction in the coverage of the 18-year old phenom.

The lede paragraph the writer went with in this story was more of a one liner about the crowd coming to see the top prospect, but they saw a slumping 18-year old instead. That one sentence lede set up the next paragraph well and led to a good transition of what happened in the home debut for the rookie. The following paragraph seemed to be a descriptive type of lede that I thought worked well.

It was opening night for the Hagerstown Suns, after eight games on the road, and when Bryce Harper strode to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, the voice of the public-address announcer got a little higher and louder as he introduced the batter, and the sellout crowd of 6,017 at Municipal Stadium, bundled up against the chill, came to life, wrote The Washington Post.

Brutal Beating: Covering a Heated Rivalry

On opening day Giants fan, Bryan Stow (shown right with kids) was brutally beaten by two Dodgers fans outside of Dodger stadium after the match-up. The story has made national headlines and several mainstream papers have covered the issue of possibly the National League's most heated rivalry.

USA Today ran a follow-up article on their website on Sunday, April 10 that caught my attention. The main news of the story was that the Dodgers would be stepping up security at the ballpark by adding more LAPD officers.

However, the writer took a much more human interest approach to the story. The lede told how the Giants fan was supposed to be at AT&T Park Friday when the Giants hung up their World Series banner and was followed by a strong quote from a cousin of Stow's and then this paragraph.

Instead, the crowd held a moment of silence Friday for the paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz, Calif., who remains in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital with brain damage of uncertain extent after he was attacked in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day, wrote USA Today.

Where's the Big Quote? A Note On Establishing Credibility

BP is back at it again. Many mainstream online newspapers reported Sunday, April 3 that the oil company is pushing to begin drilling again in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly as soon as this summer.

Many newspapers covered this article well, including an article by The Washington Post. Almost every article I read had a paraphrase quote lede that basically said BP was asking for permission to begin drilling in the Gulf of Mexico once again.

The Post writer had such a lede.

BP is in talks with the Interior Department about permits that would allow it to resume deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. The company hopes that it can restart several projects sometime this summer, wrote The Washington Post.

I thought this approach was clear, crisp and to the point. Granted, the lede, like many other leads by major publications, was a paraphrase quote lede that anonymously quoted "two sources familiar with the discussions" or "two company officials" as was the case in the lede of one article The New York Times ran.

Woop, Woop, Bachmann! (Keeping Opinions in the OPINION section)

Many articles popped up in the mainstream press, Thursday, March 24, about the possibility of  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) throwing her hat into the next presidential election. Most know by now that Bachmann will likely start a "presidential exploratory committee" soon. As I read several publications online, I noticed that many took different angles on this story. For example, the headline for one particular story that ran on the Politico's website read: "Michele Bachmann bid could shake up GOP field."

The headline caught my attention because it was not a hard news headline like other stories I'd read on this topic. I began to read through the article and something hit me after the first two paragraphs.

I stopped and promptly began searching to make sure I wasn't reading a blog or an opinionated piece but many paragraphs certainly read that way. I checked and, unless I made a mistake or had trouble figuring out Politico's website, this story was listed under the "CONGRESS" section and the link to the story even says "news stories" in it. To my knowledge, this was not a blog or an opinionated piece, but a news story.

However, one particular paragraph had me thinking 'Okay, surely a source will be attributed at the end of this soon.' It didn't happen.

"What separates her from the pack is that, with the possible exception of Palin, she can speak to conservative activists like no other candidate. She knows how to grab their attention on cable TV, talk radio and the internet — and it’s not Paul Ryan-esque budget graph wonkery," wrote the Politico. 

How Do You Spell That Again? A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S

It is old news by now to say that the U.S. has moved toward more military action in Libya. Friday, March 18, The Washington Examiner reported that President Obama demanded a "cease-fire" be "implemented immediately."

Many major newspaper's websites I visited Saturday still had stories related to this topic up on the top of their home pages, including interesting coverage in a Washington Post article on this issue. What caught my attention specifically was the lead paragraph.

"After two weeks of playing down the prospect of military intervention in Libya, the Obama administration is on the brink of inserting itself into a third war in a Muslim nation — something the president, who has spent the first half of his term mending America’s relationship with Islam, had hoped to avoid," wrote The Washington Post.

Leads are something stressed and often brought up in class at the Washington Journalism Center (WJC). After reading this lead many times I didn't know what to think about it. Certainly, it leaves much to question and made me want to continue reading to find out why the Obama administration "is on the brink of inserting itself into a third war."

However, after continuing through the article I found myself frustrated. A point often stressed in class is to get the most important quote early in the story to have a strong source that says exactly what is going on. That wasn't the case with this particular article. The first quote in the story did not come until the sixth paragraph, and even that quote seemed to be vague.

"Compassion" in Action

San Francisco is known for many things, great weather, gay pride, and the Golden Gate bridge--just to name a few. But thanks to an article on March 19 by Gabrielle Saveri, the city may also be put in the spotlight for its' new ordinance that makes it illegal to sit or lie on sidewalks from 7am-11pm.

Apparently, San Francisco, a city that has according to the article, "prided itself on helping homeless people," isn't being so nice anymore.

Overall, the Reuters' report does a decent job, getting quotes from a variety of sources including a police spokesman, the guy who initiated the ordinance, a homeless person and an advocate for the homeless. But where I feel the coverage of the 500 word report falls short a little is in the quality of quotes. Here is the part of article which deals with how the police are handling the ordinance.

And police say enforcement is still driven by compassion.

Loads of Research

It looks like Cheryl W. Thompson is working hard.

Thompson is the solitary byline in a recent article in the Washington Post's continuing coverage on "The Hidden Life of Guns."

In the investigative series, the Post is taking a look at how criminals are getting their hands on weapons and the dire consequences that result. Thompson's piece takes a look at how firearms were used in the killing of police officers since 2000. The lede of the story is a relevant anecdote setting the stage for the rest of the article.

Hattie Louise James was sitting on her front porch in Charlotte when two police detectives emerged from their car. There had been a shooting, they said. Two officers were dead. The gun had been traced back to her.

While the story has faults, (one particular sentence missed editing, stating a perpetrator "had recently been laid off recently from a $12-an-hour welding job.") Thompson compiles an incredible amount of information into an comprehensible story on where guns used to kill police officers come from.

Why so serious?

Last week I was sent to the Supreme Court to cover oral arguments on a video game restriction law in California. The hearing was actually quite entertaining and I was excited at the chance to write a story about it.

As usual, before I turned my article in to my editor, I checked to see how other major publications  chose to write about the arguments. The story that captured my attention the most was one in the New York Times.

This article had a good balance of serious and intrigue. The Court that day had been in rare form, and those watching broke out into laughter on  more than one occassion - mostly on account of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

“What’s a deviant violent video game?” asked Justice Antonin Scalia, who was the law’s most vocal opponent on Tuesday. “As opposed to what? A normal violent video game?”

“Some of the Grimm’s fairy tales are quite grim,” he added. “Are you going to ban them, too?”

While the NYT article provided adequate background information, it added an extra element that is missing in a lot of journalism today: human interest. There is certainly a fine line between making a story interesting and editorializing, but I think this article is an excellent model.

Unknown sources

What to do with unnamed sources. People giving comments annonymously usually give more information, but the search for fact is a tricky one. If journalists are supposed to be trusted, do we need to get rid of the "the root of evil in journalism"?

A recent article on ESPN.com, used a plethora of nameless sources talking about Minnesota Vikings Head Coach, Brad Childress and his possible firing. The lede of the story is based entirely off this use of sources.

After Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf spoke with members of the organization, including players, prior to Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals, he left some with the impression he was still contemplating firing coach Brad Childress regardless of whether the Vikings won or lost, several sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen.

The story is completely hinged on what an annonymous source said. The story goes on to use team executives and player, quoted sans name. In addition, Wilf spoke to the media but gave no inclination as to what his intentions were. The report is enthralling and contains plenty of information against Childress, but it is unclear whether it is truth or simply petty comments but frustrated players. Just because a player is a veteran doesn't mean that they should be automatically trusted.

After the ESPN piece was run, other news outlets used it to corroborate their own stories. This seems dangerous. If the stories ends up being false, every single story written on the subject is false. No article written on the situation was able to use a source other than Wilf, Childress, Percy Harvin or Brett Favre, with Favre and Harvin having little to add to the conversation.

Homeless struggling with the change in season

The temperatures are dropping now as we draw closer to winter and many homeless are seeking shelter to escape the rough weather. Washington DC has not seen much cold weather yet but just a little bit more to the North in Ohio they are feeling the season change in a big way.

The Columbus Dispatch's article on how full the shelters are already getting in Ohio when it's only the beginning of November is an amazing article that does well giving background information and really giving a voice to the homeless and their struggles.

The lead in this article really draws the reader in with stating how all 514 beds were taken in a homeless shelter when it was only 39 degrees in Ohio. It gets a person thinking and evokes empathy for all those living on the streets in central Ohio.