Homework from Monday, 9.23.03
Homework: P. 161, ex. 8-9
Ex. 8:
1) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/945950.asp?cp1=1
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23 — A federal appeals panel decided Tuesday that California’s gubernatorial election should be held Oct. 7 as originally planned, giving Gov. Gray Davis and the 135 candidates seeking to replace him two weeks to try to sway voters.
Answers: what, when, who
Does not answer: why, how, where
Type of lead: Traditional
2) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/969495.asp?0si=-
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — An Air Force airman has been arrested and accused of spying for Syria while working at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists in Cuba, part of what Defense Department officials told NBC News on Tuesday was a wider investigation involving at least three other people.
Answers: who, what, when, why
Does not answer: how, where
Type of lead: Traditional
3) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/970500.asp?0si=-
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 23 — Security forces battled suspected militants in the south of the country Tuesday, killing four gunmen and arresting five, including one wanted in connection with terrorist bombings in the capital, Arab television stations reported.
Answers:who, what, when, where, why
Does not answer: how
Type of lead: Traditional
4) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0si=-
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 23 — Iraqi police said American forces carried out a combined air and ground attack north of Fallujah early Tuesday, killing three people and wounding three others. The military said it knew of only one death. The raid comes against the backdrop of continuing instability in postwar Iraq, and a day after a suicide car bomber blew himself up near the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, also killing a security guard and wounding 19 other people.
Answers: who, what, where, when, how
Does not answer: why
Type of lead: Traditional
5) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/965704.asp?0si=-
NEW YORK, Sept. 23 — President Bush on Tuesday sought international support for rebuilding Iraq in an address to the United Nations, saying, “The nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid — and all nations of good will should step forward and provide that support.” But Bush also said that a democratic transition in Iraq won’t be rushed, drawing a new call by France’s president for a “realistic” timetable to be overseen by the United Nations.
Answers: who, what, why, when
Does not answer: where, how
Type of lead: Immediate-Identification
6) From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/801833.asp?0si=-
JERUSALEM, Sept. 22 — Israel will not release Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti as part of a prisoner swap with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizballah, Israel’s defense minister said Tuesday, but acknowledged progress has been made in the German-brokered negotiations aimed at breaking the Middle East stalemate. In the latest regional violence, Israeli troops killed an Islamic militant who tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Answers: who, when, where, what
Does not answer: why, how
Type of lead: Immediate-Identification
Ex. 9
Article 1: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/23/national1724EDT0720.DTL
Article 2: http://www.itv.com/news/1006738.html
These two articles are about the 9th Circuit of Appeals' decision to overturn the postponement of the October 7 recall election in California. Although written on the same topic, there are considerable differences in these articles.
The first article, found at SFGate.com, seems to reflect the reporter David Kravets' opinion on the election. In the article's lead, Kravets writes:
“With stunning decisiveness, a federal appeals court Tuesday unanimously put California's recall election back on the calendar for Oct. 7, sweeping aside warnings of a Florida-style fiasco two weeks from now."
Terms like "stunning decisiveness" and "Florida-style fiasco" seem like value judgments to me. Here, I think Kravets is perhaps including too much of his interpretation of the court's decision. Instead, I think that just the news should be presented in the lead and in the entire story. Readers don't need Kravets' input to decide how they should interpret the decision made by the federal appeals court.
Kravets later writes that: "The more conservative 11-judge panel acknowledged that allowing the election to go forward now could cause some votes to go uncounted." "Conservative" is another value judgment that I think should have been omitted in this article.
Although Kravets interjects too much of his opinion in this article, I think he does a better job than the reporter who wrote a similar article found at ITV.com. The ITV article includes only two quotes, and both are from the federal appeals court. Kravets' article, on the other hand, includes multiple quotes, which come from a variety of sources. I think that this collection of quotes is a good way to include public opinion and inform the reader of different responses to the decision. By using quotes, Kravets can present an interpretation of this event without offering his own take on the story.