Author: ebg308

Virginia Story

I’ve been thinking about this story a good bit and talking about it with people since the ruling of actual malice came down a few days ago.

My main thing as I’m sure will be that of others’ is that a lot of the account is based on one source. This is extremely tricky because you want the victims’ story to be told and respect what it is she has to say. Not talking to other people named to corroborate the story or at the least get more background on “Jackie” is poor practice.

Frankly, there were so many missteps in this story, from not doing a full corroboration of facts to being just careless. It’s why actual malice was ruled, and why this is a careful study in how to go about reporting a sensitive story such as this one. I remember when it came out the cycle of reaction that came from it and the layers that emerged from it.

It’s like the saying you tell us: If your mother says she loves you, fact check it. That maxim could’ve been useful here. Instead, this is where the story is at, plagued by bad reporting and a lack of proper sourcing.

Structural Advice and the Wonder of Bill Murray

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/the-greatest-role-of-bill-murrays-life-has-been-playing-bill-murray/2016/10/19/8f6b2794-913e-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?tid=sm_tw

Pieces like this are my favorite and almost a form a therapy as much as sitting down to a TV show I like. This story is immediately interesting and its writing very quickly became a story of its own, in large part due to the deft and delicacy it was reported with. Marty Baron singled it out on Twitter, which counts for something, too.

Without giving too much away, Bill Murray is famously stingy about publicity and being hard to pin down even by his closest friends. He’ll pop up out of nowhere, and it’s your best chance of ever seeing him. He could walk into my apartment now and I wouldn’t question it.

Clark advises to work from a plan. In this case was, plan on not talking to Murray for a story that is entirely about him, commemorating his receiving the Mark Twain Prize for humor. So Edgers talks to a lot of his famous and instantly recognizable friends to add some ethos to the story. It’s through this that Edgers trudges on. It allows his story to breathe and be different, and indirectly shows his skill in writing about a subject who won’t be profiled.

He chooses to use stories and anecdotes from others as a way to show who Murray is, which works because of the persona that he and the public have helped create.

Clark also advises to work toward an ending, and Edgers does that in the sense that he saves the best story for last, the one that fully encapsulates quintessential Murray. And a few hours later, not to give too much away, Murray adds a helping hand. It’s a really cool moment of internet journalism, and wouldn’t have happened Edgers hadn’t done a good job writing and reporting on the story.

The Things That Carried Him

Part 1

Establishing background information — about Joey, about his family, about his troubled past, about his mother and all that she has been through. Background on the procedures of army funerals, of those involved, of those who have seen far too many; about his wife, Missie and their children

 

Part 2

Emphasizing and focusing on the military perspective, from proper mortuary procedure and profiling the people involved, to how procedure regarding fallen soldiers has changed, to those involved with this procedure as it relates to Joe

 

Part 3

Diving further into the human element — how each of the family members found out, what the protocol is for that type of thing, and the individual reactions of each of those close to Joey. What exactly transpired that led to his death and the soldiers involved, told without much detail left out to convey and honor what happened to him.

The conclusion does a great job summarizing what is at the heart of this story — the close-knit relationship of those in the military and their loved ones, how it is a different bond because only those in and around it can relate to the feelings and emotion that come with it.

Each part adds a little on, with the first serving as almost a full-part lede into the rest of the story so that it can be told, with the next getting more into the actual military jargon and procedure behind this type of thing, and the last tying it all together and tapping into the human element of the story that it is its foundation.

 

Personal Story Interviews

As we discussed today, I’m going to need to shift gears, so the list of people to-interview is a lot longer than the people I have.

I have talked to Bryan Harris at Jackson Spalding, and he did give me some general insight into the plans of the ballpark as well as the communication strategies that went into promoting it. We talked about plans for the future as well as preparation past and present. Harris is a reputable and intelligent source on the park, because his job requires him to be, and I believe I have at least some usable stuff from talking with him.

From there, I will analyze ballparks with similar layouts to the ones the Braves are planning, with Dallas/Arlington as a temporary model. I’m working on figuring out who exactly those people will be (I know this goes against instructions here, but I’m in full course-correct mode), but I know that chamber of commerce from these cities will be involved, as well as local business owners, where I’ll just spend a day in that area and talk to people.

Open Records

Team story: This might be something I’ll have to plot myself, but I’ll want to get a good idea of the amount of kids who have transferred schools in Florida and Texas and where they went to school. This will likely just be a running list that has their coaches’ names as well as the schools. The policies in these schools will also need to be examined, but those should be fairly public and I’m not too worried about finding and reading them.

 

Personal story: If minutes are kept at these hearings scheduled to discuss the parking policies at the new stadium, I’d like to have those. I’ll also need to keep my own records of businesses in and around the area that are and would be affected by this move. Any information provided to me by sources I talk to based on research that they may have done could be valuable as well.

Jenkins

This case pits the NCAA against its student-athletes who say that they are being exploited in just the pure practice of them playing the sport and everything that comes out of it. As others have said, there are some anti-trust laws potentially coming into play, and while the NCAA wasn’t established under the same pretenses that others who must follow these laws, the argument is there and at the center of the case that it operates like one of these organizations.

Story ideas:

I’m always interested in the people aspect of any story, so I’d talk to Jenkins and Johnathan Moore as well as the other plaintiffs to learn about and detail their personal exeperiences, why they feel spurned, and the origins of the lawsuit and what it means to them in their own words.

The legal aspect and ramifications are obviously a big part of this, as they are with any high-profile case, especially where an establishment is challenged.

 

The lawyers arguing on behalf of the NCAA are in a very interesting position, and I wonder if you could get them to at least see the other side on record, or if they are steadfast in pushing the NCAA’s cause regardless of any beliefs or feelings they might have.

 

A research on legal precedent for the case would be prescient and provide a good backdrop as well as peel back whether or not the plaintiffs have a case at all and under which statutes it could be ruled under as well as any that might changed should the case be ruled in their favor.

Open Records

Having been on the Georgia beat when this law first came into being and being at the press conferences and athletic facility when it was being discussed, this topic hits close to home.

My feelings on it really haven’t changed — that it is a way to directly impede the flow of information and shield from transparency. The claim specifically for Georgia is that this will help the team become more successful, but to me that is a fallacy. The policy worked just fine under Mark Richt, and no one really complained. The Fetty Wap incident certainly tipped the scales and shifted any thought at all if there it existed to go back to the old law.

What really matters is what this will mean for the near and forseeable future, and that is a scale that is tipped in the balance of athletic programs who will have an almost autonomy to act without accountability. Ninety days is a long time for information to be processed, and more importantly, for any potential damage control to be prepared for. To me, at a baseline level this is a “Too bad you can’t have it.” That is childish and petty, and it’s a shame that it has come to this, that programs feel as though they need a giant shield to protect their sanctity.

Tableau: Eagles Defense

The Eagles' defense has drastically improved in its first three games of 2016
The Eagles’ defense has drastically improved in its first three games of 2016

The Philadelphia Eagles have had a remarkable turnaround in their first three games of 2016. I had a feeling why, but I wanted to investigate. One of the biggest knocks on Chip Kelly as a coach and his offensive scheme was that it forced the defense to stay on the field for too long. 2015 obviously saw the departure of Kelly. I wanted to use a baseline stat like yards allowed to illustrate the discrepancy that already exists with the implementation of Doug Pederson as head coach and in control of the offense and Jim Schwartz in charge of the defense. The Eagles now have a more pro-style offense, and the benefits have been reaped immediately. The personnel is largely the same, and that same personnel is allowing almost half the yards through three games this season compared to what it did in the last three games of last season.

Personal Story Memo: Braves Parking

For me, my story on the Braves and the parking around SunTrust Park will be about the people. Given the new developments with this issue, the questions I have change a bit, but are still in flux with the public hearings on the proposed changes to the ordinance.

  1. If the ordinance remains the same, what were the reservations of this proposal, and how do these businesses and offices feel about it? This will be done mostly through cold calls and talking to people around the area
  2. How involved were the Braves exactly in these policies? I’ll have calls to make to the Braves, even if their willingness to talk might be minimal.
  3. What are the economic implications behind this? Are there similar or comparable models? I can call economics professors and experts like we discussed. This could be a potential sidebar.
  4. The hearings will now presumably be a big part of this story. What is said and argued on both sides will reveal a lot about the motives of both sides as well as the political motivations on both sides.
  5. Are there people affected who blindly support the Braves coming and are in favor of all of this? I imagine there are some who see the Braves coming as a positive and are willing to forgive potential shortcomings.
  6. From the Braves’ perspective, reiterating why it is they are making this move from a dollars perspective, and why they see fit to capitalize on as much as they can (i.e. $4.6 million from parking last season)
  7. This is kind of a throwaway, but I know we talked about it, and I’d love to get the Braves on record about the decision to count down the days until Turner Field closes and ask a few questions about the rationale and whether or not they considered how it might look from the outside beyond a PR move to get people associated with the team at the park to “celebrate.”

I’m really excited about reporting on this, as it is something that could not be more timely and pertinent with these revisions just being proposed and things getting finalized one way or another in the next month and a half. I look forward to digging in as things unfold, and these are the major things I hope to discover and report on.