UVA story

This entirely reminds me of the Manti Te’o incident. Too much trust was placed in one source. Hardly anything was confirmed with others. As the report said, reaching out to those three friends would have been critical. I think the first step in preventing an error like this comes before reporting even starts. When dealing with a topic like this, I think reporters need to question all the reasons it could be untrue. Could someone be lying? What would be someone’s motives to lie? Is it reasonable to think these events could take place? That at least opens a reporter’s mind to why this could be false and that would lead to more thorough reporting. A long time ago I saw the quote, “To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.” And to me, that can be applied to journalism.

In the case of Jackie, her tentativeness to disclose details and names should have been a huge red flag. In the report it said that the writer was bothered by the fact that Jackie wouldn’t name the lifeguard. I think that goes back to needing to trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, it might not be. When Jackie was hard to get a hold of, the reporter should have questioned what this might be stemming from. Ultimately, I feel like the writer let the source be in control of the story, and that was detrimental.

Clark’s structure advice

I read an ESPN The Mag story called Broken Route: A former Texas A&M standout committed an unthinkable crime. How did so many people miss the warning signs? It details the unraveling of former A&M wide receiver Thomas Johnson and his murder of Dave Stevens.

One of the writing techniques that stuck out about this story was the use of dialogue. Clark’s Tool 26 is to use dialogue as a form of action. In this story, the characters come to life when you can essentially hear them communicate with each other. I feel like one of the best ways you can define who a person is, is by showing how they interact with those around them. In the middle of the story, there is a stretch of about 10 back-and-forth quotes. When I read that part, I realized how easy it is to read and how it speeds the story along. Also, dialogue was used at the end of the story and it was one of the most powerful ends I’ve ever read.

Secondly, Tool 29, foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions, was in full effect in this story. From the beginning, we, as readers, get the sense that this is going to go horribly wrong. It is clear that Thomas’ life is moving in a downward spiral, and small hints throughout make that clear. The reader can feel the tension build as the chaos inside Thomas’ head is strengthening.

Finally, because it was too obvious not to address, this story epitomizes building work around a key question, Tool 31. And that question is explicated stated in the headline: How did so many people the warning signs? That’s narrative this story takes us through and the streamlined approach to sticking with this angle made it easy to invest yourself as a reader without getting confused.

The Things That Carried Him – outline

Part One: Indiana, The End

Pre-burial
- Don Collins standing outside, mapping a rectangle
- Find out that the rectangle is for a burial
- Scene-setting of Collins carefully beginning digging process
- Starts digging and it’s a little different than his normal process
- Soldiers arrive and we learn this story has a military component
Burying the body
- Travel to cemetery
- Casket enters cemetery for military funeral
- Casket description, adds detail about the person’s military past
- Prayer and songs
- Military funeral rituals
  - Fired three volleys
  - Background on buglers
  - Leatherbee plays trumpet
  - Emotion of this ritual
- Soldiers carrying casket and seeing the person’s family
- Flag folding
  - First step, emotion
  - Triangular folds, pride of those who do it
  - Completion of fold
  - General officer in attendance
    - Introduction of the young wife
    - Pinckney approaches wife, Missie
    - Pinckney reflects on difficulty of job
  - Ties in Pinckney’s emotion with flag folding and Missie’s pain
  - Purpose of flag
- Service ends
  - Cover with dirt
  - Person buried was Sgt. Joe Montgomery, who was 30 years old
- Gail Bond reflects on Joe’s baptism
  - Smokes
  - Gail’s brother has died; we learn that her first husband was Joey’s father and he died in a car wreck; her parents died consecutive days and more
- Introduction of those who are mourning Joey’s death
  - Joey was first person from Scott County to die in Iraq; many people didn’t know Joey
  - Learn details about Joey – liked to write, brave, became a soldier to make older brother proud and wanted to make better life of his wife and kids
- Seymour, Indiana
  - Procession
    - Was very well attended
    - Worried about protesters, but the Patriot Guard was formed in response
    - Dunaway met Micah Montgomery in jump school and came down from Alaska to be Joey’s escort
    - Mayor drove while crying
    - Seeing people crying for you
    - Joey used to work at steel forge
    - Ryan’s best-friend relationship with Joey
      - How they became friends
      - Ryan helped set Joey up with Missie
      - Ryan sold paintings to Joey
      - Now Ryan is designing Joey’s tombstone
    - Line of mourners
      - Bill Graham saying what that meant
    - Post high school Joey, homeless
      - Went to Florida to live with sister
      - Ryan came to visit
      - Joey asked mom to bring him home, said he had to obey the rules
      - Joey came home and followed rules, went to work, became a father
    - Joey joined the Army
      - A fresh start, climbed the ranks
      - Gail last saw Joey Christmas of 2006
      - Her saying bye to him at airport
      - Now he’s coming home again in the procession
    - Back to funeral scene
      - Joey looked good enough for family viewing
      - Details of Gail and Missie seeing him dead
      - Joey was missing ring; Micah put his own ring on Joey’s glove
    - Jim Staggers
      - Describes military handoff
      - How Staggers became chaplain
      - Staggers approach to his work
      - He tried to prepare Joey’s family
      - Guardsmen assessing casket weight to find out about the person
        
        Joey’s was lighter than expected
      - Dealing with emotion of seeing tearful children
      - Staggers thinks about his own children
      - Psalm and approach casket
        
        Missie
        
        Gail
        
        Staggers
        
        Can’t deny humanity
        
        Lift casket and carry to hearse
        
        State troopers head back
        
        Two people in van joined members of Indiana National Guard going to Iraq

Part Two: Dover Air Force Base

How bodies are taken back to U.S.
- Greene talked about chartering plane
- Before remains of soldiers had been sent on commercial planes
- Changed ways of how military dead are delivered
- Special planes devoted full-time to this
- Crew of these planes
  - Emotions of crew
  - Familiar routes, some places they’ve never landed
  - Before Joey, neither had flown to Seymour, Indiana
  - “Smaller the town, the bigger the turnout”
  - Memories of trips
  - They became more practiced
- Casket pushed onto ball mat
- Family is “hit by the truth” when casket comes through door
  - Hardest part
  - Now Jones doesn’t stay in open door
  - Memories of when it takes a long time – in Seymour, so many people below
- Mortuary
  - Mortuary description
    - People who work there
    - Impact on people who work there
    - Karen Giles accepts reality of job
    - Dignity, honor and respect – motto
    - Joey is 3,431^st person killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom
  - Arrival at mortuary, five days there
  - Process at the mortuary
    - No unexploded bombs, ammunition, booby traps found
    - Unpacked from case
    - No personal effects
    - Counseling and meditation rarely used
    - Chaplain
    - Arrived with “believed to be” status
    - Autopsy
      - Consistent with proximity to explosive device
      - Wounds documented, prepared for burial
      - Body fluids replaced by preservatives
    - Viewability
      - Putting Joey back together
      - Description of putting others back together
    - Body in casket
      - Attention that goes into this
    - Flag happens last
  - Protocol of moving bodies and the emotion/importance of the job
    - Formica’s background in military death procedure
    - Specific instance of Joey
    - Honor guards waiting
      - Religion
    - Open door and red carpet
    - Honor guards march out
    - Process is still brutal for crew
    - Case in front of cargo door protocol
    - Sparks memory of saying prayer
    - Carrying cases into trunk
    - Never gets easier, always person

Part Three: Forward Operating Base

Journey to the States
- KIA in south Baghdad
  - Slaght was friends with Montgomery
  - Where Slaght is now
- Helicopter touches down
- Joey is carried into truck
- Placed in bag
- Slaght’s distraught
Micah learns Joey is dead
- Calls mayor and then calls Aunt Vicki
- Tells Vicki to go to his mom’s house
The news breaks
- Gail finds out from Vicki
- Everyone begins to find out
- Missie finds out from Ryan
- Men come to Missie’s house
How Joey died
- Listening to music heading to party
- Description of people in the car
- Joey had just had weekly phone call with family
  - Explosion interrupts phone call
  - Joey emails that he’s OK
- Description of roads and IEDs in Iraq
- Driving down Red Wings
  - Road turned to dirt
- Humvees pull inside Patrol Base Red
- Briefed the platoon
- Plan of farm raid
- Joey volunteers to walk point
- Description of Joey, how other perceived him
- Walking with night-vision goggles
  - Thought they were being watched
  - Told Joey to take his time
  - Loud noise
- Gilliland asks if Ross has been hit
- Couldn’t see Joey
- Couldn’t see through smoke
- Still couldn’t find Joey
  - Rudberg fell into crater and landed on Joey’s rifle
  - Sees uniform
- Joey’s body stopped at the waist
  - The others knew there was nothing that could be done
  - Radios KIA
- After Joey’s death
  - Gathered what they could of Joey and his belongings
  - Ross was OK
  - Continued to walk in silence, covered in blood
  - Drove Joey on the hood of the truck
  - Medic took Joey’s possessions out of his pockets
  - Bostick thinks about Micah
    - The two don’t talk until two months after Joey’s death
  - Rest of the troop salutes the men in the trucks
    - They are overcome by emotion
  - Joey is carried to morgue
    - Prayed
  - The others couldn’t sleep that night and burned fires
- Joey’s body is carried away in one of the Black Hawks and the others salute him as the plane leaves

Clarkston list of interviews

Interviews

People directly involved
- Head coach Wesley Etienne – have talked to him multiple times, but not in an interview
- Assistant coach Ayodeji Arise
- Assistant coach Dione Hester
- Muhozi Aimable, the UGA runner who I profiled last year and was on the Clarkston team a few years ago
- Three senior male cross country runners who are all refugees – have talked to them conversationally, but not in an interview
  - Kon Kon
  - Suheib Mohamed
  - Bineyam Tumbo
- A non-senior male cross country runner (either Awet Fitwi, Nzitunga Gile)
- Parents and siblings of runners mentioned above
Local experts
- Mayor Ted Terry – interview completed
- Principal Dr. Michelle Jones – have talked to her in-depth in a non-interview setting
- Bridget Ware – 12^th grade guidance counselor
National experts
- IRC – International Rescue Committee, based on Atlanta – JD McCrary (director)
Those affected
- Leonie Parkinson – senior cross country runner who is not a refugee
- Zyikeirra Robinson – sophomore cross country runner who is not a refugee
Man on the street
- Maybe interview citizens in the town, shop owners?

Open records to get

Individual project:

Basic demographic info about Clarkston High School students
- How many nations are represented?
- How many students were not born in the United States?
- How many students are refugees? How many students have parents who were refugees?
Immigration policies, laws
Numerical data for how many refugees have resettled in Georgia, how does that compare to other states?
Census information for comprehensive look at the makeup of Clarkston

The information about the high school sounds like it would be easily obtained through school employees. When I talked with the principal last week, it sounded like this is information she would be able to get for me. For information about the city, I believe I could go through the city government to get these data and records.

Team project:

The forms/paperwork required to transfer in order to see what type information an athlete has to provide and if the reasoning for switching schools is included
Historical records of how many high school students transfer each year with information that includes the school they left and the school they moved to.
Information or paperwork from the decision-making process if there have ever been instances where a player is not granted eligibility at a new school
This is less so a record as it is a stat, but it would probably involve getting some historical data from GHSA. I’d like to see how the parity between the best teams and the worst teams and see if this is the result of an influx of transfers. For example, maybe a while ago a majority of teams fluctuated around 0.35-0.65 win proportions. But I wonder if the good teams have gotten better while the bad teams have gotten worse, which would show higher numbers of teams at the low end and the high end with fewer in the middle. Even if this is the case, it would be hard to attribute it to the increase in transfers who leave to find better teams.

I believe all of this information would be somewhat easily obtainable through GHSA. I’d assume that they keep a database of athletes who participate in sports, and they probably have the paperwork needed to transfer on file somewhere.

Jenkins case and possible stories

The Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA case centers around the idea that the value a student-athlete brings to the school is capped at the amount of his or her scholarship, and the amount of money they bring into the school far exceeds this amount. Jenkins argues that this is illegal and violates federal antitrust laws. The complaint says that the NCAA and the Power Five conferences make billions of dollars off football and basketball players “who perform services” for the universities. This notion of whether players are exploited is the same as we discussed on Thursday in class. The complaint says that the universities do not sign contracts with the best interests of their student-athletes in mind and those athletes are unable to receive any portion of that revenue. Without the athletes, this revenue would not exist.

Possible stories:

Sport vs. service: How do we differentiate the two? Do college athletes perceive their athletic careers are furthering their involvement with sports or as providing a service in exchange for a scholarship?
How do the athletes of non-revenue sports feel about cases like this?
Breaking down the compensation athletes get in the form of tuition, cost-of-living stipends, housing, food, etc. This would help pinpoint how athletes are currently valued.
Any chances that more schools will try to unionize?
What percent of student-athletes give more value to their university than the university gives to them in the form of scholarship? It’s got to be tiny.
How would the culture of college sports change if athletes could be paid?

FOIA law is unfair to journalists and the public’s best interest

The new FOIA law in Georgia only requires that athletic programs respond to open records requests within 90 business days. That’s not even necessarily the deadline for when the records are given. All the law requires is that a response is given by that time. Previously, and still for records unrelated to athletics, the law required a response be given within three days. This massive difference completely changes how quickly information is available to journalists and to the public.

On UGA’s site about open records, it says, “Placing unnecessary barriers between the people and the records to which the law entitles them access serves no positive purpose for the institution.” However, to me it seems that lengthening the time between an open records request and when a response is provided, is only there to benefit the institution. It almost eliminates transparency. By the time the records arrive in the hands of journalists, the news will be far in the past. That’s not to say this should be a deterrent to investigative work. It still needs to be done, but now it’s not best serving the public.

I don’t think this law is fair to journalists, other records requesters or the public’s interest. I believe that one of the roles of journalists is to hold institutions accountable for their actions and decisions. Without somewhat speedy access to open records, it is not possible to do this. And institutions that are free to act as they wish without proper checks are dangerous.

Georgia gymnastics struggled on beam last year

Since I covered gymnastics last year and I spent a lot of the season writing about how bad Georgia was on beam, I decided to look further into the data that shows this.

This graph shows how Georgia’s team score was ultimately determined by its beam score. At first this seems obvious because a team score is the sum off the four events scores, but what is interesting is that the vault, bars and floor totals hardly fluctuate throughout the year. This means that whether Georgia won or lost each meet was almost always a product of whether or not the team did decent on beam. With the line graphs of the scores from every event, you can see how the beam score is the one that is usually bringing down the overall total. Apart from one meet of bad bars, no other event shows this type of fluctuation. It’s cool to look back at it this way because I felt like every week I was writing about beam. Georgia either had a disaster on beam and lost, or it somehow pulled it together on beam and it won. This graph shows that fairly simply.

Next, I looked at how Georgia’s rough year on beam compared to other teams. This graph shows all the Division I teams that averaged above a 48.5 on beam. The bars that are colored in show the teams that qualified for the NCAA championship. This is an interesting way to look at how far behind Georgia was from other top programs throughout the year on the event. This shows how abnormal it was that Georgia was able to qualify for the national championship despite such a rough showing all year on beam

Revised story memo – Clarkson High School cross country

I spoke with the head coach of the Clarkson High School cross country team, and after that, I feel confident that is the team I want to dive into as I tell the story about refugee resettlement in Clarkston, Georgia. It sounds like access is not going to be an issue. This is a coach who I’ve interviewed before for a previous story, and he said I would be welcome to come for any practices or meets I need. I’m also planning to reach out to the school’s principal to talk about what I’m doing and to make sure I won’t run into any issues. I also want to take some time exploring the Clarkston to get a feel for the community.

I gravitated toward a team at a public high school because it seems like the concept of refugees assimilating to a high school’s culture and routine can be used as a microcosm of immigrants coming into a new country.

I also think I need to find one or a few personal stories from athletes on the team to use in my story. Focusing on the lives of an athlete, his siblings and his parents will be an effective way to tell the story.

Below is my original story memo with changes and additions now that I have determined the route I hope to take.

Topic: The intersection between sports and refugee resettlement, using Clarkston High School’s cross country team as a lens

Key questions to consider and how to answer them:

What is it like to immigrate to a new country as a refugee child?
- Talk to high-school aged students and their families
- Ask athletic coaches how sports affect the process of a student adjusting to a new place
- What is it like to become a part of a public high school? Is it comforting to be at a high school that has a high population of refugees?
How do refugee children get involved with sports?
- Do parents see it as something that will help them be part of the community? Is it the child that initiates the desire to play?
- What challenges arise if the sport the child plays is not a sport that was present in their home country? Based on the story I did last year, it sounded like most of these runners come to America with a lot of experience in soccer, but they’ve never heard of cross country.
- How much does it cost a family to pay for a kid to be involved with sports? Are refugee children ever kept from sports due to the financial burden? Are there any costs to be a part of a public high school cross country team?
What is the team dynamic like and what messages does it send to the athletes and observers?
- How many different home countries are represented on the team?
- Are there ever language barriers?
- Were the coaches refugees or immigrants? How do they lead a diverse team of students adjusting to a new life?
- How do coaches and teammates help throughout the adjustment process in ways apart from sports?
- What lessons do the coaches hope to teach through sports?
What makes the cross country team successful, especially since many might not have run cross country prior to moving to the U.S.?
What struggles have the athletes faced? Xenophobia?
How did Clarkston become a hub for refugee resettlement?
- What are other similar refugee resettlement towns in the United States?
- What made Clarkston a good fit for immigrants?

Sources:

Coaches – Wesley Etienne, cross country head coach
Athletes
Families (Etienne said it might be hard to get parents. Most don’t speak English. But he said older siblings could work as good sources too.)
Teachers who have knowledge of the adjusting process outside of sports
Dr. Michelle Jones, Clarkston High School principal
Someone unaffiliated with the team or school who has knowledge of Clarkston’s history as a refugee resettlement town

Possible multimedia ideas:

Maybe a graph that shows the demographic makeup of Clarkson High School
Timeline or maps that show where the athletes come from and how and when they got to the U.S.

Team budget

My part of the team project will focus on the impact on the family of athletes who transfer. This will take an approach that is broader than just the athletic effect for the transfers.

I am interested in considering how often families cite academic reasons or parent career changes if a family moves a long distance away so their kid can go to a different school. If a parent gets a new job in a different state or city, does the family intentionally choose a house in a certain area so the athlete can go to a certain school? Things like buying houses and changing family life are major decisions, and I’m interested to see how uprooting a family becomes justified due to the quest for a scholarship. In Georgia, do football players ever move and live with a host family so they can be on a different team? (This happens a good bit in gymnastics.)

How often do players feel like transferring directly resulted in better athletic performance and tangible positive outcomes, such as college scholarships? Do they consider leaving their old school (with familiar friends and teachers) worth it? Is there any way to quantify this… probably not because we can never know how successful an athlete would have been if he had stayed at his original school.

In order to tell the story from this angle, I will need to talk to the athletes, their parents and their siblings. I also think it could be effective to use a map of some sort to depict how far athletes are commuting or moving in order to attend their new school.