911: Overall

Many of us did a very nice job with structure, but we struggled with the use of allegedly and proper attribution.

Until someone is convicted in court, any criminal or lawsuit-related actions are alleged. We need to liberally use alleged when referring to actions that are illegal, and we need to cite from where we are getting that allegation.

For example, if we write, Omar killed a squirrel, for libel purposes we take responsibility for claiming I killed a squirrel. We are saying it definitely happened and we can prove it.

It doesn't help that much if we say, Omar allegedly killed a squirrel, because if that's all we wrote, from a libel standpoint we are making the claim ourselves, without further evidence.

We need to attribute the allegation, not just for libel purposes but also so the audience sees from whom we're getting that from, and how we know that. The correct way would be, Omar allegedly killed a squirrel, police said.

Also, in this exercise it wasn't enough to say the dispatcher said or the girl said. That's because we didn't speak with them; we only know what they said because of the 911 call transcript.

If we just said, the girl said, we leave the impression with the reader that is what the girl told us. That's not correct, though. We only know because that's what she said in the transcript. So, proper attribution would be, the girl said, according to the 911 call transcript.

And yes, we need to be consistent in attributing like that, because the reader doesn't know if we used a mix of transcript-related quotes and our own interviews in putting together the story. Proper attribution makes that clear. 

911: Typical Examples ...

... of our work on this one. Again, nice job with structure, but we could do a lot better with attribution and the use of allegedly. Here are a couple of examples, with my comments in BOLD CAPS:

East Lansing resident Andrew Caspinwall was arrested today on a rape charge after a 6-year-old called 911 during the ALLEGED attack.

            The girl’s mother was the victim and the girl called the police after Caspinwall ALLEGEDLY entered their home.

            “My mommy needs help,” the girl told the dispatcher. ACCORDING TO A TRANSCRIPT OF THE 911 CALL. ATTRIBUTE!  “Somebody’s hurting my mommy.”

            The girl went on to tell the dispatcher where she lived and that the attacker had ALLEGEDLY come through the back door and hit her mommy, OUTSIDE OF QUOTES, WE CAN SAY MOTHER INSTEAD OF THE MORE CONVERSATIONAL MOMMY according to the call transcript.

            She then locked herself in her parent’s PARENTS’, STED PARENT’S room upstairs upon the request of the dispatcher COMMA HERE according to the call transcript.

            The dispatcher then asked if the attacker had a gun and the girl responded saying, “No.  A knife,” according to the call transcript. 

            After that, the dispatcher stayed on the phone and calmed the girl down until the police arrived, according to the call transcript. 

            The victim was taken to the hospital when the police arrived, according to the transcript.

            Caspinwall is currently being held in the county jail with a bail set at $250,000.

******

... and ...

******

A man was arrested in East Lansing today when a 6-year-old girl reported his ALLEGED attack on her mother to a 911 operator.

            Twenty-four-year-old Andrew Caspinwall of 416 Wilson Ave. is being held in the Ingham County Jail on a charge of rape.  His bail is set at $250,000.

            According to the transcript of the 6-year-old’s 911 call, Caspinwall was ALLEGEDLY armed with a knife when he entered the back door of her home and hit her mother.

            The young girl told the dispatcher that, unbeknownst to Caspinwall, she hid upstairs under her parents’ bed, where she could hear her mother crying as the ALLEGED assault occurred. ACCORDING TO THE TRANSCRIPT. ATTRIBUTE!

            The dispatcher proceeded to tell the 6-year-old to lock the bedroom door, and that three police cars were coming to help her mother. ACCORDING TO THE TRANSCRIPT. ATTRIBUTE!

            Police arrived shortly after and arranged to take the young girl’s mother to the hospital, the call transcript revealed. SAID, STED REVEALED The girl’s father was also on his way after the police managed to locate him.

            Once Caspinwall was caught and arrested, the 911 dispatcher instructed the 6-year-old girl to unlock the bedroom door and go downstairs to speak with the authorities. ACCORDING TO THE TRANSCRIPT. ATTRIBUTE!

911: Identification

Probably the hardest thing about this exercise for you was identification. We had competing interests at work here.

First, you should have been operating under the general journalistic premise that we do NOT name rape victims in almost all cases.

And on this point, some of us DID name the victim by name.

Earlier in this semester, we discussed when and when not to name victims in stories. In most cases we DO name victims, but a notable exception in American journalism regarded the names of rape victims.

In general, the current rule of thumb is that in weighing the benefit to society in knowing who exactly was victimized versus the harm that would come in terms of stigma to the victim, we do not name rape victims expect in rare circumstances, like a victim wanting to intentionally put a name and face to a victim to promote greater societal understanding, or a rape victim whose alleged attacker wasn't convicted in criminal court but who is facing a lawsuit for money in civil court.

This wasn't one of those times.

Then, there is the concern of making a virtual identification; that is, giving so much other information that it is easy for anybody to identify the victim.

Some of us named the victim's daughter. A daughter only has one mother, right? So that would be real easy to narrow down who the victim was if we gave the girl's name.

Also, some of us listed the exact home address where the crime took place. Only one family lives in a home, right? Again, we took a huge step in virtually identifying the victim.

Even though an exact address would expose the victim, don't readers still deserve to know where a crime took place? I mean, a story is much more relevant if it happened on your street or in your neighborhood than if it didn't. Some location is necessary to establish relevance.

A couple of us handled it in a smart way: you simply said the incident happened on Wilson Avenue. No street address included. That gave readers enough information to better set proximity, without giving away the victim's home and creating a virtual identification.

Now, what about the suspect's name? I think only under the rarest of cases would you not name the suspect. He's central to the story. As a society we need to know who among us is considered dangerous, and who among us is being locked up like a zoo animal by our authorities.

The only time in my whole journalism career when I didn't name a suspect was in a case around 1992 -- really early in my professional career -- where I was covering the trial of a teen accused of raping his own mother.

My editors went back-and-forth on how to handle it before deciding they wouldn't name the victim or the suspect, because naming the latter would identify the former. And there was a big ol' editor's note added ahead of my lede to explain their reasoning.

So exceptions are rare. Either the circumstances are amazingly twisted and unique or the suspects are juveniles and a particular media organization has rules about naming kids.

Again, this ain't one of 'em.

I also thought important to the story was noting that Caspinwall was a neighbor of the victim. Readers need to know if this crime was totally random or if there was some sort of link between the victim and attacker. Readers have more reason to worry if someone is willy-nilly breaking into random homes, as opposed to attacking a neighbor, right?

But only a few of us you noted the link.

Note I say Caspinwall was a neighbor, not her direct neighbor. A neighbor -- or even better, a nearby neighbor -- could be somebody next door or down the street, right? So using neighbor in the generic doesn't necessarily narrow the possible victim pool to a single house or two.

Next, is the suspect's home address needed? I think some identification of where he lives is noteworthy. Wouldn't readers really want to know if an alleged rapist and home invader lived by them? Wouldn't you?

Also, there was something else that I think we owed the reader: an explanation of why you weren't naming the girl or listing her exact address.

Even though you're following journalistic rules, your readers probably don't know those rules and may simply be wondering, why the hell aren't there any names or exact addresses in this story? It wouldn't have hurt to have a simple background sentence somewhere in the story, like this:

The names of the girl and victim and the exact address where the crime occurred is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.

That way, you are being transparent with readers about why they're not getting the level of information that other non-rape stories would include. A couple of us did do something along those lines.

Admittedly, this was a confusing exercise. We had many different factors tugging at us. It's really a tough situation for a young reporter to find himself or herself in. In a real-world setting, we'd definitely want to bring an editor in the loop to help make the best judgments that give the readers the most information while at the same time minimizing harm to the victim.

But here, I wanted to test your judgment and see how you responded. And I figured you'd appreciate the lesson much more if we did it this way, as opposed to just lecturing about it.

And in all fairness to you, how you handled these circumstances were a smaller-than-usual part of your assignment grade here. I gave you a break because I didn't want you to suffer a penalty on this one, but I did want you to have to think about it before we discussed it now.

Finally, this is how I would have handled it: I WOULD NOT name the victim or the girl. I WOULD name the suspect and even use HIS home address. I'd say the victim lived nearby, but I wouldn't specifically say they were direct neighbors.

That way, readers know who did this (and know exactly where the sicko lived) and the general area where the crime occurred and that it wasn't a random crime, while at the same time limiting the ability to identify who the victim was.

This is the sort of stuff you'll have to think about all the time in deciding what is the best way to tell your story.

911: Allegedly

First, we need to liberally and frequently use alleged and allegedly in our story. Up to now, everything is lleged and nothing has been proven in a court of law. So Andrew Caspinwall is the alleged suspect. Caspinwall allegedly broke into the home. He allegedly wielded a knife. He allegedly raped the victim. We can't really overdose on forms of the word alleged.


Second, there is some confusion on what was alleged here.

Is it alleged that the woman was raped? No. She was raped. Someone broke into her house and raped her. That much was clearly established.

What is alleged is who raped her. A man did, obviously. But it's alleged that it was Andrew Caspinwall.

So you should say Caspinwall allegedly raped the victim. Or the victim was raped, allegedly by Caspinwall. Or that the girl said a man, alleged to be Caspinwall, did this and that.

Is Caspinwall allegedly charged with rape? No. He is charged with rape. That's the name of the charge he's facing. It's a bit confusing in this exercise because the name of the charge and the action he is alleged to have done are the same: rape.

So, let's imagine instead of allegedly raping the woman, Caspinwall stabbed her to death. Caspinwall would be charged with murder, since that's the name of the charge which he will face in court. He's a murder defendant. The charge of murder came because he allegedly stabbed a woman to death.

The action is alleged. The charge is simply the label of the law which he is alleged to have broken.

I know this is confusing. Does this help?

911: Transparency About Lack Thereof

When one of you decided to leave the little girl's name out of this, you mentioned this in an early attribution:

The girl, whose name will remain anonymous to protect the victim, said ...

You are doing something out of the ordinary (leaving someone's name out) and you are being transparent with your readers (by explaining why).

Good job!

911: No Fatals!

Of the fact variety, at least. We did have a number of folks not turn in anything at all, which is a 0.0. And that's much worse than a 1.0 we get for fact fatals. Here's why:

The worst thing we can do in journalism -- even worse than getting a fatal -- is to blow off an assignment. A newspaper can't go to print with blank spots in the pages, and a 30-minute newscast can't to to air without content that fills up all 30 minutes. That means in the media business, you can never miss a deadline.

And yes, to reinforce good habits and deter bad ones, assignments that are not done will have a much more severe impact on your final grade than fatals will, and if I have to use a tie-breaker in determining your final grade, the first categories I will be unexcused absences and tardies and whether you blew off any assignments, since those things tell me how seriously you are taking this class.


I express that value in the grading scale. Everything we do in here translates to a 1,000-point scale to which your grade is converted to a smaller subset of points that add up toward that. So when we get a 4.0 you get 100 percent of points, a 3.9 gets us 99 points, a 3.8 gets 98, and so forth.

And under that scale, a fact fatal that gets us a 1.0 still gets us 70 points. If we screw up an assignment so bad that we get a 0.1, that's still 61 points.

But a 0.0 is zero points. At a 0.1, we're closer to a 4.0 than a 0.0.

Again, that's to emphasize that missing your deadline is simply not an option in the media biz. We always need to hit our deadlines. Every single time.

Beyond that, none of us can afford to miss a single assignment because we need the practice! You're already working on out-of-class stories, and the best way to make sure you're writing it in a proper journalistic manner is to have opportunities with these practice stories to try our best, review our work, keep applying good habits and learn how to fix our bad ones.
 
We can't do that if we don't do that.


Again, the more you tell me you are unreliable as a journalist by skipping assignments and not showing up without a valid excuse, the more I will recognize that in your final grade. I can work with you if you give me an assignment that's not up to snuff -- and so can an editor in a real-world setting -- but I can't work with nothing, and I can't work with you if you're not here. Neither can your future bosses.

911: Was This Right?

Let's look at this story:

“My mommy needs help.” 

Imagine if that chilling statement was the first thing you heard on the other end of the line when you answered your phone. For a police dispatcher in East Lansing today, this was a reality.

Police responded to the call from a brave 6-year-old girl who said her mother was hit after a man entered their house on Wilson Avenue through the back door.

The intruder was identified as 24-year-old Andrew Caspinwall after police arrived at the scene. 

Caspinwall, a neighbor of the victim, allegedly raped the child’s mother at knifepoint and is being held in the county jail with bail set at $250,000.

Now, there are two things that jump out to me: first, this story seems really, really short. Second, we start with a quote, which in general we should not do. 

Now. let's address those points: first, the story is very short. But is it thorough? Does it have all main points covered? Does it offer enough background to make sense of the main points? I think it does.

Now, I do think we missed an opportunity here to further lay out this story, and that would have been to offer the chronological narrative of how things unfolded in sequence right after what is written here. And popping in a few more quotes along the way would be helpful.

But, I do have to admit what is here is enough.

Second, in general we absolutely don't want to lede with a quote, unless the quote perfectly sums up the facts and/or context of a story, and it simply cannot be topped using a more traditional lede.

In this case, with the Peanut Barrel-type "wow!" of the quote, and the way it so perfectly sets up the nut graf, I would say this is one of those times.

Some professors and editors will disagree with me on this one, and say that rule is absolute. I say, bullshit. The only rules that are absolute is that we have to get it right; we have to meet our deadlines; we have to report on behalf of the audience; and anything we do in how we tell the story best tells the story and is the best form for facts, context and meaning to be comprehended by the audience.

As long as we meet those goals with everything we do, then everything else is subjective.

Now, here I changed one thing from your story as written that I thought didn't work well, and that was I split up the last three grafs from one big mega-graf that we wrote:

Police responded to the call from a brave 6-year-old girl who said her mother was hit after a man entered their house on Wilson Avenue through the back door. The intruder was identified as 24-year-old Andrew Caspinwall after police arrived at the scene. Caspinwall, a neighbor of the victim, allegedly raped the child’s mother at knifepoint and is being held in the county jail with bail set at $250,000.

Which, when narrowed to a typical newspaper column width, would look like this:


Police responded to the call
from a brave 6-year-old girl
who said her mother was hit
after a man entered their house
on Wilson Avenue through the
back door. The intruder was
identified as 24-year-old Andrew
Caspinwall after police arrived
at the scene. Caspinwall, a
neighbor of the victim, allegedly
raped the child’s mother at
knifepoint and is being held
in the county jail with bail set
at $250,000.

Let's remember that a graf should have just one main point OR one supporting/elaborating/continuing point OR one quote per graf. The first sentence is the main point; the second expands on the point by naming the alleged attacker; and the third offers greater details. Each should stand alone, like this:

Police responded to the call
from a brave 6-year-old girl
who said her mother was hit
after a man entered their house
on Wilson Avenue through the
back door. 

The intruder was identified
as 24-year-old Andrew
Caspinwall after police arrived
at the scene.

Caspinwall, a neighbor
of the victim, allegedly
raped the child’s mother at
knifepoint and is being held
in the county jail with bail set
at $250,000.

Like we've said earlier, the point of short grafs is to let key points and supporting details stand out, like they would in a lecture outline. If in doubt, just hit the "return" key. 

  

911: How Did You Know ...

... that the six-year-old girl said, "Hurry, my mommy's crying"?

Is it because you were under the bed, hiding with her, and you heard her say it?

Of course not! You know she said it not because she told you, but because she said it in the 911 call transcript.

So, this was NOT proper attribution:

"Hurry, my mommy's crying," the girl said.

But this was okay:

"Hurry, my mommy's crying," the girl said, according to the 911 call transcript.

911: Quotes

A big part of this story -- if not the central focus of this story -- was the little girl's bravery. And we had some telling quotes in the 911 transcript, like these:

"Somebody's hurting my mommy."

"Hurry. My mommy's crying."

"My mommy. What'll happen to my mommy?"

"I'm afraid. Will he hurt me, too?"

Great quotes. They're telling. They set context in a special way -- they sound like things you'd imagine a 6-year-old girl would say, right?

Yet some of us didn't use any quotes in your articles!

We've talked about the concept of showing and not just telling readers; that is, don't just tell them something happened; show them the proof.

Those quotes are the "show" part. Don't be afraid to use quotes that support and prove your key points.

Also, the quotes also humanize the story. It's not the dry legal jargon of a crime taking place; it's the quivering voice of a scared little girl. It emphasizes people, and when it comes down to it, all stories are not crime stories or business stories or political stories; they are all people stories -- stories about what happened to people, or what people did, or what may affect people.

Let the humanity shine through in your stories, when possible. Such quotes aren't necessary, but they do help.

911: Don't Assume!

In one lede, you assumed by saying a 6-year-old girl saved her and her mother's life.

Now, certainly the mother was being brutally attacked. And the girl was in fear for her safety. Conventional wisdom gives you the right to label that as just that, in the same way the girl's actions can be viewed as heroic based on how she dealt with a horrible situation and how conventional wisdom would view that.

But can you say the mom would have certainly died without the 911 call being made? And do we know for sure the little girl was at risk of death?

I don't think so. This is a stretch. You can say the girl helped rescue her mother or helped apprehend her attacker, because those are based on facts. We simply don't have enough information to judge whether she would have been killed or just brutalized. There is a huge difference between the two.

Likewise, you can say the girl was terrified and at risk of harm because an attacker was in her home, but not that her life was certainly at risk.

Now, some of you said the girl potentially saved her mother's life (italics mine), or something to that effect. That's more reasonable. Certainly if she is being allegedly raped by a man with a knife, she's at risk of substantially-greater harm.

But we have to be precise in how we couch that. She may be at great risk, but she is not assured of death. Our language needs to make that clear.

In another instance, you made an assumption that the victim was someone the attacker had personally known.

You did know the victim was the suspect's neighbor, but does that automatically mean the knew each other? I mean, I don't know my neighbors. Maybe that's because I'm an asshole, but the rapist doesn't sound like the nicest neighbor, either.

Again, you're going a step further than the evidence at hand allows. Either get a clarification from sources that establishes your premise or back off to a claim better supported by the facts in hand.

911: Writing With (AP) Style

Is it six-year-old girl with six spelled out, or is six in numeric form, like this: 6-year-old girl.

It's the latter. In AP Style under ages:

Always use figures.

Yes, the general number rule is spell out numbers under 10, and use numerals for 10 and over. But age is an exception. So are numbers used at the start of a sentence, which are always spelled out.

Remember these and the other exceptions we've noted through this semester.

RFTM Ch. 18: Public Affairs Reporting

Reporting on government and actions taken by government entities that affect citizens is known as public affairs reporting (PAR). That includes reporting on government (officials and elections) and agencies and policies (police, crime, accidents, fires, taxes and laws) and decisions made at all levels of government and public service.

(There is a general misconception that PAR reporting only involves politics and governing public bodies like city councils and Congress. In fact, it extends to anything where the ultimate outcome is determined by a public body. For example, a tuition increase at MSU is PAR story, since MSU is a owned by the state and a tuition increase therefore is a government decision. Gay rights is PAR, because ultimately it's state and federal laws that determine what rights gay citizens have.)

Habits of PAR include diligence (making a regular pattern of checking with sources; inspecting documents; covering meetings and public bodies); knowledge of sources (people who work in government, people affected by government decisions, documents recording decisions and plans and events); accuracy (duh); and the ability to write clear explanations (so citizens understand potential impacts and effects of decision-making).

There are various types of PAR, including:

Crime and accident reporting. This is a common training ground for young reporters. It forces young reporters to learn the community; trains reporters in news values and the need for accuracy; and gives reporters the chance to develop first-hand sources on the street.

It also has its challenges. Crime and accident reporting exposes reporters to the harshest aspects of urban life (death, harm, loss), and deadline pressures can be severe (crime news doesn't happen on a fixed schedule; you have to be ready to go and report at any time). But if you can get through this, you can succeed in any type of reporting.

Sources can vary. You may get information from official contacts like police spokespeople, press releases, press conferences, media briefings, talking directly to investigating officers, and talking to police supervisors and officials.

You may also get information from secondary sources that have an interest in the issue, like police union officials, community activists, citizens impacted by or concerned about crime, and attorneys.

There are also documentary sources like police blotters and crime logs (which usually list calls for assistance and people arrested) and incident/arrest/accident/fire reports (offering detailed descriptions of crimes or accidents).

The availability of the latter reports may be limited by state information laws; you may have to file a Freedom Of Information Act (or FOIA) request to obtain one. Still, details may be blacked out. There is a legal right to withhold details if the release would arm an ongoing investigation, but usually all records must be released after an investigatin is closed or an arrest is made.

Other information sources include arrest warrants, search warrants and affadavits (which is a sworn statement of fact), usually found in court files; jail booking records (that list who is in jail, and for what, with bail amounts); autopsy, medical examiner or coroner reports (listing the manner of death); criminal history information (like prior arrest histories, usually available from court clerk's offices) and police misconduct reports.

Crime stories carry a high risk of libel and sensationalism and other problems, especially since crime stories are likely to harm someone's reputation (with harm to reputation being a key component of a libel claim. We'll get into journalism law details later this semester).

To limit risk, first we need to take care to confirm facts and to make our writing clear. An absolute libel defense is the truth; if it's true (and accurate), then there cannot be libel.

Plus, we cannot overuse the word allegedly in describing actions and who committed those actions. Someone is alleged to have committed a crime at the time they are arrested. Use allegedly frequently and often in describing the circumstances.

Look for key elements, like deaths or injuries or impact to people. Such elements usually are the most important ones; what this means to people.

Other elements include the nature and value of property stolen or damaged; as complete an ID of the suspect as possible, the IDs and statements of victims and witnesses; a narrative of the crime or event (what happened, and how and why); exact charges (if any); the next step or steps (if any); and anything unusual.

Another major type of PAR is local government reporting. This consists of covering city, county and township governments that usually provide basic public services like police, fire, street maintenance, water and sewage service, and public transit.

Local governments elect local officials -- like mayors and council members -- and those officials hire day-to-day managers like city or county managers, police and fire chiefs, and engineers.

Those local governments collect taxes, mostly on property like homes and businesses; and then use those revenues to set budgets on what they plan to spend on the following year.

(Such budgets help reveal priorities or lack thereof; such as, a big increase in the police budget means they're taking public safety seriously; a big cut in the police budget indicates they are not. And those priorities may be worth focusing upon in story form.)

Sources include people sources (like elected officials, appointed officials and bureaucrats, residents involved with or affected by or interested in local government actions); and documentary sources (like tax records and property value records -- also known as assessments -- and property ownership records -- also known as deeds -- and expense records, bid records, contracts and licenses, inspection reports, zoning records, campaign contributions, and such. Many of these records are public and available from the clerk's office upon demand.

A third common type of PAR is school district reporting. School districts are headed by school boards (which usually consist of elected officials); superintendents (which are chief administrators hied by the board, who oversees day-to-day district operations); and principals (hired by the superintendent, running individual schools). Teachers run individual classrooms, and parents are another relevant interview source, of course.

Public records include rules and policies; budgets and financial data; salaries; accreditation reports; and assessment records. But many other records -- like information about specific students -- are off-limits due to privacy laws.

A fourth type of PAR is court reporting. In general, there are three levels of courts: trial courts, which hear criminal cases and civil lawsuits; appeals courts, which consider whether trial court decisions were correct; and supreme courts, which are the final arbiters. Their rulings become final precedents for all courts to follow in similar future cases.

Criminal cases in trial courts are almost always held in public. There is a pretrial process where a complaint is first filed (alleging a criminal act); then bail (also called bond) is set (which the accused has to be as sort of a deposit to get out of jail while awaiting trial).

From there, the case can go one of two ways: either the basic allegations are publicly presented in a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides if there's enough evidence to go to trial; or the case goes to a grand jury, which meets in private, considers evidence in secret, decides if there's enough evidence to go to trial, and then issues a true bill of charges.

If the judge or grand jury decides there isn't enough evidence, then the case is dismissed here, If they decide there is enough evidence, after the preliminary hearing/grand jury phase comes an arraignment, where the defendant pleads guilty or innocent. If the plea is innocent, then a trial date is set, and the attorneys hold a pretrial hearing to set the rules of the upcoming trial.

Sometimes, a criminal case ends before trial, when both sides agree to a plea bargain, in which the defendant admits to certain charges in return for a certain sentence.

Then, the case goes to trial. The defendant has the choice of having a jury trial (where a jury selected from the general public rules on innocence or guilt) or a bench trial (where a judge alone rules on the case). The trial begins with opening statements from the prosecutor (advocating the charges on behalf of the government) and defense attorney (defending the defendant); laying out their arguments.

During the trial, the court will hear from a number of witnesses. Usually, witness testimony is the best and most compelling item to report. Concentrate on the most relevant, insightful, memorable testimony; not necessarily the sequence of testimony, just like you would covering a meeting or speech.

Also, during the trial evidence will be presented, after which the prosecutor and defense attorney make closing arguments, summing up their cases. Then, if it's a jury trial the jury will meet in private, make a decision, and announce their verdict in public. In a bench trial, the judge will privately consider the case, before publicly rendering a decision.

The post-trial phase is a busy one for journalists. You should seek interviews with the defendant (if possible), prosecutors and defense attorneys; victims and/or their family and friends; and even jurors (if there is something extraordinary about the deliberations or the case itself).

If the defendant is found guilty, then the judge will schedule a sentencing hearing, where the defendant will learn of his sentence (jail time/probation/fines/ect.). After that, the defendant has the option to file an appeal with the appeals court.

Civil cases are ones where a court considers a lawsuit. In lawsuits, instead of the government charging a criminal violation of law, an individual or entity alleges a violation of civil law against another individual or entity by filing a lawsuit.

In a typical lawsuit, instead of jail time the plaintiffs (the ones filing the lawsuit) makes allegations and seeks damages (usually for a cash amount) from the defendants (the ones who are the target of the lawsuit).

(Another common type of civil matter could be some sort of court order, like a restraining order where the plaintiff will seek legal protection from the defendant.)

As journalists, it's critical that we treat initial lawsuit filings carefully and with skepticism. Anyone can allege anything in a lawsuit, without evidence. It's only once the case gets moving that the evidence -- or lack thereof -- is revealed. Be sure you try to double-check the claims yourself; always seek comment from the defendants ASAP; and use the word allegedly frequently.

The trial process is similar to that of a criminal trial. Often, lawsuits are settled before trial via an out-of-court settlement (where both sides agree to a disposition, often including some sort of cash settlement).

And those are the major types of PAR. For a good PAR checklist, see RFTM, p. 473-4.

Meeting: A Nice Example

Note the to-the-point lede and the strong nut graf and telling quotes tight grafs and ranking of information in order of importance and newsworthiness. Here we go:

 

The Grand Ledge School Board voted to keep using the same biology textbooks in city schools last night despite complaints from citizens that the books do not teach creationism.

After a lively public hearing that about 100 people attended, the board voted 6-3 to continue using the current textbooks.

“We’ve seen your biology books,” Grand Ledge parent Claire Sawyer said. “I don’t want my children using them. They never mention the theory of creationism.”

 

The debate went back and forth among members of the public in attendance.

“Evolution isn’t a theory,” Grand Ledge parent Harley Euon said. “It’s a proven fact. 
Creationism is a religious idea, not even a scientific theory. People here are trying to force schools to teach our children their religion.”

After the vote in favor of the current textbooks, the board said they encourage parents to discuss the matter of creationism versus evolution in their individual homes. 

In other discussion, the board opted to continue remedial summer classes for one more year, but to examine whether the remedial classes are worth their cost.

The classes, which the board said cost about $2.1 million, are set to stay for at least one more year after a 7-2 vote.

The classes are only used by about 900 students each summer, according to board member Umberto Vacante.

“If we’re going to spend that kind of money, I think we should use it to help and reward our most talented students,” Vacante said. “They’re the ones we ignore. We could offer special programs for them.”

Superintendent Greg Hubbard disagreed with Vacante’s assessment.

“Some of these summer students have learning disabilities and emotional problems, and they really need the help,” Hubbard said. “This would hurt them terribly. Without it, they might never graduate.”

In budget discussions, the board announced that $9.3 million of the $618.7 million in next year’s budget will be spent on the construction of a new elementary school on West Madison Avenue. 
The school will be completed and open in two years, the board said.

Also, the board said teachers and administrators are set to receive wage increases of 4.5 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Meeting: Lede With The News

Still a bit of shakiness with identifying what the news really is for the lede. The news isn't that things were discussed; it's what was done or not done. Too many ledes or section starts defaulted to things were discussed. That's not the news, right?

This was a lede that went in that direction:

The Grand Ledge School Board discussed several issues at its meeting last night.

The problem here is that the news isn't that the school board addressed items; it's what the items were that were addressed. From this lede, you don't know if they gave out ribbons to old ladies or declared war on Russia. It's too vague. Those ledes sound like this imaginary football game story lede:

The MSU football team played a game Saturday night.

And that's a lede we'd never write, right? This next lede was better in that regard:

The Grand Ledge School Board discussed its budget, evolution vs. creationism in textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.

You do identify what the issues were, but it still falls short of ultimate outcome and end result; that being what actions they took regarding these issues: for example, with the school meeting you note they approved a new budget, considered textbooks, and rejected canceling summer school.

That lede sounds like this modified game lede:

The MSU football team played Notre Dame Saturday night.

And that lede still doesn't go far enough toward ultimate outcome and end result.
This modified football lede does:

The MSU football team beat Notre Dame 63-0 Saturday night.

So, now let's apply that same fixation on end result on this school board lede:

The Grand Ledge School Board approved a new budget and voted to keep evolution-based textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.

Much better, right? You now know precisely how things ended.

But it wasn't necessary that you include every element in your lede. A big part of journalism is deciding what is most newsworthy, and ranking that news accordingly (or even excluding things if you feel the newsworthiness was limited or simply not there).

Meeting: Ledeing A Subsection

With subsections of stories, you want to lede with the end result first, just like with a lede.

What some of you did, though, was lede a subsection with something like, something was discussed, and then ended the subsection with the end result, like the board approved the plan.

What you wanted to do was start the subsection with, something was approved by the board, and then detailed what the proposal was and what discussions took place.

So let's look at a hypothetical subsection done right, and wrong. First, the wrong:

In other business, the board discussed creationism vs. evolution in textbooks. The current books feature evolution.

"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.

Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "Thaat's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."

In the end, the board voted 10-0 to keep the current books.

Now, the right way to do it:

In other business, the board voted 10-0 to keep current textbooks that teach evolution. Some parents had argued for a switch to the teaching of creationism.


"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.


Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "That's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."


See the difference? In the latter version, we know right away at the start of the subsection what was the end result. Just like a lede. Think of subsections as mini-stories, and look for the mini-story lede to go to end result and ultimate outcome.

Meeting: Fatals

PROBLEM: We cited the school board as being the one in Lansing, when in fact it was the one in Grand Ledge.

SOLUTION: Make sure we are carefully and correctly taking down information, and using the correct information in our work.

***** 

PROBLEM: Within a quote, we said w when in fact it was we. In another quote, we said we are when it was we're. In another quote, we said kind money when it was kind of money.
 
SOLUTION: After finishing writing, carefully review all quotes in their entirety to make sure what we wrote is exactly what was said. Spell check wouldn't have helped here, since the misspellings created correctly-spelled but unintended words.

Plus, we need to remember that quotes must be EXACTLY what was said, EXACTLY the way it was said. Close enough isn't close enough, and the same meaning isn't good enough. If you stray away from the most literal quote, then switch it to a paraphrase.

*****

PROBLEM: We sent in the incorrect document that was not the assigned story. That gets the same grade as a missed deadline: a 0.0.

SOLUTION: Take care to make sure what you are sending in is the correct document. Don't just treat writing as the only quality control issue; treat all aspects of the job (reporting, writing, and filing) with the same care and double-checking habits.

*****

 
 

Meeting: Did You ...

... write about everything that happened at the meeting? Or just the things you thought were most newsworthy?

And how would you rank the newsworthiness of the items that took place at the meeting? These were the things, in order of occurrence, at the school board meeting:

1. Retiring teachers honored
2. New budget approved that includes construction of a new school, pay raises
3. Board keeps summer school intact
4. Board decides to keep current biology textbooks and not teach creationism
5. School volunteers honored


Does the order of importance match the order of occurrence? How would you rank these things, in terms of importance?

The importance ranking should match your order of presentation, regardless of the order in which things took place. 

And when we talk about importance, think about what things are the most interesting or relevant or useful to your audience. Think about what is most unusual that took place. Think about what would have the most impact. Think about what people would be most curious about, or wanting to know about.

If you're not sure if your ranking of items based on newsworthiness is the best, here's a good rule of thumb: the item you wrote about the most is probably the one worth the best placement. The one you wrote about the least should probably be presented last, or maybe even not at all. 

I'd argue these were proper orders of importance. From the school meeting:

1. Board decides to keep current biology textbooks and not teach creationism

2 or 3. New budget approved that includes construction of a new school, pay raises
3 or 2. Board keeps summer school intact
4 or 5. Retiring teachers honored
4 or 5. School volunteers honored


Our job as journalists isn't to necessarily record everything, and put things in the order in which it took place. That's stenography. Rather, we decide what was most important, and rank things in the order of importance.

What did you do, and why?

Meeting; Let's Weigh Importance

Some of us entirely left out of our stories the debate over textbooks. That kind of surprised me, since the debate drew so many spectators (100 people!) and created such passionate debate.

Maybe you thought, since they decided not to change anything, that it really wasn't worth mention. That's one way to look at it. But another way is to consider the interest based on crowd size, and the strong emotions expressed. Clearly, this was something the public was interested in.

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for determining news value, but I think in this case the Peanut Barrel rule would have been a good one to use:

Q: What happened at that meeting you went o?

A: Hell, people got all pissed off over the textbooks!

My guess is, that's what would have stood out to anyone there. And if it stands out, it's probably news worth sharing.

Meeting: Don't Forget The Obvious

In many stories, we wrote that teachers were getting a 4.5 percent raise.

Uh, raise of what? Pay? Class sizes? Hours of work? 

It was pay. We know that. But how are readers supposed to know that?

The audience doesn't come to a news source to guess; they come for clarity. Be precise. Say it was a 4.5 percent pay raise.