Following Up

Follow-up stories are sometimes hard to find. It seems like there should be more done than there are. They are probably even harder to find when the story involves an animal or animals as victims. That's where this E60 story about some of the dogs once owned by Michael Vick is different.

The story starts off with video of Vick's apologies to his teammates, the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons' coach and owner after he pleaded guilty to dog fighting charges. Jeremy Schapp, the ESPN reporter, then brings up a great point that hasn't yet been covered. Vick didn't apologize to the dogs, who were his victims. Schapp goes on to explain how elaborate the dog fighting operation was on Vick's property. There is an interview with a federal authority who testified about how much land was devoted to dog fighting.

Schapp then goes on to explain where many of the dogs who were found alive on Vick's property have gone. It turns out many have gone to kennels. Schapp visits one animal shelter where many beagles, who were not involved in any fighting, were taken. Schapp goes to one of the owner's homes who adopted one of the beagles. This was a great help to see how far the dog has come since being involved in Vick's operation. In Schapp's interview, with the beagle on the owner's lap, it was clear that the dog had found a good home. The owner told Schapp that she think Vick should have to "mop out" the cages that his dogs now stay in. The owner said when she found out her dog used to belong to Vick, her reaction was only "empathy."

Again, I thought this story was a great follow up to what many would have otherwise forgot. I think it's a great service to the people who had strong reactions to the Vick case to see what is happening with the victims now. That is a big part of journalism.

I'm all done with my reporting now so I'm taking it pretty easy. I'm still just trying to stay in contact with people around Columbia and Mid-Missouri so I have good relationships when I get back in the summer to start B3. I am excited to do a full semester of reporting and will be able to use many new skills I have learned this semester.

Beware of the Seas

Pirates have been in the news a lot lately. So, this week ABC's 20/20 did a story on some civilians who also have had encounters with pirates near the coast of Somalia. The story was done by Jim Avila, a reporter I respect greatly who I think tells a story as well as anyone.

I like the editing the story started off with. There were quick shots of ships as Avila explains how busy the area is with ship traffic. Then the picture fades into the threat the area presents, the pirates and their guns. It then cuts to a SOT with a man testifying just how dangerous the pirates can be. It's a great opening that grabbed my attention with good editing and effective use of a testimonial SOT.

Avila then tells of two Americans who found themselves in battle with pirates as they attempted to sail around the world. This does a great deal in connecting an international story with the main viewing audience of 20/20, Americans. By seeing some of our countrymen in that situation, it helped me connect with what the pirates attacks can really be like and I felt sympathy for the Americans who were victims. There was also good editing in this sequence with re-creation shots from the bow of a ship. There were other shots from the ship that re-created the story of that the American couple told of the time they were attacked.

I was a little confused why the story ended with the story of a French ship that was also attacked by pirates. It didn't do as much for me as an American to extend the story. It didn't seem like a great ending. I would have rather of seen more of the American couple or another story of Americans and pirates.

For my reporting this week, I went to ABC Labs to do a story on Governor Nixon promoting a new summer job program for Missouri youth. It was difficult because Nixon moved very quickly through the lab on his tour. I brought my tripod, but it was difficult to get it set up with how quickly Nixon was moving. I still was able to get some good shots and put it together with three sources for a pretty good package. I was glad I got the student perspective as well by going to campus to see what a person eligible for the plan thought about it.

Spot News

I am going local for this week's journalism reflection. Local as in my hometown in Columbus, OH. I saw a great story from a local TV station in my hometown as it covered the collapse of an observation platform at the Columbus Motor Speedway on Saturday night (click on the "video" icon on the page to view the video story from the 11 p.m. newscast).

It was opening night for the speedway and a long night of events were planned. Just before the activities were to begin, at about 5:30 p.m., a concrete platform near the announcer's booth collapsed. One person had serious injuries. I watched the video from the 6 p.m. (actually came on about 7 p.m. because of the Masters) newscast that was posted that evening, but it since has been taken down. I think the coverage at 7 p.m. was more impressive than when they had more time to prepare the story before the 11 p.m. newscast.

At 6 p.m., they had a reporter live on the scene and shots from the news helicopter of the collapsed platform. They also had a SOT with a relative of a person who was seriously injured after being trapped from some of the rubble of the collapsed platform. This person was also on the platform when it collapsed and gave the essential first-person account of what happened. The live reporter gave all the latest information and had good shots of the scene for a VO to go with her report. Then, the anchor pitched to another reporter live at the hospital on the phone where the victim with serious injuries was taken. The reporter there gave a live update on what they knew about the victim at that time. There was also a VO with shots of the victim being taken out of the ambulance. Then, the anchor pitched to the sports anchor who gave some details about the speedway and its specifications. I thought it was great team coverage, especially for a Saturday night when the newsrooms are less staffed. I also liked how they followed the story from the racetrack to the hospital with two reporters. It made me feel like they cared about how this story finished too as well as how it began.

The 11 p.m. package posted on the web site was also good, with three sources on camera. It started out with a great opening shot from the helicopter. Then, the reporter included the same person as was in the SOT for 6 p.m. describing the collapse. They also talked to the owner of the racetrack and a fire department member who was on the scene to complete the story. Again, I thought this was phenomenal coverage for a Saturday night.

For my reporting this week, I went to Marshall yesterday on short notice to investigate a report of a minister arrested for statutory sodomy. It was a pretty serious story and I think I did a pretty good job on it. I first talked with the chief of police in Marshall and he gave me the information he had at the time. I got a good bite from him on how he is "glad" the bond was set so high, at $250,000, for this man. Then, I went hunting for some people who knew the man, David Ballinger. The police chief was finally able to locate the former location of his church on the town square. I went to the location, which had for sale signs in the window, and got some shots. I then went next door to a loan business and talked with two very friendly employees there. They said they were shocked at the news. They said they saw him nearly everyday and never expected this. I talked with one of them on camera for my story and she helped greatly to humanize it. The ladies then gave me a tip of the new church location, a few minutes away. I drove out there and found the new location complete with a sign of the "New Grace Baptist Church," which I was looking for to prove visually that this church did actually exist. I got my interviews and then shot a quick standup on the square. I was trying to make it back to get a SOT on the 6 so I shot my standup fast. I ended up calling some information in for a reader and graphic of a mug shot of the suspect for the 5 and 6. I didn't quite make it back for the 6 p.m. show to get a SOT on, so I started to work on a package for 10 p.m. I wasn't able to work my standup in with the way I wrote my story. I thought it didn't matter so much in this case because I had enough other good video. This story was a very good learning experience and I feel better prepared for other tough stories because of it.

Creating Change

We heard all about change during President Obama's campaign. It was the slogan used on almost everything Obama-related. T-shirts, rally signs, lecterns, buttons, posters and stickers all promised "change" if Obama was elected president. In this week's New Yorker political scene podcast, some of the writers investigate how Obama is now going about changing some relations with other countries.

It's a usual lively and fast-paced discussion by three New Yorker writers that keeps your attention throughout the 12 minute podcast. The "moderator," New Yorker executive editor, Dorothy Wickenden, doesn't waste any time getting into the topic. She gets right into a SOT of Obama addressing Iran on March 20. It's a striking statement about how the United States wants Iran to take it's "rightful place in the community of nations." It's something simple that gets dissected further by the New Yorker writers. It's something President Bush could have said and not much attention may have been paid to it, but it prompts the New Yorker writers to see if there is something more here with Obama.

Wickenden brings in great insight from New Yorker writer John Lee Anderson, who had just been in Iran and wrote an article on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He says this statement from Obama was significant because it was made on the eve of Iran's new year, which shows great respect towards the Iranian people. It's that respect, Anderson explains, that is what Iranians want from America. He says respect is a touchstone of new diplomacy between the nations.

The podcast discussion continues as the writers discuss international relations between Russia, Afghanistan and Iran. There is also a discussion of Obama's budget resolutions that are passing through Congress. New Yorker Washington reporter Ryan Lizza explains that Congress is being more cautious with what Obama is proposing on matters such as health care. It may be that change is coming slower, but it appears it still coming from Obama.

I had a very active week with my reporting. I had two VO Patrols and a reporting shift since my last lab a week ago.

On Wednesday, I had a VO Patrol for the 10 p.m. news. I came in with three story ideas, but producer Lisa Russell handed me a story to do that Stacey gave her. It was a fundraising event by Mizzou's Air Force ROTC at Wal-Mart on Conley Road. It was a fairly easy assignment and was the "kicker" for the 10 p.m. newscast. I was at Wal-Mart at about 6:15 p.m. I was a little worried that management at Wal-Mart may not let me shoot on the property, but I just started shooting and ran into no problems during the night. I got all kinds of shots of the cadets doing push-ups to raise money for the Relay For Life. It was a story that provided for many great shooting opportunities and natural sound. I got low angles, high angles and close-ups of the cadets' tired faces as they did hundreds of push-ups. I started off my VO with natural sound of the cadets counting off some of the push-ups after Angie read an intro on cam. Then, after the VO, I had a SOT with one of the cadets. He explained how this was "their thing" to do to raise money instead of doing a bake sale or something. I think that was a good way to understand the meaning for the cadets being out there.

The next night, I ran into some breaking news. As I was heading out the station for another VO Patrol for the 10 p.m. news, I saw that the road was blocked off at the roundabout at Old 63 and Bearfield Road. As I got closer, I saw there was a pretty bad accident. A Columbia Transit bus had run over top of a car waiting at the roundabout, crushing the driver's side of the car. I immediately called the station to find out if they knew about the accident. They said they did not and I parked my car to talk with people on the scene watching. I got a call back from the station a few minutes later that they were going to send a camera out to me and the crash would be my VO Patrol assignment for the night. I really had to think on my feet now and use all the knowledge from my journalism classes to be able to report all that I could find out about this crash. I talked with passenger on the bus that were standing around after the accident. I asked them what happened and how the bus hit the car. One person said the bus was probably going too fast. Another person said they thought the bus hydroplaned. I wrote down this information in my notebook and got their names. Alex showed up with the camera a few minutes later and I rolled almost as soon as he got it out of the car. It was a pretty dramatic shot of a car pinned beneath a bus. Almost as soon as I started shooting, a man from the Columbia Fire Department came over and identified himself as the public information officer (PIO) and told me I had to stay a certain distance away from the scene. That wasn't a problem, as I still had a clear view of the activity of trying to rescue the man from inside the car. The PIO was very helpful and kept giving me updates on the man trapped inside the car, saying he was conscious and that they were planning on towing the bus off the car so that rescue workers could get to the man. After about 45 minutes, the man was finally pulled out of the car. I shot rescue workers putting him on a stretcher and the stretcher being wheeled into the ambulance. Not long after that, the PIO came over to myself and the other reporters for an interview about the information he had gathered so far. He basically explained the timeline of events and the condition of the victim first. Then, I asked him if this was an especially difficult rescue for the fire department. He said it was "complex" because it required bringing in tow trucks to lift the bus off of the car. I ended up using this SOT because it explained the unusual nature of the accident better than just him stating facts about the accident. It humanized the story, if only a little bit.

For my first reporting shift, I did a story on a bond issue in the North Callaway School District. Randy assigned the story to me in the morning and I made calls to the superintendent and to the high school. I was able to set up interviews with the superintendent and a teacher at the high school. I headed out to Kingdom City about 10 a.m. and was able to get my shooting done by noon. I shot some video of the teacher and his classroom in a trailer after I interviewed him. He was going to be my CCC so I shot lots of B-roll of him teaching in his trailer. My main focus of the story is that teachers will be able to move out of the trailers and back into the main school building if the bond passes. I talked with the teacher about how teaching is different in a trailer. He had some good bites and I think the package for the 6 turned out well. I also did a VOSOT for the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows.