I Have The Face Of A Reporter

Do crime reporters face death threats?

Sure, some of them do in fact possibly experience this event. It would involve the reporters ability to print a story or news that would substantially endanger the bad guy and the possibility that the reporter will on fact publish those facts. In my many years as a prosecutor, I have known several reporters that have had —and published— articles that directly indicated a specific individual in a homicide. Several reporters indicated that they were threatened —real or imaginary— as a result of their acts. I got this info in questions from the reporters about the chances that the bad guy would actually try to carry out the threat.Thankfully, to my knowledge, none of those threats ever came to fruition.

What helps court reporters to keep a straight face?

We were given a class in school on how to distance ourselves from the case. You know how you can be driving home in the car and all of a sudden you’re on your street but you don’t really recall driving there? You’re thinking of other things and driving automatically. A court reporter can do that when s/he’s working. We’ll be stroking the machine but thinking about lunch or what’s happening later at home. We kind of zone out when we want to but the words are getting taken down nonetheless.Another method we use when the testimony is heartbreaking or gruesome, is we concentrate on stroking the words out perfectly. This takes concentration and we focus on individual words, even parts of words, rather than the content.There are always moments when something will hit home. It is very important to keep a straight face. If I give a roll of the eyes or a ‘tsk look’ at the defendant, it could influence the jury because they think I ‘know things’ that they don’t…and I often do because I’ve been privy to the pre-trial hearings where matters are discussed that cannot be discussed in front of a jury.One time a little boy’s testimony was getting to me and I knew I was going to start tearing up. Without making any noticeable distraction, I quietly moved my chair so that I was not facing the jury. We do what we can. We are human.

What risk does an investigative reporter face in their career?

An investigative reporter do not write to please individuals or companies. On the contrary, he/she is always looking for hidden informations, that most of people dont want to share with the world. That said, you can imagine how risky is to infuriate some powerful and authoritative men and women. Frequently, this kind of journalist is threatened and suffers acts of aggression.

What newsroom pressures do reporters face that shape reporting of the news? I'm particularly interested in economics and racial attitudes.

In general, the three pressures reporters face the most in covering any story are:1)Time. Production quotas, explicit or implicit, mean getting a story posted quickly. Competitive pressures are even worse, because there are no news cycles. A dozen or a hundred or a thousand other news organizations may be preparing to publish the same story right this second. None of the above helps accuracy, detail, context or due diligence as to the reliability of sources.2) Measurability. Until awards season in the spring, journalistic success is mainly measured in clicks. This creates an environment where clickbait headlines, drama, simple narratives, scandal, conventional wisdom and unfounded assumption can — and often do — trump patience, perspective, caution, complexity, sensitivity, accuracy, fairness, depth and basic newsworthiness. A grisly murder may have little impact on the worldm except to the victim and his/her circles, but will get attention while crucial (and often corrupt) decisions are being made by public official with no journo-scrutiny whatsoever.3) Ignorance. It is really hard to address economic subjects, or scientific ones, or legal ones, or statistical ones if you have no background in these disciplines. Good reporters ask good questions and do their best to get it right, but you don’t know what you don’t know. This is equally true — maybe especially true — in matters of race. The best example I can think of was the O.J. verdict. So many white reporters were scratching their heads. How could the jury have fallen for that ridiculous defense theory?But very few black Americans wre mystified, because they had lifetimes of grim experience in being black in America.This is not to say anyone should be disquaified from covering race because they don’t have an ethnicity box checked. But we are all influenced by our own experiences and assumptions, so the onus is on the journalist to ask a lot of questions of a lot of people and be familar with a lot of literature before presuming to tell the public what is going on.

What are the problems journalists and reporters are facing in their line of work?

Two observations:1. With the shifting of the political landscape, journalists must stay current with the question of fairness. You’ve probably heard the expression, This is the new normal. Which of course means the normal is shifting today. So, if the normal moves to the left or right, do journalists shift with it? Or do they maintain the standards that obtained in the past. Example: In the old days, Clinton would have been considered pretty far to the right. If Clinton advocates for a smaller cut to entitlement programs than his Republican rivals, do journalists consider him right of center, as he would have appeared in the 60s, or left of center, as he appears in light of Reagan. Likewise, if Nixon advocates minimal domestic spending, does that make him mainstream, as he would look today, or center right as he looked then. So journalists not only have to know where the new normal is, they must also evaluate that new normal for its benefit to the country and its service to the constitution.2. Independent journalism comes under attack for being biased, politically motivated, sometimes outright fabricated. Hard facts and good evidence are no longer enough to persuade a mind indisposed to persuasion. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that journalists must not only find the difficult truth, now they must also persuade readers that objective truth exists, and that it has value outside of one’s agenda. This philosophical proposition—that objective truth exists—has never, so far as I know, formed any part of journalism’s reason for being. It’s a very tough job making the argument that truth exists while simultaneously reporting on crime rates or congressional voting.

Why do CNN have reporters standing in the rain, talking to other reporters, standing in the rain, about the rain, when covering a hurricane?

QUESTION: Why do CNN have reporters standing in the rain, talking to other reporters, standing in the rain, about the rain, when covering a hurricane?CNN (and other television news operations) has this idea that we won’t know it’s raining unless we see a reporter getting wet.I have the longtime print journo’s bias against TV news, engendered in part by years of having some arrogantly, mind-blindingly stupid walking cosmetic commercial from local TV horn in on my interviews with minicam and number-emblazoned microphone, but I can occasionally intellectually appreciate the idea there’s a way to do video journalism well — and it doesn’t involve the “talent” staring into the minicam with the station’s logo and sponsor prominently displayed while murdering the spoken language. I’ve seen wonderful video journalism which shows me the story and lets me hear the story from people involved in the story, with minimal narration and almost no face time from the “talent.” That’s where video journalism shines.But video journalism has long been about the “brand” — the station’s channel number prominently displayed on the microphone, the station’s logo prominently displayed on the reporter’s stylish rain jacket, the reporter’s face staring woodenly out at me while reading off a text I could have assimilated in half the time by reading it for myself.That means sending the reporter and minicam out when not necessary, to stand in front of something (in the case of one local station in my market, standing on the corner directly outside the station’s front door) and recite, and in the case of covering the weather, standing out in it — in all cases, obscuring what the video could have shown me by the reporter’s face.Or they just don’t have the sense to come in from the rain. Who knows with those folks?