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Where’s the News in that News Story?

February 26, 2008 at 11:20 am Leave a comment

Originally posted February 26, 2008

The story with the headline Students take car from auto body class on joyride from the Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008 online edition of the London Free Press seems to frame a story but suprisingly there are more questions than answers, leaving lingering doubts as to what really happened—so we took our questions directly to reporter Randy Richmond:

Dear Randy Richmond:

Re: your story: Students take car from autobody class on a joyride London Free Press, Thursday, January 24, 2008

Your readers deserve a better description of the event that covers the fundamental questions such as Who, What, Why, How and When.

How old were these students?

What were their names?

What was the name of their school?

What was the name of the teacher and principal and what did they have to say in reaction to the incident?

What kind of car was it?

What was the name of the street where the car crashed?

Why did they do it?

Have they done this sort of thing before?

How did they accomplish their feat without being detected?

What deterrents and consequences are in place to prevent such an incident from reoccurring?

These are clearly elementary questions that you have neglected to address. Lacking such basic details and information there is precious little in your piece that passes as a news story. With no illumination or examination it serves little community purpose.

To which Randy Richmond replied:

Neither police nor school board officials nor school officials are willing to give any of these details.

Trust me, I have tried to find out in the few short hours I had to work on this today.
Please don’t assume journalists are not doing their jobs simply because facts are missing in their stories.

But please, if you hear anything, let me know.

…well then maybe it wasn’t quite a news story yet. Without a news angle, without facts; then I should say, “No news is no news.”

Entry filed under: London Free Press, London Ontario, News & Views. Tags: London Free Press, London Ontario, News & Views.