Reconsidering Rolling Stone's Reporting


According to the article, the Rolling Stone was just generally extremely sloppy in their reporting, fact-checking, editing, and pretty much in every aspect of the article. They failed to pursue every angle they could, as they could've saved themselves if they had bothered to report more thoroughly and interviewed everybody they could and attempted to get as much information as they possibly could. Though it makes sense that they would be more delicate with questioning the victim's truthfulness given the serious nature of the topic, it's ultimately more important that the article contains true information. Another big mistake they made in their retraction was that they blamed Jackie rather than taking responsibility and being accountable for their sloppy journalism. Journalists should learn from this experience how important it is to be extremely thorough and to pursue every lead possible in order to get the best and most accurate information possible. It's not worth it to be lazy at any point in the reporting process, as the reproductions are much worse than having to be a bit more persistent. Journalists should avoid pseudonyms, confront subjects with details, check derogatory information, and balance sensitivity to victims and the demands of verification. Though there is often a fine line between these guidelines, the priority of the journalist should always be to release the most thorough and accurate article possible. I agree with the article that the Rolling Stone should probably alter their procedures a bit, as they have a very high reputation to hold and it's most definitely not worth it to risk tarnishing it completely because their guidelines were too loose. Though I'd like to believe it was an isolated incident, the fact that pretty much every level of employees working on it made crucial mistakes shows that obviously something needs to change.

(im sorry this is so late, will not happen again <3) 

Current Events Quiz 5.1

1. The investigation of the shooting of the unarmed teen, David Joseph, by Austin police is significant because of how brief it was. According to Chief Acevedo, most cases similar to this take a year to two to process, while this one only took a month. This is quite suspicious and brought up concerns. To make the investigation of the shooter public, the accused officer must be suspended for at least a day. The police's options regarding the punishments for the case are to either schedule a disciplinary hearing, request more investigation, or exonerate him of any policy violations. People are unsure what's going to happen next.

2. A trend that is occurring occurring occurring now in the Latino community is people rushing to become citizens so that they can vote against Trump in the elections. This is pretty ironic, considering Trump is suggesting that most Latinos are illegal and not making an effort to become citizens. In the past, Obama has made it less difficult for legal immigrants to become citizens by making the fee available to be paid by credit card, offering the civics test online, and making applications easier to access. He's gotten a lot of backlash for doing this in the past, with people suggesting that he's trying to force people into becoming citizens so that they can vote democratically.

3. The Texas Railroad Commission is having issues because they don't have enough money, causing leaders to warn people that the federal government might be forced to take over. Since the commission receives about 75% of their budget from drilling activities, the slump in oil prices has significantly affected their budget negatively.

4. Obama ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff in the memory of the recently deceased former first lady, Nancy Reagan. Michelle Obama will attend the funeral on Friday, and this is appropriate because Obama feels like Michelle has had a positive impact on the American people and himself, similar to the way Nancy Reagan affected the country and Ronald Reagan. Nancy dedicated the past 15 years of her life being the "guiding force" of the Reagan Library.

5. Sports journalist Erin Andrews was victim to a stalker sneaking a nude video of her without her knowledge, which he released on the internet. The jury handling the case decided that Andrews should receive a 55 million dollar settlement, half of which is paid by the stalker and the other half split by the two companies who run the hotel she was staying at. Her parents delivered a testimony in which they discussed how scary it was for them and Andrews to not know who had shot the video and not knowing if they were still watching. The companies were disappointed with the verdict and suggested that the stalker should be soley to blame. Though I think the crime that the stalker committed was a horrible invasion of privacy and a form of sexual assault, I believe that he is the person who should suffer the consequences, as the hotel didn't really have anything to do with the crime. It seems like they are putting the blame on the companies as well in order to receive a greater settlement. 

6. The Supreme Court ruled that adoptions made by gay couples who move across state lines must be honored by states. The Alabama Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a lesbian woman couldn't visit her adoptive children in Georgia, but the Supreme Court reversed their desiscion.

Hannah Wright Yearbook Interview (Rough Draft) 



Hannah Wright has had a busy four years at McCallum, with her activities ranging from sports, music, visual art and high academic achievement, and she’s even the co-founder of the boardgame club!
Her musical interests have manifested in many different forms, with her being involved in concert band, marching band and orchestra. She plays oboe, drums, and was even Color Guard Lieutenant last year. Her four years as a band major have been one of her favorite parts of her time at McCallum, saying, “My most memorable experiences have definitely been in concert and marching band, because that’s where I’ve met some of my best friends and how I was able to meet a lot of people, and I’ve definitely found a family being in band”. One of her proudest accomplishments is being the first color guard and oboe drum major to come out of McCallum in a long time, which is very rare. On top of all of her musical and athletic achievements, she is currently the president of the McCallum chapter of the National Honor Society. She hopes to attend Trinity University in the fall and plans on double-majoring in Neuroscience and music. She feels like McCallum has definitely prepared her for that step, saying “the rigorous music program has been great, and all of my science teachers have created great ways to get people interested in what they’re doing, and can help you figure out what you want to do”. Looking back on her four years at McCallum, she says that if she could do anything differently, it would be to meet even more people and be involved in more activities. She cherishes her time spent in band and the McCallum community in general, saying, “The most memorable thing about McCallum for me has definitely been the people. It’s such an interesting community to be apart of, and I’ll never forget how welcoming and great people are here”.

Reaction to Rolling Stone Article

I thought the article was really well written, and remained relatively objective and just allowed the evidence to do the talking, which I appreciated. It gave a very important insight into the very complicated and heartbreaking system that takes place within universities while dealing with rape, and the writer very clearly portrayed how often this system works more in favor of the rapist rather than the victim. They also vividly gave the reader an idea of the intense emotional turmoil that victims go through, especially when dealing with the grueling process of reporting the assaults. The article also exposed the intense rape culture that is prevalent within so many universities, especially within fraternities. Though it was often very upsetting to read the disgusting things that so many fraternity brothers chant about women, it was extremely important that the author depicted how so many men degrade women so intensely, and that it's not just isolated incidents, it's an entire culture that is promoting this attitude toward women. 

Shattered Glass Extension Activity

1. Tom Kummer is an outlandish German magazine writer who claimed to interview extremely famous people such as Courtney Love, Brad Pitt, Pamela Anderson, and many others. In his interviews he was able to get almost unbelievably intimate information out of the generally private subjects he was interviewing, which gave him a lot of attention. But for the 6+ years he was at the magazine, none of his editors so much as asked for a tape of the interview. After Courtney Love's publicist had an article about her translated and fact checked, people discovered that he had been fabricating entire interviews and hadn't even met almost all of his subjects. After he had been caught, he defended himself by claiming that he makes art, not journalism, and excersizes what he calls "Borderline Journalism". He claimed that any competent editor should've realized that his stories were fabricated, and he has never apologized. He was later paid to take part in a documentary exposing him. He's now a tennis coach in L.A. 

2. Shattered Glass exposed a side of journalism to me that I had no idea existed. I didn't realize that the extensive fact checking that an article goes through before being published is almost entirely based off of the writer's notes, which creates the necessity for intense trust between the editor and his writers. The movie made me question if all of these supposedly prestigious magazines that everybody reads are always being honest or not. The journalistic profession obviously requires very good morals, and the ability to fight the urge to make a story more entertaining by fabricating details. It made me realize how important it is for a good journalist to value the truth. 

OPTION ONE: The Secret of His Success

1. At a staff meeting, Glass entertains his colleagues with a story about how he posed as a behavioral psychologist to investigate talk radio coverage of a Mike Tyson fight.

First off, in this scene we see how Glass seemed to completely revel in the attention and admiration he got from his co-workers when he told these entertaining story ideas. Even more odd though, is that he was lying and pretending to be a psychologist, which could definitely be foreshadowing for all of his deception in the future. It was a perfect example of the way he created a fantasy world in order to create a good story and get the attention that he wanted.

2. On a visit to his old high school, Glass tells a class of journalism students, "A great editor defends his writers. Against anyone. He stands up and fights for you."

The way that he's so insistent throughout the movie that the editor must ALWAYS stand up for the writer isn't extremely abnormal for a reporter, but given his situation it seems like it could definitely be foreshadowing. Him relying on his editor supporting him against anything is one of the biggest reasons that he thought that he could get away with making up lies. Using this logic was also the way that he gained sympathy from all of his co-workers and turned Chuck into the bad guy. Though an editor should support their writers, if others are skeptical of the merit of the writer's story, he or she should do the proper research to confirm the story's truthfulness no matter what the personal relationship is between the editor and the writer.

3. When a colleague chides Glass for compromising his career by applying to law school, Glass explains that he has to apply to make his parents happy.

This whole scene seemed a bit suspicious, as Glass acted very strangely when being questioned about law school and acted as if the decision was in no way up to him. This was an example of the way that Glass constantly victimized himself and gained sympathy from his co-workers. It was also an example of the way that he seemed to constantly blame other people for things when he was questioned, and turn others into the bad guy of the situation.

4. Glass offers to resign when it is discovered that he misreported a minor detail in a story about a hotel room orgy at a young conservatives convention.

I feel like there are two potential reasons why Glass decided to offer to resign at this point. On one hand, he could've suspected that all of his lies were being discovered and he was going to get caught for everything, so he was trying to avoid all of the trouble by resigning early in the process. I think the more likely scenario is that Glass was trying to pretend that he was extremely moral and had a lot of integrity by getting insanely upset about a potential minor inaccuracy. He probably thought that this kind of behavior would cause his editor to believe that he would be the last person to make up anything in a story.

5. After tearing apart an intern's story for poor reporting, Glass explains, "This is The New Republic, remember? Nothing slides here. If you don't have it cold, you don't turn it in. Ever."

Of course, after knowing about the way that Glass literally made up entire stories, this statement seems incredibly hypocritical. Him treating the intern like this and being so supposedly concerned with the integrity of the story could've been him trying to create a character for himself as a very moral writer.