Who: Editor and Reporter for Corvallis Gazette Times, Bennett Hall
What: Speaks to a Journalism class
Where: Linn-Benton Community College
When: May 24, 2010
Why: To give insight and teach a few things about investigative reporting
Bennett Hall is an investigative reporter and editor for the Corvallis Gazette Times newspaper. Through his many years of experience, Hall was generous to be a guest and share some insight from his career to some college students at Linn-Benton Community College. (link to Rob Priewe who teaches Journalism at LBCC)
Three important things that have stood out for me from Hall's visit is that, one, the power of the press has the ability to speak for the "unheard voices" of the community and perhaps change the law. The second thing I learned is that a "paper trail" is a very useful source for a reporter. And the third is simply this; do not use anonymous sources and do not allow "off the record" conversations to be acceptable.
From the investigative work and news stories of Hall, and other reporters, renters of the communities are finally getting their voices heard. A newspaper in Salem had a headline that read "Lawmakers Hear Proposal to Change Landlord-tenant Laws." This is due to renters who feel as though landlords are charging fees that should be illegal and are not. Fees, for example, like charging $200 for changing locks that never get changed, yet the landlord still keeps the money.
I think investigative reporting is great for the community. Like I said before, reporters are the voices of those who don't get heard. There are a lot of people who take advantage of others and sometimes we all need someone who can see the bigger picture of what is happening. How else do we know that these crimes are repeating if no one is keeping track?
Paper trails are very common for any reporter and become a very useful source for cross-checking a news story to make sure all the facts are, well, facts. Cross-checking paper-trails is also useful for when a reporter has a person who won't talk about a certain subject. A reporter may always find a hundred more stories that come out of one story that has many paper-trails.
A person can ask a question and get a straight answer for the question asked, however, do you notice that a lot of the time, even with the one question being answered, that a couple more questions spring up out of the answer? That is kind of what paper trails, or interviews, will do for reporters.
The third, and probably most important, is do not use anonymous sources or allow anything to be spoken "off the record". The most common reason not to use an anonymous source is because there is no credibility for the reader as to what is being read can be determined as true. For all the reader knows, the sentence in the news story was the writers opinion and not a fact.
As far as "off the record" commentary goes, throw it away before the speaker speaks. Let the person know who is being interviewed that what he or she is about to say and wants off the record is trash to you and you would rather not hear it. It sounds like a shocker, or a rude gesture, but it makes you more proffessional about your work and most of the time something at the tip of someone's tongue will need to come out and they will say, "Ok then you can write it then" and spill their guts out from anticipation.
So what can we learn from Bennett Hall? We learn that the press has the power to change laws based on the voice of citizens, paper trails are great for covering facts and digging up extra news stories, and, most importantly, to discard anonymous sources and "off the record" information.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
LBCC Parenting Education receives a $90,000 grant through Oregon Parenting Educatiion Collaborative.
Who: The Linn-Benton Community College Parenting Education Hub
What: Recieves a grant for $90,000 a year for the next three years through the Oregon Community Foundation and the Oregon Planning Education Collaborative.
Where:Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon
When: 2011
Why: To provide funding for faculty while providing more parenting and daycare education, as well as expanding services provided through LBCC's Family Connections.
The Linn-Benton Community College Parenting Education Hub is receiving a grant of $90,000 a year for the next three years from The Oregon Community Foundation (O.C.F.) through The Oregon Planning Education Callaborative.
The $90,000 a year grant will help LBCC's Parenting Education Program with funding needed for faculty, support additional parenting educational classes, and provide training and resources for parent educators; including major curriculum training and annual workshops. The grant will also give the ability to move services out into the rural communities that don't have parenting and education services.
"The grant is giving us the ability to do more of what we already do. We do a lot of collaborations with different groups and counties that serve the same purposes such as parenting education classes," said Cyrel Gable who is a faculty member at the LBCC's Family Resources and Parenting Education Hub.
LBCC's Parenting Education and Family Connections departments function as a parenting education hub for the Linn and Benton region, focusing on services to parents with children who are six and under.
According to Cyrel Gable, the hub does four main things;
*One is that they will be working with all the other organizations that revolve around serving parents to collectively see what the needs are of the parents in regions and if they are meeting the needs. The first step requires coordination of pulling everyone together.
"East Linn County in particular doesn't have as good of connections with the parents in the community like the Linn and Benton counties do and we have not had the funding in the past to better serve the rural areas." explained Gable. "The grant will allow a way to collect the other rural communities and connect us all together."
*The money left over from the first step will be used for setting up classes, which are either parent only or parent and child together only, that will result from the collaborated ideas from the rural communities. Classes will be for parents and their children of ages six and under to teach parent and toddler education.
"We are wanting to add more classes. We hope to add four to six the first year, six to eight the second, and so on." said Gable
The grant money doesn't add more staff positions, but allows the part-time staff to become full-time.
*The third step is to create a web site.
"We are to create a centralized information source for all parenting advice and oppurtunities." explained Gable.
The web site will show all the classes and information that every town has and not just what the LBCC college campus provides.
*The fourth step is to provide additional support and education for the educators and day care providers. The parenting hub would like to create a workshop that provides a major training in one of the curriculums, although they are not sure what the focus will be yet.
LBCC's Family Connections department will maintain being a centralized information and referral resource for parenting education oppurtunities and as a resource for getting daycare referrals.
Family Connections not only serves families with information on quality child care, a parenting advice line, and a source for information about available family support groups, but they also serve child care providers with information on how to start and manage a child care business, provides referrals from parents looking for child care, and provide training opportunities.
"The hub is in support of parenting education and does not care which organization is delivering the services needed.' explained Cyrel Gable, "If hub can link a need of a parent to another organization that can better help that parent then we will give them all the information about who can better help, or provide a certain service."
If you are a parent, or parent educator, who would like to see what resources are available in your community, or if you would like to know how you may help, you can contact them at the Linn-Benton Community College at 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W. in Albany OR. You can also give them a call at (541) 917-4999.
What: Recieves a grant for $90,000 a year for the next three years through the Oregon Community Foundation and the Oregon Planning Education Collaborative.
Where:Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon
When: 2011
Why: To provide funding for faculty while providing more parenting and daycare education, as well as expanding services provided through LBCC's Family Connections.
The Linn-Benton Community College Parenting Education Hub is receiving a grant of $90,000 a year for the next three years from The Oregon Community Foundation (O.C.F.) through The Oregon Planning Education Callaborative.
The $90,000 a year grant will help LBCC's Parenting Education Program with funding needed for faculty, support additional parenting educational classes, and provide training and resources for parent educators; including major curriculum training and annual workshops. The grant will also give the ability to move services out into the rural communities that don't have parenting and education services.
"The grant is giving us the ability to do more of what we already do. We do a lot of collaborations with different groups and counties that serve the same purposes such as parenting education classes," said Cyrel Gable who is a faculty member at the LBCC's Family Resources and Parenting Education Hub.
LBCC's Parenting Education and Family Connections departments function as a parenting education hub for the Linn and Benton region, focusing on services to parents with children who are six and under.
According to Cyrel Gable, the hub does four main things;
*One is that they will be working with all the other organizations that revolve around serving parents to collectively see what the needs are of the parents in regions and if they are meeting the needs. The first step requires coordination of pulling everyone together.
"East Linn County in particular doesn't have as good of connections with the parents in the community like the Linn and Benton counties do and we have not had the funding in the past to better serve the rural areas." explained Gable. "The grant will allow a way to collect the other rural communities and connect us all together."
*The money left over from the first step will be used for setting up classes, which are either parent only or parent and child together only, that will result from the collaborated ideas from the rural communities. Classes will be for parents and their children of ages six and under to teach parent and toddler education.
"We are wanting to add more classes. We hope to add four to six the first year, six to eight the second, and so on." said Gable
The grant money doesn't add more staff positions, but allows the part-time staff to become full-time.
*The third step is to create a web site.
"We are to create a centralized information source for all parenting advice and oppurtunities." explained Gable.
The web site will show all the classes and information that every town has and not just what the LBCC college campus provides.
*The fourth step is to provide additional support and education for the educators and day care providers. The parenting hub would like to create a workshop that provides a major training in one of the curriculums, although they are not sure what the focus will be yet.
LBCC's Family Connections department will maintain being a centralized information and referral resource for parenting education oppurtunities and as a resource for getting daycare referrals.
Family Connections not only serves families with information on quality child care, a parenting advice line, and a source for information about available family support groups, but they also serve child care providers with information on how to start and manage a child care business, provides referrals from parents looking for child care, and provide training opportunities.
"The hub is in support of parenting education and does not care which organization is delivering the services needed.' explained Cyrel Gable, "If hub can link a need of a parent to another organization that can better help that parent then we will give them all the information about who can better help, or provide a certain service."
If you are a parent, or parent educator, who would like to see what resources are available in your community, or if you would like to know how you may help, you can contact them at the Linn-Benton Community College at 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W. in Albany OR. You can also give them a call at (541) 917-4999.
America the Consumerist; Who is really making the luxuries we buy?
YouTube: Something To Hide
American super stores are hiding the real labor that goes into making the materials consumerist buy. The truth is this; every toy and piece of clothing parents buy for their children, every materialistic thing a house contains, and most everything you see that is not made in America is probably being made in a sweatshop in another country by the hands of a child.
YouTube; Something to Hide is one of many videos trying to exploit this truth and get consumerist to realize we can stop this. We don't have to throw luxery out the window, but we should watch ourselves to make sure we are not buying irrelevant, useless, expensive things no one really needs.
American super stores are hiding the real labor that goes into making the materials consumerist buy. The truth is this; every toy and piece of clothing parents buy for their children, every materialistic thing a house contains, and most everything you see that is not made in America is probably being made in a sweatshop in another country by the hands of a child.
YouTube; Something to Hide is one of many videos trying to exploit this truth and get consumerist to realize we can stop this. We don't have to throw luxery out the window, but we should watch ourselves to make sure we are not buying irrelevant, useless, expensive things no one really needs.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Drawing of Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan
Portrait of Kay Ryan , Poet Laureate drawn by Colleen Hamilton from when Kay visited and spoke at the Linn-Benton Community College in May of 2010.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Three Things I have Learned from Edna Buchanan
Who; Edna Buchanan
What: Edna's book "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face"
Where: Miami, Florida
When: Copyright 1987
Why: Edna's book covers real stories while working police beat. Motivational book for journalists.
Would you like some great insight on what it takes to be a hard core news reporter working the police beat? Edna Buchanan's memoir "The Corpse Had A Familiar Face" is a book about a news reporter telling her true stories while working the police beat in Miami, Florida for The Miami Herald. Reading Edna's book has given me an idea of not only what it takes to be a woman reporter, but that stories in newspapers can save lives and even change the law.
Three valuable lessons I have learned from reading Edna's memoir is, one, that a reporter must be persistent and not let discouragement loose track of his or her focus. Two, the press can change the law and solve, or expose, a lot of crimes better than most cops from their stories. And three, everyone is human and has a story to tell.
Being persistant about stories means talking to everyone, turning over every rock for clues, and not taking "NO" for an answer the first four times. For a woman reporter one may have to be a little more confidant and persistant. A couple quotes from Edna's book, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face", I would like to bring up are as follows:
"Police reporters deal with lives, reputations, and careers. So you keep on-- ask one more question, knock on one more door, make one last call and then another. It could be the one that counts."
"A woman in my occupation has to convince the cops that she is not a woman. You want them to think of you as a confdante, a proffessional who will always be fair, or if nothing else, a piece of furniture, someone they are so used to seeing that they forget you are there. And you don't mix business with pleasure."
With everyone's reputation at stake, as well as your own, a reporter should always be on top of their stories and not let authorities shoo them away like a fly. Be a fly on the wall that won't leave. It is the freedom of the press after all.
Being that fly on the wall gives the press the ability to change the law and at times solve crimes
and find missing people better than some police work can. Quotes in stories can put people in jail that may have walked if not for the press. Families with unsolved cases of missing, or murdered kids, end up finding some sort of closure from reporter's investigative work.
Gender does matter to a certain point. Most men in the newspaper business take home higher salaries than women, so as a woman I would suggest working harder than the men and being more efficient like Edna Buchanan is.
A few examples from Edna's book include:
"That issue was later covered in depth by the Herald, and subsequently, new legislation required background checks and liscensing for all guards."
Another way the Press can keep our government in tact, wouldn't you think?
A story of how Edna put someone behind bars:
"We get a lot of subpoenas. Herald lawyers usually have them quashed. It is not good policy for reporters to testify. But this time was different; this guy may actually walk. All I would swear to was the accuracy of what I wrote."....."I testified that I was wearing press identification carrying a reporters notebook, and had identified myself to him as a reporter. He did not think I was a cop. So, although his formal confession to police was ruled out--his comment to me was not."
The following quote from the book bothers me. I wonder what would have happened to this girl if it wasn't for Edna's reporting heart? Would the family have ever found the suspect?
"Albert Brust had kidnapped a runaway couple. He killed and decapitated the boy, put the corpse in the bathtub and covered it with cement. He raped and tortured the girl for days, then took her to Fort Lauderdale and set her free. She went straight to the police. They did not believe her outlandish story and sent her back home to Indiana. She was fifteen."
Reading parts like this in her book make me sit and wonder who is actually cleaning up the streets in our communities? The police, or the press? The press exposes dirty cops and then make them do their job at times. Has Miami cleaned up so much since the 70's because of reporters like Edna Buchanan? I would say so.
The third important thing I have learned from Edna's book is that everyone is human, and everyone has a story even if they say they are a "nobody". The quote I will use from Edna's book to portray an example is this;
"During my second year at the Herald I covered criminal court, another beat where a reporter can mine for gold. You meet the cops, the crooks, the judges, the bondsmen and the lawyers: the good guys, the bad guys, and the majority of who are a mix of both. You see more honest-to-God drama, intrigue, and acting in a criminal courtroom than you will ever find on any stage. Award winning performances: so many stories, so little time."
I hope this blog of mine has given some insight for those who are considering covering the police beat. I suggest reading Edna Buchanan's memoir, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face". It is not all about murder and seeing if you have a strong stomach. It is about how you can change laws, save lives, and solve mysteries by being a reporter and using the lovely Freedom of the Press standards. The modern super hero. It is encouraging to read about a woman who successfully does not take "NO" for an answer....ever.
What: Edna's book "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face"
Where: Miami, Florida
When: Copyright 1987
Why: Edna's book covers real stories while working police beat. Motivational book for journalists.
Would you like some great insight on what it takes to be a hard core news reporter working the police beat? Edna Buchanan's memoir "The Corpse Had A Familiar Face" is a book about a news reporter telling her true stories while working the police beat in Miami, Florida for The Miami Herald. Reading Edna's book has given me an idea of not only what it takes to be a woman reporter, but that stories in newspapers can save lives and even change the law.
Three valuable lessons I have learned from reading Edna's memoir is, one, that a reporter must be persistent and not let discouragement loose track of his or her focus. Two, the press can change the law and solve, or expose, a lot of crimes better than most cops from their stories. And three, everyone is human and has a story to tell.
Being persistant about stories means talking to everyone, turning over every rock for clues, and not taking "NO" for an answer the first four times. For a woman reporter one may have to be a little more confidant and persistant. A couple quotes from Edna's book, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face", I would like to bring up are as follows:
"Police reporters deal with lives, reputations, and careers. So you keep on-- ask one more question, knock on one more door, make one last call and then another. It could be the one that counts."
"A woman in my occupation has to convince the cops that she is not a woman. You want them to think of you as a confdante, a proffessional who will always be fair, or if nothing else, a piece of furniture, someone they are so used to seeing that they forget you are there. And you don't mix business with pleasure."
With everyone's reputation at stake, as well as your own, a reporter should always be on top of their stories and not let authorities shoo them away like a fly. Be a fly on the wall that won't leave. It is the freedom of the press after all.
Being that fly on the wall gives the press the ability to change the law and at times solve crimes
and find missing people better than some police work can. Quotes in stories can put people in jail that may have walked if not for the press. Families with unsolved cases of missing, or murdered kids, end up finding some sort of closure from reporter's investigative work.
Gender does matter to a certain point. Most men in the newspaper business take home higher salaries than women, so as a woman I would suggest working harder than the men and being more efficient like Edna Buchanan is.
A few examples from Edna's book include:
"That issue was later covered in depth by the Herald, and subsequently, new legislation required background checks and liscensing for all guards."
Another way the Press can keep our government in tact, wouldn't you think?
A story of how Edna put someone behind bars:
"We get a lot of subpoenas. Herald lawyers usually have them quashed. It is not good policy for reporters to testify. But this time was different; this guy may actually walk. All I would swear to was the accuracy of what I wrote."....."I testified that I was wearing press identification carrying a reporters notebook, and had identified myself to him as a reporter. He did not think I was a cop. So, although his formal confession to police was ruled out--his comment to me was not."
The following quote from the book bothers me. I wonder what would have happened to this girl if it wasn't for Edna's reporting heart? Would the family have ever found the suspect?
"Albert Brust had kidnapped a runaway couple. He killed and decapitated the boy, put the corpse in the bathtub and covered it with cement. He raped and tortured the girl for days, then took her to Fort Lauderdale and set her free. She went straight to the police. They did not believe her outlandish story and sent her back home to Indiana. She was fifteen."
Reading parts like this in her book make me sit and wonder who is actually cleaning up the streets in our communities? The police, or the press? The press exposes dirty cops and then make them do their job at times. Has Miami cleaned up so much since the 70's because of reporters like Edna Buchanan? I would say so.
The third important thing I have learned from Edna's book is that everyone is human, and everyone has a story even if they say they are a "nobody". The quote I will use from Edna's book to portray an example is this;
"During my second year at the Herald I covered criminal court, another beat where a reporter can mine for gold. You meet the cops, the crooks, the judges, the bondsmen and the lawyers: the good guys, the bad guys, and the majority of who are a mix of both. You see more honest-to-God drama, intrigue, and acting in a criminal courtroom than you will ever find on any stage. Award winning performances: so many stories, so little time."
I hope this blog of mine has given some insight for those who are considering covering the police beat. I suggest reading Edna Buchanan's memoir, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face". It is not all about murder and seeing if you have a strong stomach. It is about how you can change laws, save lives, and solve mysteries by being a reporter and using the lovely Freedom of the Press standards. The modern super hero. It is encouraging to read about a woman who successfully does not take "NO" for an answer....ever.
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