The News Behind the News
There are many ways to hear what’s happening in your community and around the world. These include watching the T.V.
, reading it in the newspaper, and looking it up on your phone or computer. When you hear or read something in the news (whether you realize it or not) you automatically believe everything in the news story is true, unbiased, and no information is withheld from you. That’s the true definition of trust, but should you really trust them? People are naturally biased, but true facts should not be lied about. What has driven the news to the point of lying? They withdraw information the public has the right to know. Now this might not sound bad, but imagine this: Someone has shot and killed another person at the mall. You’d put the blame on the man that killed the other.
He’d automatically become the villain and you’d hate that individual. Now imagine the information they withheld from you was that the man was a father who shot the other man when he tried to abduct his child. When he warned the man to stop he pulled out a knife and held it against his child’s throat forcing the father to pull out his concealed hand gun and shoot him. This little bit of information changes the whole story and how you perceive it. The example above wasn’t a true story but there are some out there. In a journalism class at High Ridge High School a man came from a press company to give the students an idea of what it was like being a reporter and too interview the class and the teacher, George Balton, over how the class was going, how it worked, and how the students felt about the class.
When the man left, the students talked about how they felt about him. One of the students, Cathlyn Hickerbottoms, said, “I felt as though he wasn’t very professional and didn’t know what he was doing.” Many students in the class thought his biggest mistake was not taking very many notes. He even showed the class his notepad and explained that he only wrote down a few words or phrases. The proof of this mistake was proven when the newspaper article the class had been eagerly waiting for came out. They were all shocked and disappointed that the article was nothing like they were expecting.
His information was not completely correct and he misquoted the teacher many times throughout the article. When Mr. Balton was asked about how he felt about the fact that they misquoted him he replied, “I felt worried because they said this was the first Journalism class at High Ridge High School and it wasn’t. I didn’t want to get into trouble with the Super Attendant or the Principle.” He also told a student, “I think sometimes these different organizations have their own agenda so they don’t always tell the truth.
” Because of this one reporters mistake he could have gotten into a lot of trouble because the school would think that he lied to the press company. Lucky enough the teacher did not get into any trouble. Another story shows just how biased the news station and reporters really can be.A woman was late picking up her daughter, Haley Rossum, because Haley’s older sister, Samantha, had to take the driving portion of the drivers test. The mother was worried because it was after 3 o’clock and school had ended.
She didn’t want her daughter to worry and think something bad had happened or that they simply were not going to pick them up, so she called the school to explain that they might be a little late. The school said it was fine and that her daughter would be there when they went to get her. After the mother, Harrah, the brother, Tommy, and the daughter Samantha, left the park they went up to the school, dropped Samantha off for band practice, and then went to pick up Haley. She wasn’t outside and there was still a line of cars there so the mother couldn’t go in to get her because that would hold up the line so she asked Tommy to go get her. This is where the news story began to become biased, lie, and not tell the complete truth. According to the news he went into the school, tried to leave with the girl, and wouldn’t stop until a SRO (School Resource Officer) threatened to use a taser on him.
When he was leaving they describe him walking her out of the school with his hands around her neck and creeply telling her “It’s time to go”. Though some of this is true the news still did the three things they shouldn’t.The brother didn’t have his hands around her neck and the news made it sound as if he was trying to kidnap her. He also never said it was time to go. They made him sound like a very creepy and distrustful person when they should have just stated the facts.
His hands were never around her throat. They were placed right below the base of her neck on her back gently guiding her to the mother waiting in the car. He wasn’t choking and dragging her outside like the news made it seem like. What really happened was that he went inside and before he left they asked him to sign a check out sheet. He wasn’t trying to check her out he just wanted to bring her to her mother in the car line but he did anyways and as soon as he got to the door they said that he needed and ID.
He replied back saying that he didn’t have one and started to leave. Haley said, “I didn’t want to struggle because I didn’t want them to think I was really getting kidnapped. I told them multiple times that he was my brother but they never seemed to listen.” This is no lie, he did ignore the school staff we they tried to stop him. When he finally got outside the officers got to him and told him to stop. He told the officers multiple times to get his hands off him but the officer didn’t listen.
He never did say he was under arrest at that point in time. Finally Tommy got tired of the SRO touching him so he pushed him against a tree. The second one came around and finally said the words ‘You are under arrest’ and he complied and let the arrest him. They never threatened to use the Taser him and he never resisted arrest but they ended up trying to charge him with resisting arrest. The only thing he did was make the officers mad. The mother said, “I was so scared.
It happened all right in front of me and I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t know they would do this. About a week ago he went to pick her up and they asked her if she recognized the car. She said no until he rolled down the window and she saw her brother. That day the school didn’t ask him for an ID. If I would have known this would have happened I wouldn’t have sent him in.
The times I pick up Samantha they don’t ask for my ID either but I bring it just in case. They were going to get him on kidnapping charges but I put a stop to that. I went to visit him and they said I could bond him out. The next day when my boyfriend went to bond Tommy out they said we couldn’t. I don’t understand why the lied to us the first time.
I feel the news is making the school sound better than they need to be or maybe they just want to change the story so they can have an article that sounds better than it wouldhave originally sounded.” They never did show the video from the police car. The news is making the family sound worse than they are and the school better than they are but the reason behind it probably won’t come up. Though you might think the news is a wonderful way to hear what going on around you think again. Some of the stories might be true but don’t ever trust what you see or hear fully.
The only real way you can get the full true story is seeing it yourself or hearing it from someone that has seen it firsthand. For now though we have to continue relying on the news. Mabey one day they’ll change and begin telling more of the truth and from an unbiased perspective but for now only time will tell.
