Every morning for the past week or so I've turned on the news and heard nothing but the same: AIG is evil. The bonuses are ridiculous. The company should be ashamed...ect.
While browsing on CNN.com, I ran into this story that I figured from the link title, "American has a new enemy" would be something interesting and new. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more of the same.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/20/pm.aig.obama/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
The story is certainly newsworthy, but when you have 24 hour news networks that have to fill their stations with the best stories every second of the day, you can run into some very serious problems. The article itself is pretty short but really, it doesn't say anything new. It has a few quotes from angry legislators and President Obama, but that's it. The same story has run in larger detail three of four times since Monday.
As journalists, we know there are thousands of stories that go uncovered each day. It is our job and public duty to do our best to find those stories. I hope CNN reporters keep that in mind so the next time they are on deadline they won't have to reproduce their same story for a fourth time in a week.
6th Feature-Paper Airplanes...
When I heard about this story I got so excited I had to cover it. A paper airplane contest sounded like just the story I needed to break away from the mold of the serious stories I have been doing since the semester began. On paper (literally) it was perfect: I could go and get pictures and sound of excited contestants with great designed airplanes. I was all excited....until I got there.
The contest was going on, but all of the sound I wanted was drowned out by an obnoxious music system and over modulated PA system. Furthermore, my story angle took a hit because Mizzou wasn't actually hosting the world-wide contest. MU was just a place for one of the local mid-west heats. After some thought I decided to make the most of the story anyways and get a few interviews of the winners as well as at least a little bit of usable sound.
For the first time ever this semester I finished with a story that I knew no matter how hard I tried, would still be a creme-puff, forgettable piece. It was a "fun piece" which is a nice way of saying it lacks a lot of what we want as a newsroom. My editor Janet still wanted me to run the story and even complemented me about "being able to make a lot out of a little."
I've learned my lesson. Stories aren't always what they seem to be and sometimes what you think will be there is not there at all. The key is to not lie about what actually occurred, because good writers can find other ways to boost interest of the story that don't involve false or sensationalized information.
MU Hosts Paper-Airplane Competition
Look in the sky it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a…paper airplane? Indeed it was, at the MU Recreation Complex last Thursday afternoon.
MU joined over 200 other US colleges competing against one another in Red Bull’s Paper Airplane Competition. Competitors from 85 countries now take part.MU Junior Mike Taylor was the first to compete and says his plane had a retro feel to it.
“I mean you know, pretty simple design. Old school design,” Taylor said. I wish I knew something different so that it would have gone farther.”
The competition included three stages: distance, air time, and aerobatics.
Students competing in the distance competition stood behind a “launch line” similar to the foul line in bowling. If competitors crossed any part of the line the attempt did not count.
MU student Daniel Hammon came in third while his roommate Jeffrey Lee won the distance competition with a throw of 89 feet.Lee’s throw was still 19 feet short of the mark needed to surpass the current record set by East Carolina University.Lee says the free Red Bull that he and his roommate won still gave him plenty of reason to celebrate.
“The six cases of Red Bull sure is great,” Lee said. “Actually with Daniel we have 15 cases total for our dorm.”
In the aerobatics competition each participant competed in front of three judges who scored the planes in paper quality, size, construction technique, and support material.
Paul Hamm won the aerobatics competition with a score of 93.3.Hamm says he admits his post-flight celebration was a little unnecessary.
“I mean I really didn’t need to do the back-flip part,” Hamm said. “But you know, I was excited.”
The top three pilots from each country will receive an all expense paid trip to Salzburg, Austria to compete in the world championships.
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