Sunday, February 18, 2018

Journalism at Its Finest? 

   First let’s look at the headline of this new article filed by Nicholas Cardona and picked up by AOL news - - - 

 Neighbor of Shooting Range Tied to Trump Family: 
    What does “tied to” in this headline mean? It could be several things. The neighbor is an employee of the Trump family---the neighbor is a third cousin to someone named Trump---the neighbor once talked with a Trump family member. 
    So we have no idea how this neighbor is connected to someone named Trump, or if what the neighbor says is of any significance to this news article. 
    Next - - It states that Donald and Eric have “ties to a company that owns a shooting range”---it could mean that they own the company that owns the shooting range company - -it could mean that they own stock in the company - - it could mean that they once bought a candy bar from this company - -
    Next, Nicholas claims “that the AP is reporting that it looks like the Trumps acquired the property through limited liability companies.” So the AP is saying that it “looks like”---which tells me that the AP has no idea, and are too lazy to find out, but have just enough energy to publish this news article - investigative journalism this isn’t. 
    So, the news article tells us nothing substantive. But it does, I believe, try to leave the casual reader with the idea that the Trumps are operating a shooting range. And this right on the heels of the latest horrendous school shooting. Curious timing.
    The question here is, what is Nicholas trying to tell us with this news article? It could look like he is trying to get the name Trump and shooting range in the same thought, so the unsophisticated reader will come away saying, “Trump, shooting range, Wow!” and with the recent school shooting fresh in their minds, somehow get lodged in their heads the thought that the Trumps are probably complicit in the school shooting. 
    Or again, maybe it’s just plain sloppy journalism.