WFLA Steve Andrews

Of all the field trips I’ve taken in my public affairs reporting class (and possibly all prior field trips in my life) the Steve Andrews made my little broadcast heart swell.


He began by explaining that most of his stories begin with a simple phone call. One such story began with a call about Florida State Attorney Harry Lee Coe and dog bets. When Andrews began his investigation into this claim, he was startled to hear that Coe ordered the records, which are to be available by law, destroyed. This is when any reporter would question themselves. Do I sue? Do I call the police? Does this make me part of the story? In the end Steve summed it up best, “A good citizen of the community would report the crime,” so they did. Governor Bush gave law enforcement the go ahead to investigate Coe and after a interview with Steve, Coe ended his own life. Steve and his partner found his body while investigating the story further. An interesting fact is that they filmed the scene as a security factor to back up what they found and when the police asked for the tape, Steve said no. The reason being that once the investigation is over, the film would become a public record and anyone could see it.

Steve is not an advocate of “dogging” journalism; his questions are quick, to the point and never disrespectful.

A second call got the ball rolling on a story about a reservoir in Hillsborough County that was cracking after just 3 years. Steve literally hopped into a helicopter and flew over the scene to inspect it himself, and when he returned to land he immediately began to search through construction records and found an underwater inspection video that really made the report gold.

What this means to me is that it’s not always the stories that I actively seek out that are the best ones. If I have to sit through hundreds of messages to find that one story, it’s worth it. Following up is also an important point; you can’t just report something then never speak of it again! You have to keep your audience informed.

AMPE AT POYNTER 2010 BUILDING MOMENTUM

MIDTERM ELECTION EVE OUTLOOK

The APME (Associated Press Managing Editors Association) begins its Thursday presentation a little after eight a.m. at the stunningly beautiful Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. The first panel is the Midterm Election Eve outlook moderated by AP Special Correspondent David Espo. Panelists are Matthew Corrigan, Political Science Professor at the University of North Florida, and John Bartosek, editor of Politifact.com at the St. Petersburg Times.


Espo spoke of the Democrat and Republican divide and the challenges that face Democrats in the election. He addressed the platforms of both parties and the tactics being employed by each side in order to reach and capture voters. Last week people saw an average 50 senate ads and “it’s moments like this that make you realize it’s time for the election to be over,” says Espo.

But what is causing Florida’s voting season to become so volatile and polluted? Corrigan blames the fact that Florida’s southern political history is meeting tremendous change with new populations transplanting here. He also addresses the fact that so often Florida is considered a “tossup” state in elections, something he says prior voting history proves as untrue. Republicans typically win, with the exception of the 2008 Presidential upset of Obama winning Florida’s vote.

Corrigan speaks of Marco Rubio’s Tea Party Republican bid and how he currently leads the polls. When asked what would become of Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek and Independent Charlie Crist, he believes that Meek could lose and still go on to a higher office at a later time. Crist, however, he isn’t quite sure about. How does the governor, who left his own party, lose the senate race and go on to new endeavors. Does he become a Democrat? The Republicans certainly wouldn’t support him if he came back to their party. Crists’ political future is really up in the air at the moment.

When asked about the future of the Tea Party movement, Corrigan thinks the party will continue to matter after the election. “The idea of a conservative government is really going to hold traction,” he said. In 2012 he believes we will see a repeat of 1964 where a conservative Republican party will be at odds with a moderate Republican party. Bartosek is concerned about what will become of the party because it doesn’t have a definite center for their platforms and there doesn’t seem to be a consistent unity of the party throughout the country.

Rick Scott with not speak to editorial boards citing that he would prefer to “talk to the people”. Bartosek explains that newspaper endorsements of candidates are still being done, they might help the candidates, but he does not really believe that these endorsements affect the general public’s opinion.

But what do people use to make their political decisions and where do they get their information? Corrigan believes that even with social networking, “good ‘ole tv ads make the decision.” Bartosek believes that people are reluctant to become engaged in the election and the ads are a last minute deciding factor along with word of mouth. Ten percent of voters decide their allegiance on the last day which leads to these ads being a huge factor.

What do they think of social media for candidates and its effect on younger generations? Its growth is HUGE. You see a more aggressive campaign and a further reaching one. Corrigan believes that Republicans really learned from their mistakes in the 2008 election and increased their use of social networks.

Governor Charlie Crist spoke to the APME conference and I think it best you let you watch for yourself. (Sorry for any shakes but honestly holding a Flip for 20 minutes straight is a challenge.)

Part One

  


Part Two



Kendrick Meek also spoke:



                                        VIDEO & MULTIMEDIA @ THE NEXT LEVEL

Joshua Trujillo, photojournalist at seattlepi.com started the panel discussion. He introduced himself as a “one man band” something every University of South Florida Mass Communications student has heard day after day. Trujillo spoke of using video to create grab frame images for print. He also considers himself a contrarian with the time investment of video. Taking video with an iphone for that instantaneous quality was also mentioned. Trujillo does question whether they are trying to reinvent a medium that has been in use for quite some time, even if it does have a low viewership.

Val Hallis spoke next about the importance of multimedia journalists. “One of the most important things you can do for your multimedia journalists is to TRAIN them,” Hallis explained. She shared many of the challenges she faced with her attempts to converge. Training and experience were stressed and she revealed that she taught herself how to edit video to stay with the times. If you know the software and have experience you will be efficient at turning out stories quickly. A final point? TIME IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

Danese Kenon staff photographer at the Indianapolis Star showed a piece in which she interviewed twenty two veterans with a two camera setup (Dslr’s and a Sony). The piece will air on a local station, also be available on their website and in print. The funding for the package? It sold for $35,000.



Schooled by a Librarian

I’ll be completely honest; I went into Thursday’s lecture thinking I would just get a summarization of everything I had learned up to this point. Cheryl McCoy proved my thoughts wrong and I came out of the lecture with valuable information.

In the two years I’ve been at USF, I can count the number of times I’ve used the libraries website on one hand. In the week since McCoy’s presentation I’ve used it too many times to count. Every public record we’ve learned to look for is available on a single page! The amount of time she put into this page is evident and appreciated. Links to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Clerk or Circuit Court and numerous others can all be found here.

It’s what we haven’t learned in prior classes that she’s made available that I truly find interesting.

Newspapers!


How clever am I, the broadcast news student that never actually thought to search newspapers for my profile project? It really never occurred to me; clearly McCoy came to my rescue. Not only does she have links to the St. Petersburg Times archives but also to the Tampa Tribune and other national newspapers. Granted they aren’t true public records (they certainly won’t help our grade if we try and turn them in as our documents) but they are a great place to start gathering information on your person. They can inform you of prior lawsuits, dirty laundry, and general knowledge to help you decide where you should look for public records.

Clendinen VIRTUAL Reading Room!

At the stroke of a few keys anyone of my fellow students can have access to a virtual book from the Clendinen reading room. Scholarly journals are also available for research, stylebooks are easily accessible, and even visual resources are provided. It sure beats hunting down my outdated version of the AP Stylebook that calls some dark recess of my room home.

The page also provides links to Attorney General’s site for government in the sunshine which provides viewers with the content of the sunshine law’s.

A link to the First Amendment Foundations website is also available for each student to peruse. Other links include ten practical tips for requesting public records, the Florida Society of News Editors webpage, and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information.

While I thought I couldn’t learn anymore, I was yet again schooled in terms of journalism.

Schooled by a librarian.

I honestly had no concept of the sheer amount of knowledge that could be garnered through a tax office. Typically taxes are met with gruff annoyance and totally ignored so Preston Trigg’s presentation on what you can find with just a name was enlightening.

The fact that you can research anyone running for government office in order to view if they’ve paid their taxes is golden. Of course if you want to apply it to real life you can always check to see if the person you’re dating has been delinquent on taxes.

Anyone can also uncover anything odd like someone owning too many homes, paying taxes that don’t quite match the value of their home, and how much the home is truly worth if they’re trying to sell it.

The tax exemptions available to homeowners are amazing. If you live in your home you can get a fifty thousand deduction and more if you are a senior citizen or disabled.

You can check the sales history of a house you might be interested, which could help because if it’s changed hands quite a bit in a short span of time, there might be an issue you’re not aware of.

The penalties against a property appraiser involved in fraud are jail or losing their license.

I was intrigued by the White Sox Tropicana scandal in which the city of St. Petersburg managed to hide the deal with the baseball team by giving them the documents and claiming ignorance when someone requested them.

Let's all go to jail...

On Tuesday September 21, 2010…..I went to jail.


Granted it was a class excursion but that really didn’t make it any less sobering. I was privileged enough to be a part of the first group to walk into the secure area right as orange jumpsuits walked on past. Each and every single one of us became the perfect picture of silence in that moment. While most were probably unnerved, and rightfully so, I felt a sudden epiphany of understanding.

While many people say that they “hate cops” or that law enforcement is generally stupid, I really don’t think they know quite what they have to deal with on a daily basis. These men and women go into pods, UNARMED, daily.

It honestly freaks me out to know that once upon a time, my father walked the halls of Avon Park Correctional Institution-a prison, not a jail. Everyone he came into contact with was proven GUILTY, not innocent as Lieutenant Allen explained. Of course this was all before I was born; my father eventually moved to Lakeland and attended USF for a degree in criminal justice. After twenty years in law enforcement however, he decided to take a fraud investigation job with State Farm.

Why?

Because when he would drop my little five year old pony tailed self off at school, he’d immediately try and spot the child molesters among the crowds. He suspected anyone and everyone at all times, he had to. We couldn’t have our phone number in the phone book lest someone know where we live. He would do background checks on my friends parents, a bit of an overkill. But it was the day he yelled at me as if I was a murder suspect and not a nine year old with a severe distaste in math—that he realized something had to change. In dealing with criminals and people who only inflicted pain on others he had built a hard exterior and could only see the darkness in the world.

So he quit his job.

The point I’m trying to make is I get why cops, sheriffs, probation officers and all forms of law enforcement sometimes come off as gruff and hard. Who wouldn’t when you deal with the scum of the earth on a daily basis? Rapists, murders, child molesters—it’d be hard to be happy if they encompassed my daily surroundings.

So as journalists we have to respect the fact that these people face the horrors of life daily, and if we offer them a little kindness they just might go above and beyond to help us get the information we need. If you approach them with a mightier than thou attitude, you’ll only be confirming their assumptions about you as a journalist and the world, and be more than happy to jump down your throat.

So as lame as it sounds, you catch more bees with honey.

Wealth of Information at our Disposal

Our visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was incredibly enlightening (you have to be escorted to the restrooms security is so tight!). Director of Community Affairs J.D. Callaway (like the golf clubs) and Cristal Nunez of media relations sat down with us to explain the relationship between the sheriff’s office and the media. They provided us with their standard operating procedures when it comes to media relations, as well as examples of the documents we can request and receive.


Standard Operating Procedure

It was a little foreboding to begin with a ten page guide to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office operating procedures. It really reads as an idiot’s guide to what you can and can’t request from them, when you can get it, and exactly what media can release for certain events like suicide or fire scenes.

Criminal Report Affidavit

Known as CRA’s, criminal report affidavits are not available online for anyone to see but are required for anyone going into jail. They contain a police officer’s report on what exactly went down and why. CRA’s list witnesses, victims, the criminal and all the facts tied to the case. These reports are available at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office in their records department.

Online Booking Sheet

Incredibly useful, most booking information can be found online by any member of the public (…a great tool before any blind date!). You can see the photograph of the accused along with their information, charges, and arrest information. This can be truly valuable due to its instantaneous availability thanks to the web. You can’t access a juveniles booking information though, unless he has been charged as an adult in which case the information would become public record.

General Offense Information

Once again found at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office records, general offense records contain detailed reports done after a CRA and can be generated inside a cop car. These records contain the offense, offender’s appearance, and a breakdown of what the officer did and observed during the arrest. In the example given to us, the officer had pulled over a man for a DUI. In detail he described his interactions with the man via field sobriety tests, the man’s refusal of a breath test, the car’s information, and arrest information.

Affidavit for Search Warrant

An affidavit for a search warrant can be found at the courthouse, not the sheriff’s office. It contains the issuing judges information and signature, what officers are allowed to search for and why. It’s a pretty simple but long document and completely necessary—if they don’t have it, nothing they take can be admitted as evidence in court!

Arrest Warrant

Something no one ever wants to receive, you can obtain an arrest warrant from the courthouse not the sheriff’s office. The warrant includes the defendant, their crime, their employment and appearance.

Anyone Can Hide ....

…unless you are an incredibly through researcher with a knowledge of public records. Investigative reporter Matt Doig of the Sarasota-Herald Tribune helped express the need for a reporter to actively pursue a lead, taking months to compile facts and information.

What shocked me the most during his presentation is the sheer ease in which any official can hide something. His reveal that a principal can maintain a straightforward employee file on someone, and then have a differently named “unofficial” file is disturbing at best. Someone without reporting knowledge would never know to ask for every single piece of information related to or containing the employee’s name. Thanks to Doig a full class of future reporters now understands that in order to combat tricky evasiveness, you really have to think tricky yourself.

The stories on housing fraud and teacher student affairs were both jarring with the amount of numerical data and statistics involved. I truly believe that numbers often make a larger impact than words with the generations of today. The amount of research was impressive; the housing story alone spanned 67 counties! Even with the help of databases I’m not quite sure I’d have the patience to look at all that research…my eyes would probably burst.

The use of databases is clearly a useful tool to keep in my handy dandy reporter toolbox. The seemingly endless rows of letters and names used in the poor teaching report made my heart begin to race; but it seems manageable with the use of a good database.

Doig did provide a key piece of advice, “help me understand.” A simple yet brilliant tactic to get someone to talk to you, taking on the role of a concerned citizen that requires their help….no one can resist a damsel/dudesel in distress. It also appeals to that deep dark part of every human being called an ego.

Walker Family

The walker family murder was also incredibly intriguing, both for the mystique and what the Sarasota Herald tribune did to get readers interested. They actually had someone create a 3D replica of the crime scene. Then they actually handed it over to the police to help in the investigation! They provide crime scene photographs, original newspaper clippings from over 50 years ago, and audio of a sheriff, Ross Boyer, who was obsessed with capturing the family’s killer.

Public records are an investigative reporter’s best friend to get to the juicy bit of any story. So long as a reporter knows what to ask for, or even a well informed citizen, no one can hide the truth forever.