Recently on Sunday, September 7th, the Washington Post, a widely acclaimed newspaper, published a story titled "I'm a Warrior and Survivor" on the front page, despite its low degree of relevance. The article claims within itself that the story was written to commemorate the first anniversary of the Navy Yard shooting, but rather centers its main focus on a single woman who survived from supposedly fatal injuries in the chest and shoulder areas. Being a lengthy article, one would suspect much more of the tribute story that the original heading promised, but this is unfortunately not true. The article starts out with a tedious, over-exaggerated glimpse into the life of the targeted woman, Jennifer Bennett, and the "extreme pain" she is still facing head on in her everyday work and love life. Sympathy is stimulated throughout as the writer, reporter DeNeen L. Brown, slips in the insignificant sentences relating to this first topic, along with multiple banausic topics about Bennett's struggles in middle and high school, her own questionable theories about deities, and inspirational quotes. Also, there was a clear monotony with statements like "God left me here for a purpose," and "I have a determination not to give in." All of this added up to one long, boring article about the life of a normal woman who has "inspired co-workers with her recovery." Barely anything is stated about the facts and figurers of the Navy Yard shooting, causing confusion among those who wish to learn more about it. Monotonous statements about pain, the classic "never give up" statement, and deity existence topics are littered throughout the article among other unimportant facts and quotes about "moving on," and "loving yourself." The writer seemed to be playing with the audience's sympathetic sides with a bombardment of somber and petty statements, rather than stimulating their minds and causing them to think about more important issues facing our world today. To be quite frank, this article would have made a fantastic inspirational novel for women in their fifties, but not a grade-A professional news article published in a widely acclaimed news source. Commemorating events as sorrowful as this are great anesthetics for families who have lost loved ones, but not for a directed news audience looking for the latest update on Ukraine and Russia or the emerging threat, ISIS. This article is wholly in direct violation of the first basic yardstick of journalism (keeping articles written and published newsworthy). This story maintains an average lasting affect of about fifteen minutes, and affects almost no one within or outside of the United States. To avoid this sin next time, Brown should consider writing more about the actual event itself, rather than just one of the people targeted. Peppering small comments like Bennett's throughout the story would have been okay, in contrast to bombarding the readers with them. Also, as the story is not of the utmost importance at the moment, its front page spot should be revoked as larger, more significant stories start to pile in and flood headlines of other news sources across the world. Overall, this story is heavy hearted and sad, but not newsworthy. To conclude, copies of it describing similar instances should only be published in the future if certain requirements (as mentioned above) are met with professional standards intact, and organization correctly modified.
Note: Pictures/article clips taken from washingtonpost.com, photographed by Sarah L. Voisin, written by DeNeen L. Brown
These types of human interest feature stories, tied closely to important news events, aren't newsworthy in the sense that they cover breaking news, but they are definitely an important part of journalism. So important, in fact, that the Pulitzer committee recognizes their work. Stories like this ARE newsworthy in the sense that they are related to events that definitely affect a lot of people for a long time, even if the story focuses on one specific person's struggle.
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