Shame on You!

Following this piece is an example of journalism that flat ticks me off. This writer chose to take a news story that may actually have teeth and value then twist it to reflect her bias. It's a common practice as most of the media follows a liberal path. The author of this article took a possible valid news story and attempted to spin it into a political attack. There will be no Pulitzer prize issued here.

From day one journalists are taught to ask the five questions when writing a story. Who, what, when, where, and why. Let me guide you on how this story should have been written and then when you read it the difference will be apparent.

The story is about how a republican politician had a confrontation with an alleged rape victim at a town hall. The first clue to the writer's bias comes in her account of the meeting. She decides to label this a heated exchange between the two, where the video clearly show the politician calmly tries to present his point until the woman loses her emotional maturity, then he walks away.

Now as a competent journalist the first question you try to answer is who. Who is this woman? In this piece she is an unidentified rape victim. So we move to the why question. Why is she unidentified? Why is there a camera right over her shoulder? Is she hiding something? Is she truly a rape victim, or a plant? This speaks to credibility. The where question pops up now. Where was the rape? Was the rapist caught? When was the rape? Was it recent? Could this be the cause of her passion? What inspired her to attend the town hall and speak directly to the politician? These are the five questions competent journalists ask and answer to give their story credibility.Without them this looks like a bias smear.

Now I'm going to ask my five questions of the journalist. Where was your interview of the politician? Why didn't you follow up on this?Why did you voice the speculation of a democratic spokes person? What was the reason he voted down the bill and it's amendments? Does Vitter plan on introducing legislation to address this issue? When will that bill come to the floor? Who sent you this you tube clip to inspire this article? Those are the questions the responsible reporters would want answered.

The story might have merit, but not in it's present form. Don't spoon feed your bias to the public. Do your job and report.Here is the article and you tube video as reported by AOL for you to form your own opinion.......

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) had a heated exchange with a constituent over the weekend when she asked him why he opposed a bill that will protect the rights of some rape victims to take their attackers to court.

The bill stems from a 2007 case in which a Halliburton employee accused several co-workers of raping her when she was working for the company in Iraq. Her employment contract specifically required her to settle her complaint in arbitration rather than in criminal court. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) sponsored an amendment to the defense spending bill to block federal funding from government contractors with similar employment contracts. Vitter joined 29 Republicans in opposing the measure, which passed the Senate 68 to 30 in October. Republicans at the time said it would give Congress too much influence over Pentagon contracts.

At the weekend event, a woman, who has not been named in the media, approached Vitter after a health care town hall event that the senator sponsored in Baton Rouge. A video of the encounter shows her speaking to the senator as he is leaving, saying, "Senator, I am a rape victim."

Vitter stops briefly to speak with her, but the two begin to speak over each other once the discussion turns to the Franken amendment.

Eventually Vitter says, "You realize President Obama was against that amendment and his administration was against that amendment?"

She responds, "But I'm not asking Obama. I'm asking you."

"Do you think he's in favor in rape?" Vitter asks rhetorically. "No." He then walks away and leaves the building.

As he walks away, the woman calls out, "What if it was your daughter?"

A staffer from the Louisiana Democratic Party taped the exchange and posted on the party's YouTube channel. Kevin Francks, a spokesman for the Party said the woman is a New Orleans native who went to the event to protest Sen. Vitter's position on the Franken bill, but that the Democratic party did not coordinate her comments to the senator or know of her prior to this weekend's interaction. Vitter is up for reelection in 2010.

"I think it was disconcerting that Sen. Vitter did not appear to give this rape survivor the time of day," Francks said. "I doubt he would have turned his back if she had been a representative of Halliburton."

Sen. Vitter's office did not respond to requests for comment on the event, but the senator did speak with a local television station at the town hall, which he said was organized so that he could hear from his constituents about their concerns. "I think people's biggest frustration is that they think they're being shut out of the debate and they just aren't heard in Washington," Vitter told WBRZ-TV.

Video of Vitter's confrontation with the woman is below.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6YZ1wP1978


God Bless
Capt. Bill