Special Lead Paper

Put Yourself in Her Shoes

Wearing hot pink patent leather heals, Kelsey L. Hodgin strutted back and forth on the grass for the men who stood in awe wearing their own pair of high heals.
Hodgin walked with ease next to her wobbling friends in heals for a mile march near campus.
Hodgin was one of the many participants in the fundraiser Walk a Mile in Her Shoes: The International March to stop sexual assault, rape and domestic violence, hosted by Panhellenic and IFC Councils. Everyone met on the lawn between Beta Theta Pi and Alpha Gamma Rho on Saturday afternoon.
The men and women who joined together for the march raised over $2,000 which was donated to Alternatives to Violence in the Palouse for violence prevention efforts and rape crisis services in the local Pullman community.
“This event couldn’t have come at a better time considering the three assaults that occurred earlier this week,” Lauren B. Koszarek, a junior at Washington State University who also participated in the march, said. “I hate that I don’t feel safe walking in the dark, especially when I’m alone.”
According to the web site, http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org, for Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, one in six women in America are victims of sexual assault. Having this event helped educate the Pullman community to improve gender relationships and decreasing the potential for violence.
“I was glad to have the opportunity to participate in this fundraiser this month considering October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month,“ Hodgin, a sophomore at WSU, said. “I wanted to help bring awareness to the issue at hand. We are the generation that has to lead people to stop this violence.”
Wearing heals was optional, however most everyone chose to wear them to support the cause. Payless Shoe Source donated heals in sizes that would fit the men who participated.
“It was hilarious seeing all the men wearing high heals,” Hodgin said. “It looked like they were trying to use them as ice skates on the cement.”
Everyone who participated in the event paid a $10 entry fee which covered the cost of the t-shirt worn for the mile long march. The black t-shirt has a women wearing high heals that says ‘put yourself in her shoes.’
“Having the men participate and actually wear high heals the whole time shows how supportive and understanding they are over this issue,” Koszarek said.
Before the march, the participants read the pledge for the event in unison. “It was an amazing experience to be apart of,” said Koszarek. “While we marched the mile in our heals and matching shirts, we all chanted ‘stop the violence and rape, walk a mile in her shoes.’”
According to the web site, there are 126 walks scheduled in 2008 throughout the United States. There has been an increasing number of men, women and families joining the marches each year.
The march took approximately 20 minutes for every participant to complete. Men in their heals raced to the front to finish.
“Even though I didn’t make a direct attempt to stop the violence, I felt like I contributed just by being there for support, creating awareness and having a good time,” Hodgin said.

Ethics Assignment

1. When referring to the allegation that Mayor Jim West was pursuing underage boys online, why do you think editor Steven Smith differentiated between a legitimate news story and one that is not legitimate when he said, "If he's [Mayor Jim West] engaged in this activity … we need to know that. If he's not -- there's no story”?

- I think that the editor of the Spokesman-Review, Steven Smith, said that statement because he doesn’t believe that it is news just to out the Mayor on his sexual orientation. He only wants to make this story if he has evidence that the Mayor was perusing underage boys.

2. How did reporter Bill Morlin justify the use of a concealed identity on Gay.com as part of The Spokesman-Review's and the FBI's "sting operation"? Why didn't Morlin himself create the assumed identity to engage Mayor West online?

- Morlin himself did not create the assumed identity to engage with Mayor West online because it is against the Spokesman-Review’s code of ethics be pretend that you are someone you aren’t. Instead, he hired a retired FBI personnel who was in charge of online “sting operations” because Morlin believed that this was the only way to find information out about the Mayor.

3. Why do you think The Spokesman-Review ultimately published so many articles on Mayor West's alleged improprieties?

- I think that there were so many articles about Mayor West’s alleged improprieties because there was so much new information about the beginning accusations. They couldn’t have just posed one news article about what they thought was going on in office. The Spokesman-Review needed to be totally correct with all of the new information that presented itself after the first scandal broke out.

4. In the final analysis, who benefited from The Spokesman-Review's decision to expose Mayor West and his alleged improprieties? Who was hurt? Do you think the outcome was worth it? Explain your reasoning.

- I think that the editor of the newspaper, Steven Smith benefited from the decision to expose the Mayor because once he did so, he was on a lot of national TV programs discussing the issue at hand. This in a way, put him ‘on the map’ in a way where he became noticed for posting this story. I think that the Mayor was ultimately the one more hurt from the exposure. He was recalled from office by a vote of 65% to 35%. Also, I think that the gay community was also hurt from the exposure because they realized how much the Mayor was against the gay community, included bills to have no gay teachers or gay marriage. They were hurt by his decisions and how much he hid on the inside. I do not think the outcome was worth it because in the end, there was really no conclusion. The Mayor, to the day that he died, denied the accusations against him.

5. The Spokesman-Review has been criticized as conducting a "witch hunt" in its reporting on the private lives of some city officials. Below is a link to another recent article on Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch. Do you think that there are any ethical problems in the reporting in this story? Why or why not?

- I think there are many ethical problems in reporting this article. They have no actual evidence that Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch was participating in the assumptions the newspaper led on. I don’t think that it is appropriate to write a story about this when there is no actually proof.

Special Leads

Contrast Lead
Seattle high-schoolers can now get failing grades
"For the first time in seven years, Seattle public high-school students who do poorly can receive a failing grade on their report cards."
Seattle Times


Narrative Lead
To many, homeless man was a loved one
LA Times

Second-Day Story Lead Example

Search continues for the 4-year-old girl, Angela Melissa Norton, when she was found missing form her crib when her parents left her in the hands of a high school babysitter yesterday. Police have questioned homes within a six-block radius of the Norton’s house to get more information.

Feeding The Beast

Who or what is the "beast"?
-The "beast" is society, and their need for 24-hour news. Giving the people what they want. There is an example in the video that shows people at a TV publication discussing which stories, which is basically the food, they want to go on air. They do this because they want to chose stories that will keep the public interested and coming back for more.

Why does it need to be fed?
- This "beast" needs to be fed because of people's right to know what is happening in the world. If people do not pay attention to the news, no matter what media, they will not have a full understanding of the environment surrounding them.

What compromises (if any) might occur in trying to feed the 24-hour news cycle in print, TV and the Internet?
- Comparing all of these media sources, news can portray different things on the same story. In print, there isn't a lot of room to go in depth unlike TV and the Internet. Also, if there is breaking news that happens mid-day, print publications cannot send out another print story, it would be published the next day. With TV and the Internet, news can be reported 24 hours a day, more specifically for the Internet.