Final Blog Posdt

At the start of this class I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  When I first heard that we were going to be keeping a blog, I thought it sounded like a very time consuming and pointless task.  I had never written a blog before and I had never really followed or read any other blogs so I’m really not sure why I thought this.  After learning about blogging and reading articles pertaining to blogging and literacy, I found that I really like the writing style of blogging.  I learned that I myself believe that blogging is a writing style and that I really like to put my own feelings and emotion into what I am writing.  I feel that if I am writing about something with passion I can better get across the message that I am trying to send. 

            In regards to the news, I have actually always really followed story that I am interested in.  I like to read about what is happening in our world and have found that I have very strong opinions about things that are happening in it.  This class helped me to focus more on different sides of news stories rather than just what I heard on one website. Now I tend to look at multiple sites in order to obtain the largest amount of information possible so I can form a better opinion about a subject.  I also learned that even blogging is news to some people no matter how opinionated the blog.

Final Essay 2 Draft

            Charlie Mullen

March 1, 2013

Writ 1122

Extended Essay 2

Multiple lives of a News Story

            News stories can have a life of their own. Once a story gets started, if it is big enough, it can spread to the far corners of the internet taking on new forms and inspiring new ideas in the people who read the stories.  These stories are often taken by multiple different news sites and written in the way that they think their readers would want to read them.  On February 7^th, a story broke in The Telegraph which is a London based news site about a manhunt for a former LAPD police officer who has allegedly killed three people and is on the run in California.  The story talks about a “manifesto” if which Dorner talks about his grievances with the LAPD and how it is their fault that his reputation was ruined.  Dorner writes, “When the truth comes out, the killing stops” (Telegraph).  Dorner was fired from the LAPD after allegedly lying about a trainee officer who he alleged kicked a schizophrenic suspect.  Dorner was eventually found dead in a cabin that was burned down from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  For a few weeks this story has been a huge part of the media and the idea behind Dorner has changed based on perception of the media. 

After the breaking of this original story, the basis of which sounds like a crazy man hell bent of revenge, the media started to look into the motivation behind what would make an ex-cop want to turn and threaten to kill his fellow officers.  In an article on the CNN website that was published on February 12^th, five days after the original story in The Telegraph, further insight into Dorner’s manifesto was taken.  The article is quoted as saying, “he blamed racism and corruption in the department for his removal and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him” (CNN).  This article shows the point that Dorner is trying to come from.  It provides more insight into the motives behind why the ex-cop would want to kill his fellow officers and harm their families.  This article also goes into details about the thoughts of the LAPD.  It provides insight into the way that the LAPD is viewing Dorner and his actions and how they are going to handle the situation.  Las Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes a statement that paints Dorner in a very different light than his manifesto does. He says, "This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism".  "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered" (CNN).  I think that Dorner’s story about how racism is the reason that he lost his job resonates a little louder because of the LAPD and their history with racism and mistreatment.

After this manifesto was more widely read and interpreted, and Dorner’s statements that he was wrongfully fired, people start to sympathize with Dorner’s situation.  Another article on CNN that is titled, “Ex-LAPD cop gains sympathizers on social media” talks about how followers on facebook pages have been siding with Dorner posting about how he was fired for trying to expose corruption within the LAPD.  These Facebook pages “take an approach” as Harris would state it, in siding with Dorner.  They approach their posting on Facebook with the idea that Dorner is right and that the LAPD is just another racist, corrupt government organization.  They are trying to appeal to people who also share this same view.  There are posts that highlight these beliefs such as, "He killed CORRUPT cops, cops kill INNOCENT people!" and "it's a shame we the people couldn't help dorner against these government forces" (CNN).  These pages on social media portray Dorner as a hero that is just taking matters into his own hands because no one else will fight the corruption that is taking place in the LAPD.  There is also a story on Fox News Insider that talks about Dr. Marc Lamont Hill who made comments on the O’Reily Factor that make Dorner look like some sort of a Hero.  He stated on the show,

“He’s been a real-life superhero to many people. Now, don’t get me wrong, what he did was awful, killing innocent people is bad. But when you read his manifesto, when you read the message that he left, he wasn’t entirely crazy,” Hill said on the network. “He had a plan and a mission here [...] and many people aren’t rooting for him to kill innocent people. They’re rooting for someone who was wronged to get a kind of revenge against the system. It’s almost like watching Django: Unchained in real life. It’s kind of exciting.”

This statement shows that people can see Dorner in a different light, that he just is not on a random killing spree but has a motive and a goal, and is actually fighting for something that he believes is good and right.  This is why it resonates with people and that is why people are taking his side and defending him.  Although it is a small group of people, they still feel for his cause.  These few readers have taken their own approach to the idea that Dorner is actually a hero and is fighting for good.  The idea was spawned from this story and didn’t have anything to do with the original story in the first place.  At no point in the original story did it talk about how Dorner is a hero.  This is just an interpretation of the story that has taken hold because people have chosen to believe it. 

            In a final transition of this news story, there was a story posted to InfoWars.com titled, “Imagine if Christopher Dorner was a Tea Party Member”.  It was very interesting to read because he is not a Tea Party member but is, according to the article, “is an Obama-supporting, gun control advocating, NRA hating, Piers Morgan loving, big government liberal” (infowars).  The article focuses on the fact that he is in fact favor of most of the things that Obama is doing and it accuses the media of not focusing on this aspect of the story.  They argue that if he was a “Right-Wing Extremist” he would be torn apart by the media.  The article also argues that if he were a “Right-Wing Extremist” then his support of the second amendment would be used by the media as a huge argument to support stricter gun control.  This article, unlike the previous ones, focuses on the part of the manifesto that talks about Dorner’s support for Obama and how the media is not focusing on these issues because he supports Obama.  They bring up an interesting argument about how the news is portrayed in today’s society.  The purpose of this article does not focus on what Dorner has done but rather uses his manifesto to bash the media that this article says is downplaying the story because of Dorner’s political stance.  One of the final things that is written is, “Most news outlets are publishing a censored version that is only 11 pages long,” leaving out Dorner’s political stance, which was cited through the site Twitchy.  This story was spawned from a story and it has started an entirely different debate that really does not have anything to do with a cop on the run with an agenda. 

            After reading and interpreting these news stories on different sites and how they change, it seems like the greatest change occurs when the largest audience is reached.  In other words, when a story is as big as an ex-cop killing people and is on the run based on his beliefs that he was wronged by the people that he has targeted to kill, millions of people are going to hear about it and have an opinion about it.  When the story reaches these millions of people they are all going to have interpretations about why this man is doing what he is doing.  They can even write stories that target audiences that agree with them and even take on entirely different stories that might be related to the original as seen in the transition of the stories above.  I think that the life of a news story is based on what people believe about the story.  The story can change based on when new information is gathered but that isn’t the type of change that I think is the biggest kind.  The biggest kind of change occurs when people write stories that are interpretations of the original action or story.  The interpretation of Dorner has a hero is story in and of itself and the interpretation that the “liberal media” is leaving out Dorner’s political sections of his manifesto is another interpretation.  In essence all of these stories have taken an approach to the original story that there is an ex-cop on the run who has allegedly killed three people. 

Hariss, Joseph. Rewriting: How to do Things with Texts. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2006. Print.

"“I Get to Decide Here, Doctor, I Get to Decide!”: Bill O’Reilly Takes on Dr. Marc Lamont Hill Over CNN Comments Comparing Dorner Manhunt to ‘Django: Unchained’." FoxNewsInsider. N.p., 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Martinez, Michael. "Ex-LAPD cop gains sympathizers on social media." CNN. N.p., 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Smith, Matt. "Los Angeles puts up $1 million reward for Dorner." CNN. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.

Watson, Paul. "Imagine If Christopher Dorner Was a Tea Party Member." InfoWars. N.p., 8 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2013.