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 7th,
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 12th, 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.
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