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Troublesome Words
The Structure

Journalist 3 & 2 - Introduction to Journalism and other reporting practices
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JO1 Jim Bryant Figure 3-5.—The Navy Journalist will write about many types of accidents, such as this automobile vs. motorcycle mishap. Coaches and managers for details about team members,   lineups   and   rosters,   game   plans, quotes    and    information    about    a    contest, especially a contest you did not cover yourself. Team members for accounts of what happened in  the  game.  Be  cautious.  Many  losing  teams tend   to   blame   the   loss   on   the   officiating, whether they lost by one point or 30 points. Official  scorers  for  game  statistics  and  score- books. If you run a box score of the game, be sure   your   stats   match   those   of   the   official scorer. Fans for color and sidelight information, where appropriate.  Often  used  in  sidebar  stories,  fan reactions  can  help  tell  the  story  of  a  team’s success or misfortune. Officials    are    impartial    and    usually    refuse    to comment. If an official’s call is vital to the story, do not expect him to explain or justify it unless it is a matter of rule interpretation. Never ask an official about judgment calls (balls and strikes, close calls on the bases, whether a  receiver  was  in  or  out  of  bounds  when  he  caught  a pass,    whether    a    basketball    player    traveled,    etc.). Officials are, however, legitimate subjects for personality and rules clinic features. Additional   sports   coverage   guidelines   (including help  on  compiling  statistics)  maybe  found  in  the  latest edition  of  The  Associated  Press  Stylebook  and  Libel Manual. THE ACCIDENT STORY LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Identify the structure of the accident story and the methods used to gather accident news. Five sailors are killed when one falls asleep at the wheel of his car after a weekend liberty. A young Navy ensign dies in a flaming plane crash when something goes wrong with his jet during a routine training hop. A Marine accidentally shoots a buddy with a gun he did not think was loaded. An airman crosses an aircraft flight line and walks into the blades of a spinning propeller. A civilian painter plunges to his death from a three- story Navy building when the lines in a scaffold break. An explosion at a base facility kills 15 people and injures 35 others. A Navy dependent child dies in an ambulance after drinking something from the family’s medicine cabinet. Accidents and disasters such as these take hundreds of  lives  each  year.  In  addition  to  destroying  life  and property, they cause untold pain, misery and suffering to the victims’ friends and relatives. Yet, despite the undesirability of this type of news from    the    Navy’s    viewpoint,    covering    and    writing accident stories is part of your job (fig. 3-5). 3-17







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