Mark Obbie's Blog, page 40

This just in … assumption on top of rumor

When will we ever learn? No matter how often we witness journalists rush to judgment in a crisis, and no matter how much experience a journalist might have, we can count on at least one prominent reporter or commentator to … Continue reading →

The fifth little girl

The great civil-rights chronicler Diane McWhorter, in today’s New York Times, provides this  searing critique of our society’s arbitrary, often superficial compassion for crime victims (the Times‘ headline captures the point squarely with its reference to “civil rights justice on … Continue reading →

Me write pretty?

Pardon this rare departure from this blog’s usual fare. But a post on my favorite journalism blog, Romenesko, introduced me to my newfound soul brother. Meet Mark Saal, a columnist at the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner. I don’t actually know Saal’s … Continue reading →

Meet the parents from hell

A new Reuters investigative report is nothing short of breathtaking. Be forewarned: It documents a practice so disturbing and outrageous it may rob readers of a good night’s sleep, or just maybe their faith in human goodness. Reported by a … Continue reading →

Sentencing math doesn’t add up

One of the most irksome errors in legal journalism occurs when reporters perform sentencing math in such a way that it adds up to a falsehood. Often repeating a hyped claim made in many prosecution press releases, journalists stack the … Continue reading →

Life and death on the streets

A sure sign of intelligent life in crime journalism is storytelling that shows the struggles and losses suffered in high-crime areas. Ambitious sites like Homicide Watch D.C. (“Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case”), which has spread to … Continue reading →

A cold case, getting colder

I’m a few weeks late to a long, multimedia true-crime story by Ann O’Neill of CNN. But “Taken: The Coldest Case Ever Solved” is too remarkable to let it pass unnoticed. Documenting in narrative form what it calls the oldest cold … Continue reading →

A marvelous tale, with a big hole

When one of my favorite writers tells a long story questioning the fairness of a prosecution that pits a powerful Wall Street bank against a hard-working immigrant, I’m there — and, biases all on the table, I’m primed to buy … Continue reading →

Victims and the death penalty

Careful readers of this blog — I know you’re out there; I can sense it — might notice I don’t post much about two of the most critical issues in criminal justice: wrongful convictions and the death penalty. If a … Continue reading →

“Firefighters down”

A pair of just-published, deeply reported narratives take wildly different paths toward the same goal: remembering and honoring the victims of a pair of recent mass fatalities among firefighters. Though this blog usually focuses on crime reporting, I’m drawn to … Continue reading →