Mark Obbie's Blog, page 46

Won’t get FOILed again

Like many of my colleagues and competitors who try to use federal and state open-records laws in our reporting, I’ve known my frustrations with bureaucrats who reflexively deny legitimate requests, delay responding in flagrant violation of the law, lie with … Continue reading →

Newtown parents find their voices

In last night’s 60 Minutes interview with 17 parents and spouses of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, correspondent Scott Pelley and producer Henry Schuster focused almost exclusively on a group interview, and that interview concentrated on the families’ … Continue reading →

“Living with uncertainty”

In this masterfully told RadioLab report produced by Pat Walters (hat tip Pamela Colloff), a Wisconsin rape victim, Penny Beerntsen, bravely and candidly confronts her role in a double tragedy. After almost dying in a rape in 1985, she is “100 … Continue reading →

Gathering string on a story

Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine carried two feature stories that touch on themes much on my mind as I explore what happened in Webster, N.Y., last Christmas Eve. Susan Dominus’ cover story profiles a young Wharton School professor whose research … Continue reading →

Someone to talk to

It was pure coincidence that it was last night, on the eve of an historic two-day oral argument at the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage rights, that I returned to Syracuse University to talk about Tim Ginocchetti’s life with a … Continue reading →

The invisible criminal

A trio of Syracuse Post-Standard reporters writes a profile of a man accused of a recent, horrific crime in such a neutral, just-the-facts tone that it feels like a notebook dump edited by committee and bound up in a straightjacket. … Continue reading →

Going wobbly on Capote

At The New Yorker‘s book blog, Patrick Radden Keefe gives Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood yet another turn on the dance floor. What a week it’s been for the old page-turner (see my earlier post about a recent Slate piece by … Continue reading →

Sandy Hook and a search for answers

A pair of CBS News reports this week (part 1 and part 2) teach profound lessons about the nature of victim healing after a shooting spree. They also introduce us to Robbie and Alissa Parker, two of the most remarkable … Continue reading →

How true was the true-crime classic?

That rumbling sound you hear is the collapse of two towering legends: the literal truth of Truman Capote’s true-crime classic In Cold Blood and The New Yorker‘s meticulous, almost OCD fact-checking. Actually, the first legend already has been thoroughly debunked, … Continue reading →

A discussion about rape culture

Yesterday I praised the Steubenville rape-trial reporting of Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel for expertly presenting facts from the trial in a way that brought a needed perspective to what happened in that case. But on-the-scene reporting, though essential, isn’t the … Continue reading →