Mark Obbie's Blog, page 6
April 5, 2015
Interview with a vulture
Winston Ross unburdens his journalistic conscience in this essay in Newsweek, wherein he portrays his work and that of his competitors in disaster coverage as purely self-aggrandizing and exploitative. There’s nothing redeeming about it, in Ross’ view, as he calls out himself and his cohort for behaving like “vultures” and “hyenas” toward victims and their loved ones. Ross … Continue reading Interview with a vulture →
April 3, 2015
Nightstand reading: Friday, 4/3/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Joaquin Sapien tells a real-life version of Lord of the Flies, at a California group home for youth where caretakers utterly failed to keep control and protect children from being … Continue reading Nightstand reading: Friday, 4/3/15 →
April 1, 2015
Half-right about victims
Here’s a news story that sees a real problem in the way that crime victims experience criminal justice. But then it falls into a familiar trap in criminal justice thinking. Liz Shepard of Gannett’s Times Herald in Port Huron, Michigan, wrote about a horrifying crime in which a teen, just before her 18th birthday, arranged for a … Continue reading Half-right about victims →
March 31, 2015
Nightstand reading: Tuesday, 3/31/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Sasha Abramsky describes the making of the campaign for California’s Proposition 47, the “smart on crime” initiative that rolled back some of the state’s harshest tough-on-crime measures. Californians for Safety … Continue reading Nightstand reading: Tuesday, 3/31/15 →
March 27, 2015
Nightstand reading: Friday, 3/27/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Albert Samaha gets close enough to his subject, exoneree Clarence Harrison, to tell a story not often told, about the struggles a man faces after he’s freed from a lengthy … Continue reading Nightstand reading: Friday, 3/27/15 →
Nightstand reading: 3/27/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Albert Samaha gets close enough to his subject, exoneree Clarence Harrison, to tell a story not often told, about the struggles a man faces after he’s freed from a lengthy … Continue reading Nightstand reading: 3/27/15 →
March 23, 2015
Nightstand reading: Monday, 3/23/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Lead reporter Debbie Cenziper, with an enormous team of reporters, researchers, editors, producers, database specialists, and others, tells the definitive shaken-baby-syndrome story. The team traced 1,800 cases and documented their … Continue reading Nightstand reading: Monday, 3/23/15 →
On the road again
As I approach my 12th month of reporting and writing under a Soros Justice Fellowship, after multiple trips out of state and to New York City to tell stories far from my home in New York’s Finger Lakes region, today I will hop in the car and drive under an hour to begin interviews on … Continue reading On the road again →
March 18, 2015
Nightstand reading: Wednesday, 3/18/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Trevor Aaronson obtained internal FBI communications to show the inner workings of a sting operation that netted a supposed terrorist. That “terrorist” is serving 40 years for going along with … Continue reading Nightstand reading: Wednesday, 3/18/15 →
March 16, 2015
Welcome to Jinxapalooza
The HBO documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst was the talk of crime town even before Sunday night’s dramatic conclusion, in which Durst unwittingly mutters into an open mic his apparent confession to two killings for which, at that point, he had never been charged. This would be one of those times when … Continue reading Welcome to Jinxapalooza →
