GREENSBORO, NC --Cruising Greensboro 101, I saw a story from News14 Carolina titled Some parents concerned about discipline at Eastern Guilford High. The story quickly shows some disturbing footage of two boys in a fist fight, cheered on by bystanders. News14 Carolina reporter Bob Costner describes the footage:
"Parents say this video shows a fight at Eastern Guilford High School taken by students with cell phones."Wow! That's really bad. No wonder, as the story reports, parents are upset and getting organized, lead by former Guilford County School Board candidate Lisa Clapp.
But wait a minute. I've seen this video before. In fact, it's not of a fight at Eatern Guilford High School. This same video popped up on Greensboro 101 about a year ago and was identified as a fight at Hickory Trails Apartments -- 17 miles from Eastern Guilford High School. Indeed, view the entire original footage and it's plain the location is an apartment complex, not a school.
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| Described yesterday as a fight at Eastern Guilford High School by News14 Carolina. |
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| Uploaded to YouTube June 3, 2010 and described as a fight at Hickory Trails. |
I have asked the News14 reporter, Bob Costner, who gave him this video and who told him it was from Eastern Guilford High School. (Update: News14 Carolina responds.)
I don't know the first thing about journalism and I'm sure that information not received from primary sources gets published everyday.
ReplyDeleteI also remember seeing this video a while back. Even if the reporter doesn't keep up with or didn't recognize it from Greensboro101, surely they could have investigated the source just a little more thoroughly simply by asking the about the date of the fight or the source of the footage.
My first impression is that this is lazy, sensationalist reporting. I don't like it and it makes it hard to trust News14, a station I regularly enjoy.
--Brandon Burgess
Also, manufacturing evidence doesn't serve the cause of shedding light on the disciplinary problems at EGHS.
ReplyDeleteIt may even serve to diminish the significance of a very real problem.
--Brandon Burgess
Brandon, I'm inclined to agree with your impressions, but I'm hoping the reporter will respond so we can have a better idea of how this happened.
ReplyDeleteThe video show at the meeting did include the fight at an apartment complex, but it was stated that particular video was not at the school, the other 12 video that were shown were at EGHS. You have to consider the source of the report to the validity of the story.
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