Example Of A Perpetrator Research Paper

Samip Neupane
English 1158
Kim Martin
LC III- Visual Argument
12/08/2014
Media Portraying the Victim as a Perpetrator

On 27th July, during the 1996 summer Olympics, Atlanta Police received a 911-call saying that there was a bomb planted at Centennial Olympic Park. The police responded to the call by sending a unit to the area. Meanwhile, inside in the stadium, one of the guards stationed at the sound and light tower, Richard Jewell found an unattended bag. Suspecting the bag might contain explosives, Jewell notified a Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer about it. The officer called Bomb squad, and he, with Jewell started evacuating the area, but before the bomb squad could do anything, the bomb detonated killing two and injuring 111

They didn’t hesitate to step over the line to find out more about the situation and own the news. Kathy Scruggs, one of the Journal Constitution reporter somehow found out that FBI suspected Jewell and that he fit the pattern of the bomber. When Scruggs also learnt about the situation through her source at Atlanta Police Department, she along with her colleague Ron Martz wrote a news report titled, “FBI suspects ‘hero’ guard may have planted bomb”. (Ostrow) Although, the reporters received the story from anonymous sources, they did not mention it in the news report so that the public would find the news more credible. In matter of hours other news report that depicted Jewell as a suspect emerged while in fact FBI was not so sure about that, as they knew that Jewell could not have made the 911 call as he was far from a place the phone call was made.
CNN published similar news without any official information from FBI or Atlanta Police. A reporter in NBC Brokaw, stated in a news broadcast that FBI were making a case to arrest and prosecute Jewell and they were just looking for final evidences to hold him convict while FBI was still doing a background search on him. Other NBC reporters mentioned that Jewell was on the top of the suspect list and that he could be arrested the next morning. Brokaw also said that he had "very high-ranking federal law enforcement officials in Washington and in Atlanta" confirm the story

News reporters should use their discretion and publish accurate and true information. In this era of technology, news and information travel across the globe in a matter of minutes, so the role of media is even more important. As readers we should be more careful about what we read and what to believe, which can be done by cross-referencing the information with other credible sources. Media, on its part should be more impartial and critical of the news they publish so that there aren’t any Richard Jewells in the