Newsgathering Final
When it was their turn to present Mallorie Harnich and Rebecca Melson took a deep and calming breath before they walked up to the projector to start their presentation. Their investigation started with Melson going to the Fredericksburg court house for a previous assignment. She found a case that involved the sports director Tim Brown. According to Brown he believed that he was poisoned at a restaurant. The case is still under investigation. This investigation for Harnich and Melson was difficult for them, not only because they had to do some digging to find evidence and get the information, but they also faced the issue of having a subject who doesn’t want their story out.
When Melson started to do her investigation, she decided to message Brown personally to hear his side of the story. To Rebecca’s email she heard no response, she tried again but still no response. The next few days when she was in class, Melson asked her friend Harnich if she wanted to be her partner for the project. Harnich agreed and decided to take matters into her own hands and email Brown. Brown responded to her quickly, with “I need an email from you saying that you won’t quote anything I say.”
According to the case file Brown believed he was poisoned because of his rugby jacket, but the case states that Brown said sexist comments and they believe that is the reason he was poisoned. When Harnich interviewed Brown, she asked if the poisoning caused any physical harm. Brown stated that “I was sick at the time so I couldn’t really tell.” Which raised some suspicion for Harnich and Melson?
After collecting all the information needed to create their article Harnich and Melson posted it in the Blue and Gray press. When Brown got wind that it was posted on the Blue and Gray he immediately went to the editor of the paper and bullied them into taking down the article. Brown also requested to see all Harnich and Melson’s private emails. This scared the women but they were reassured by their professor that Journalists are protected by their first amendment rights, so Brown has no legal right to their personal emails.
Brown took it even further and tried to bad mouth the Blue and Gray by creating six different accounts and leaving bad comments of the article. The editor of the paper knew it was Brown because all six of the profiles had the same IP address that came from his office.
“This is a great representation of if you are uncomfortable with posting a story, don’t feel like you are obligated because there can be instances of bullying like Brown in the real world.”