Hum_176_Week_7_Assignment

Hum/176 Week 7 Assignment The breaking news headline I have chosen to discuss is the horrible off-road racing accident in the Mojave Desert of Southern California in which several people lost their lives and several more were injured. The 200 mile race is part of a series held in Soggy Dry Lake Bed near the city of Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, located approximately 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. An off-road truck went sailing off a jump, lost control, and veered into a crowd of spectators at the California 200 on August 14, 2010. "There was dust everywhere, people screaming, people running," David Conklin, a photographer covering the event for off-road magazines, told The Associated Press. As the out of control, off-road designed truck finally came to a stop it was upside down with its oversized tires pointed at the sky. Several spectators came rushing to the vehicle and discovered the carnage of this horrific incident. One lady had a severe head wound and was laying in a pile of blood, and another was trapped underneath the wreckage. About a half a dozen onlookers flipped the truck back to an upright position in an effort to help the individual trapped beneath the wreckage. Unfortunately, spectators had little to no chance of escaping without injury due to the fact that they were standing a mere 10 feet off the track with no significant safety precautions in place. "There were no barriers at all," Jeff Talbott, inland division chief for the California Highway Patrol, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. MSNBC titled the article “8 Dead, dozen hurt as off-road race car plows into crowd”. The information gathered and reported was pretty significant. The reporter interviewed several people and implemented their quotes into the article which helped to paint a pretty disturbing mental picture of the incident. Several of the quotes came from David Conklin, a photographer covering the event for off-road magazines. He told The Associated Press, “There was dust everywhere, people screaming, people running”, and also, "When I got up to the vehicle I could tell that several people were trapped. There were just bodies everywhere." The images painted by these two quotes in particular send chills up and down the spine. As tragic as the entire event is, this report indicates that no children were injured in the accident and all the people who were killed were in their early 20’s or 30’s. The Fox News report is similar to that of the MSNBC report and both shared the quote by David Conklin. In all actuality, upon reading the two reports they are virtually identical. Both Fox News and MSNBC report that 8 people were killed, and 12 more injured in this tragedy. Both report the same number of emergency vehicles and aircraft, as well as the hospitals the injured were driven or airlifted to receive treatment. Both stories also indicate that the driver of the truck was forced to run from the scene as the crowd became unruly and unfortunately, some even began throwing rocks at him. The CNN report of the story was less than desirable or informative. There is a video of the accident scene on the homepage and an option to read the full story. I clicked the link provided to read the full story and was less than impressed with the amount of detail involved. There were two other links to CNN affiliates KCAL and KTLA to see the local coverage. I then clicked on the link to KCAL and discovered several similarities to the reports posted by MSNBC and Fox News. All of the reports use the same quote provided by David Conklin, "There was dust everywhere, people screaming, people running”. I did notice one significant difference in the KCAL report as opposed to the others. KCAL reported that six people died at the scene and two others died after being taken to a hospital. Next, I clicked on the link to KTLA, the other local CNN affiliate and was astonished at how graphic and detailed the reporting was. This particular version of the story indicated that at least two of the victims were decapitated when the out of control truck slammed into the crowd. The versions told from all other sources made no such claim. Upon reviewing each of the three specified websites, and discovering that the article is almost word for word identical, I have come to the conclusion that article has been written by one person and they all share it. I am not entirely sure who the credit belongs to!