This blog examines two news stories, and focusses on the journalist's use of sourcing within their reporting.

**The first story I analyzed was titled "Trial under way in New York immigrant killing," written by Adriana Hauser, writer and contributor for CNN outlines the killing of Marcelo Lucero, a 37 year old Ecuadorian immigrant. Lucero was killed around midnight while walking by the Patchogue train station in Patchogue, NY in November of 2008. Seven teenagers from Patchogue high school were targeting hispanic immigrants, and only one person, Jeffrey Conroy, 19, was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime. Given that the trial was back in November of 2008, there have been various reports, and news stories on the incident, and the implications of murder for the Lucero family, as well as the family of the verdict, (19 year Jeffrey Conroy) who stabbed Marcelo Lucero in the chest during a street fight.

The website for the source of the story can be found at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/19/new.york.immigrant.murder/index.html

1) Prosecutors

-"Prosecutors say 19-year-old Jeffrey Conroy and six friends targeted Latinos to assault in 2008."

-"Prosecutors say the teens targeted Latinos as part of a sport they called 'beaner-hopping.'"

(paraphrased)

The prosecutors described in the story are from government, and are directly linked to the case because they are working on it.

2) Spokesman for victim's family

-"'We're looking to make sure that what happened in Patchogue doesn't happen again in any part of

this country,' said Fernando Mateo, a spokesman for Lucero's family."

(direct quote)

The person quoted above is a regular citizen, and is valuable to the story, in that the person is directly linked to the story, and is family to the homicide victim.

3) Suffolk county DA's office

-"Four of the seven defendants have pleaded guilty to various charges and may testify against Conroy,

the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said in a statement."

(paraphrased)

This is paraphrased, so it is quite possible that some content was left out that could've been crucial to the overall 'impression' of the message to the audience. However, Suffolk county was the geographic region where the murder took place, and the District Attorney did send out a press release containing the aforementioned information.

b) Justice Robert W. Doyle

-"In a decision to consolidate the charges related to the attacks, Justice Robert W. Doyle noted that

'the similarities between the separate alleged crimes is striking, the motivation for the attacks is

the same, and the victims are all Hispanic and were attacked in the same general vicinity in Suffolk

County,' the district attorney's statement said."

(direct quote)

4) Southern Poverty Law Center

-"A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center found that Latinos in Suffolk County have

lived in an environment of intolerance and violence directed at them. The atmosphere of intolerance

is stoked in part by anti-immigrant groups, an indifferent police department and county leaders,

according to the report."

-"The law center, which researches and keeps tabs on hate groups, became interested in the Long

Island county after Lucero's death."

-"After four months of research in Suffolk County that included interviews with more than 70 Latino

immigrants, 30 local religious leaders and other community leaders, the law center said it found a

pattern of ethnic intolerance going back 10 years."

-"Low-level harassment of Latinos in Suffolk County is common, the report said."

(paraphrased)

-"'They are regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and

other projectiles,' the report said."

(direct quote)

-"Latino residents riding bikes have been run off the road, and others have been beaten with

baseball bats or shot at with BB guns, the report said."

(paraphrased)

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a "think tank" organization, however, I'm not sure how pertinent the information is to the going-ons of the case as a whole. i.e. yes it is definitely valid information, some of the quotes sounded opinionated at best, and were lacking in valid statistical, (quantifiable) information/statistics. For example, "Low-level harassment of Latinos in Suffolk County is common," leaves a lot of room for debate, depending on which organization the reporter might be interviewing, quoting, etc.

**The second story, "Teen guilty of hate crime in NY immigrant's death," focuses on the outcome of the murder trial: Jeffrey Conroy was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime but was acquitted of murder.

This story is more of a "follow-up" from the previous story, however, it reveals some of the same information as the CNN news story, yet provides more hard facts. Subsequently, the story does focus on some sources that may (or may not) be appropriate, and/or relevant to the entirety of the story as a whole.

The following story was published on April 14th, 2010, by Frank Eltman, writer for the Associated Press.

The website the article was obtained from is listed below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HATE_CRIME_STABBING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-04-14-11-52-43

sources:

1) Prosecutors

"Prosecutors say Lucero's killing was the culmination of a campaign of violence against Hispanics in an avocation Conroy and his friends called 'beaner-hopping' or 'Mexican hopping.'"

paraphrased, direct quotation of individual terms

2) Conero (defendant)

"Conroy, a three-sport athlete at Patchogue-Medford High School, admitted to police he was responsible for the stabbing but took the witness stand last week to say he had taken the blame for one of his co-defendants"

paraphrased

3) Prosecutors (again!)

"Prosecutors say many Hispanics attacked in the days before Lucero's killing were afraid to report the crimes to police, fearing questions about their immigration status. The teenagers, she said, were aware of that trepidation and took advantage of their victims' fears by operating with impunity."

"Lucero, 37, was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station around midnight when they were confronted by the teenagers, who prosecutors say were strolling around town looking for targets."

"The teens began yelling ethnic slurs and approached the men, authorities say. One of the teens punched Lucero in the face, and within moments, Lucero and his friend were swinging their belts in self-defense, prosecutors say."

"After Conroy was hit in the head with Lucero's belt, he lost his temper and stabbed the man in the chest, prosecutors say."

(paraphrased)

4) Jurors

"Three of four alternate jurors who were released from duty as deliberations began said they were inclined to convict Conroy at least of manslaughter. Some also said Conroy hurt his case by implicating another teen at the end of his trial."

(paraphrased)

a) Cathy Tidmarsh

"'He said nothing to change my mind. I did not believe the story that someone else did it after 17 months,' said Cathy Tidmarsh, one alternate."

direct quote

b) Cosmos Hionidis

"Another, Cosmos Hionidis, said Conroy 'would have been better off not going on that stand and giving us that story.'"

(direct quote)