Good Lede, Hot Button Story That Presents More Questions Than Answers

I came across this New York Times story on the Rutgers University student, Tyler Clementi who committed suicide after a web video of him being intimate with another male was broadcast live by his roommate, Dharun Ravi. I found this story interesting for a few reasons. First of all-I thought the lede was direct and revealing. We've discussed different ledes and why certain ones work and why others don't. In this case-this lede works-given the subject matter. It's appropriate. With a story like this, you want the reporter to tell you the subject and facts in a straight forward manner.

We've discussed bias in this class and how successful some journalists are in removing their own bias from a story to allow the viewers to come to their own opinions. I'm not sure if this reporter did that completely but she did bring up a few quotes and "Twitter" messages from the accused student that I found to be interesting. In many of the articles I've read online or seen on television, it's talked about the events that happened after the streaming of the encounter on the webcam but not the events before or from Ravi's perspective of what motivated him to do this. Lisa Foderaro shows that in the Tweets Dharun Ravi made about Clementi's actions in their dorm room, there was some obvious tension between them and there was some reoccurring pattern in conflict. The quotes from the defendant are indicative that the author does believe there was conflict and while perhaps prejudice from Ravi, the extent of it being called a "hate crime" are in some question. I do think Foderaro does have clear bias towards the fact that Ravi is guilty by use of the quotes she uses such as one made by gay rights groups like this "Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Wednesday that he considered the death a hate crime. “We are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport,” he said in a statement. ". She does show that Clementi was unknown by most students and that there were no prior incidents of violence, verbal abuse, or anything else from Ravi or any other student. I found this article interesting because I was left with more questions than answers about the boy who broadcast the encounter Clementi had in their room and I have more questions about Clementi himself. How he was perceived by others, his family, what conflicts he and Ravi had besides this. This articles does make me see that the incident isn't as black and white as it seems.

Obviously another important thing to note about this article is that facts about this story were and are still unfolding, so the reporter was writing based on the information she had and based on the interviews with people she encountered at the time. This hot-button topic and story will produce many more interesting angles.