Commentary: Inaccurate Reporting

April 26, 2010  
Filed under Soapbox

I have to say I was very disappointed in one of the articles the CMR Stampede staff published in the last issue regarding the horsepower competition between GFH and CMR.  The article was poorly researched and made some false assumptions.

First, the article states, “Joe Wilkins of the ASE program at the MSU-COT came up with the idea.”  If the research had been done or reported accurately, your writer would know that Joe Wilkins teaches the ASE program at Paris Gibson Education Center for students at GFH, CMR, Paris and Power.

The article also says, “Our team was very cooperative, more prepared and took more interest than Great Falls High.”  How would anyone know the interest level of Great Falls High students?  It was more a lack of experience than anything that left Great Falls High behind CMR.  If the writer says something like this, she should have a quotation from one of the teachers that states this. With only a CMR student making this remark, it was just a mean assumption.  Nowhere in the article was the GFH instructor interviewed or any of the GFH students. Including a student’s opinion that cannot be backed up by any facts is inappropriate because none of the CMR students had any knowledge of the work ethic of the GFH students, how they cooperated, or their interest levels.

The CMR team only got to see GFH work for two days and had no knowledge of how much work the GFH students put in outside of that time.  During the two days Great Falls High worked just as hard as CMR to put together the engine. I know. I was there for two hours each day.  It also upsets me because if GFH put no effort into this competition, let me ask you this; why did my dad spend one of the two days at Paris supervising and helping both the GFH and CMR students?  The thing that made the difference between the two engines was CMR changed the camshaft. If it were not for that change, then competitors would have been almost equal.  The reporter also did not include what the actual horsepower measured for GFH was 244, but instead, she said, “It was above stock.” It would have been good reporting to include this number so readers could make a comparison for themselves.

The statement the reporter made saying, “The Rustler team hopes for more challenging competition in the future.” is very offensive to the GFH team because they may not be as knowledgeable as the CMR squad was, but they made a good attempt and were able to make some changes.  The whole purpose of the competition was not to win, but to give experience to students and allow them to work hands-on with engines.  Students from both schools learned from each other’s engines about how important certain parts of an engine can be to maximize horsepower and what gives buyers the most increase for their expenses.

To me it is ironic that in the same issue this same writer wrote a commentary on fair and equitable journalism.  She said, “Trust is an issue in journalism.  People trust that information being published is true and accurate, free of bias, and timely.” Her article does not fit the description of what she says journalism should be, and she has not provided an accurate article or one free of bias for that matter.  Maybe she should take into consideration her own words next time she writes an article.

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