16-Year-Old Arrested in Killing of Radio Journalist in Brooklyn

The article “16-Year-Old Arrested in Killing of Radio Journalist in Brooklyn” covers the same event that Jess and Steph have posted on: the brutal murder of George Webster by teenager John Katehis. I found the different tones and information found in this article and the Philadelphia Inquirer article to be particularly interesting. Overall, the Inquirer makes the story much more dramatic and sensationalized, whereas the Times article is more straightforward and includes more solid sources.

First, the lead in this article says the event was a “fatal stabbing,” and tells the reader when, where, why, and how the boy was arrested. On the other hand, the Inquirer describes the murder as a “brutal slaying” by a ‘self-proclaimed teen-aged ‘extremis, anarchist, a sadomasochist,’” John Katehis. It is important to recognize that these initial introductions play a large role in the setting of each article’s tone.

Next, the Times article fills the body of the article with quotes from the Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, and Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner. In contrast, the Inquirer article cites their sources as “the police,” “a police source,” and the “New York Daily News.” Not once is a specific name used as a source. In my opinion, this difference makes a large impact on which outlet I trust to be accurate. Also, the Times article tells the sequence of events leading up to Katehis’s arrest, compared to the much more vague descriptions offered by the Inquirer (even though the stories were published on the same day).

Finally, I noticed that the Times article finished with details about Katehis from his now-removed MySpace page—the very same details that the Inquirer filled their lead with. This alone proves that varying media sources have different values concerning what is the most important, or perhaps the most attention-grabbing, even when they’re covering the exact same topic.

Article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/nyregion/26weber.html?scp=1&sq=john%20katehis&st=cse