Corky Scholl

I loved this! I know that the Scholl stories have been criticized as being to mushy and sentimental, but I am mushy and sentimental! All of these stories had me emotionally involved, and I credit that to the artful way the reporting was done. There were so many little nuances that made each of these stories, in my opinion, a work of art.

I loved the handball piece where there were several clips in a row of players hitting the ball in full force. After working with bias deck, I now know how hard it would have been to cut out each little frame of a player hitting the handball. In the marathon story, when "Robbie" was filmed running up a hill in the distance, somewhat out of focus, the camera was occasionally focused on a duck or a chipmunk, or some element of the landscape to add detail to the scene. The shots of trash and empty bottles of alcohol, set to the melancholy background music of "King James" served to further emphasize and illustrate some of the more disturbing components of life on the street. The scene with the "field of flags" in the pouring rain gave the story about honoring victims of terrorism even more emotional impact.

While the stories may be viewed as exaggerated to encourage a sentimental response, it is clear that the editing, photography and audio were packaged in a way that did inspire emotion. That fact alone demonstrates how powerful a carefully edited, well put together story can be. It makes me wonder...if Corky Scholl's stories can make me want to cry, what other emotions can a journalist inspire, and where/how does objectivity (responsible journalism's ultimate goal ;) factor in?