Manjoo Post: True Enough reveals enough truth, although many don’t see it.

A lot of people today see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. There’s not as much thinking outside the box in our society today as there used to be, especially with regards to the media. To give a perfect example of this I provide two similar examples that occurred today in my Public Affairs class. My classmate Caroll Lovel stated that she watches FOX News when she was discussing another student’s blog. Immediately, before hearing what she had to say, many of my classmates whispered disgruntled moans under their breath and their heads turned as if someone said the building was on fire. When I mentioned that I enjoy watching Bill O’Reilly, but don’t really care for any other program on the Fox News Network, I noticed a few classmates laughing or looking up to the heavens like this was unbelievable. However, as Gil pointed out, “The thing about O’Reilly…they have the best fact-checkers.” Love him or hate him. I didn’t say he was perfect, but I am able to stay accurately up-to-date with current events and major news stories watching his program. Before I could finish my point, I wasn’t allowed to state that I also watch both Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Anderson Cooper on CNN occasionally. I actually watch all three of the networks that would probably destroy each other in a gang fight if given the opportunity.

Can anyone else say that they watch all three of these networks? I would bet it’s not many….

Before even reading the book: True Enough, the inside cover immediately grabbed my attention. Manjoo illustrates an example of how deeply held beliefs can displace our very perceptions of what’s real and what’s not in the world around us. The problem that Manjoo identifies is that we only see the insights that favor ourselves or our beliefs and shutout anything that contradicts. There’s an old saying that there are two very sensitive subjects you never bring up: religion and politics. The two are identical in conversation because if one has a different belief than the other, it is rare that either will EVER win the argument. How can both sides be right? They can’t! It’s the same with politics. Whether you’re a Democrat/Liberal, a Republican/Conservative, or an Independent/Moderate no one will ever be right. The problem is that many get trapped in ONLY what they believe with no regards to any other.

Let’s take a closer look at the media as a whole according to Manjoo. There is one thing I mentioned earlier today that nearly every form of media is using nowadays: peripheral processing. It’s when the media relies on erroneous pundits. To show I am not biased in my three favorite network anchors, I’ll go after Bill O’Reilly on this one. About once a month, he has a body language expert appear on his show to examine slow motioned video footage of politicians, comedians, presidents, anchors, and other members of media making news at the time. She examines their facial expressions, their hand movements, and their posture to basically tell everyone what is already obvious enough in the video, which is usually a type of emotion. I still can’t quite gather how her opinion on looking at people is deemed newsworthy. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m sure she is an expert at reading people, but this isn’t like the television drama Lie To Me, where a fictional doctor can tell if someone is lying based on body language that will eventually lead to solving a murder or discovering a cover-up. If that were true Mrs. Cleo would still be on television.

Many people are so convinced if someone on television sounds confident in something they say, it must be true. They accept it without ever beginning to wonder if it’s true, accurate, or even real. In my short life of 22 years and counting, I have seen and been through enough scenarios where being skeptical is like second nature to me (I like to call in out-of-the-box thinking, it sounds less brutal). I don’t immediately disbelief someone’s facts when I hear them, but I do question them. I think that’s why I want to be in broadcasting. It’s like when someone tells you a story that doesn’t completely make sense and by asking certain questions you can catch that persons mistake or lie in some cases. As journalist and broadcast majors it is vital that we all understand that the media we are used to now won’t always be like this. It only took a few years before Facebook and Twitter were like gold for journalists. Can you imagine what it will be like 10 years from now? As I understand it, people can already blog from their smart phones today! It’s only a matter of time when technology will advance so far that media will immediately be sent to your brain.

Courtroom 62: Trial Case

Today, I traveled once again to the court house downtown to complete my assignment on the trial case. My classmates and I arrived at the courthouse and examined different courtrooms we could possibly sit-in on. Nearly all the court rooms we checked were locked. It wasn’t until we were on the fourth floor when one of my classmates entered a judges chambers did we learn that there would not be a trial until 1:30. So to pass the time we took a journey to Gilligan’s Sports Bar Restaurant to have lunch and a drink.

The time flew by almost instantly and we were back at the courthouse going through metal detectors once again. We voyaged to the sixth floor to courtroom 62 which was nearly empty upon our arrival. There were more cops and lawyers then people attending. We quickly snuck into the back row because I was unaware there was a no shorts policy and didn’t want to be removed from the courtroom. The two gentlemen in the row in front us were engaged in a whisper conversation that was so loud we had to move closer to be able to hear any conversations from the judge and the lawyers. The first case was very quick and very brief. It involved one of the gentlemen that were talking in front of us. I still don’t recall what he was there for, only that the trial had been rescheduled for a later time. The second case was just as short. A woman who was supposed to be at the trail was in Japan. The judge rescheduled and moved on.

The third case involved the only man in an orange jail jump-suit in the courtroom. He was still in hand-cuffs and shackles when he entered the courtroom and during the entire length of his trial. He stood very tall and looked way beyond his actual age, 16. The judge talked to attorneys, the officer involved with the case, and then to the defendants grandmother who was in the courtroom. Apparently, the young man has had many felonies and misdemeanors already on his record and was also on probation. After an argument occurred with his grandmother he ran away, which eventually lead to him running from officers when he was out at night. He was outside his house at an hour past his probation officers request. The grandmother cried throughout the entire case; she is the legal guardian of this young man. Eventually, the judge decided he had no choice but to put the young man back in jail.

The final case was the longest of them all. The defendant, Mr. Rubio, was there due to a knife that was found on a probation random check of his house. There were several witnesses in this case including several probation officers and supposedly his son and wife. The plaintiff and defendant lawyers asked all of the probation officers several questions to put the case in a clear light; here it is as far as I know: Mr. Rubio was on probation and had not failed any alcohol or drug related tests. When probation officers came to his house one day and searched his house, Mr. Rubio (according to a probation officer on the scene) smelled of alcohol and his eyes were blood-shot red. When searching his room they came across a knife that was later identified as a scuba knife. Mr. Rubio was arrested for having possession of the weapon which was a violation of his probation. Mr. Rubio’s attorney was VERY VERY GOOD in my opinion. Even though the facts were against him he still came off believable and asked many frequent short questions. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the case concluded, but I really wish I could have stayed. This case was lengthy, yes, but very interesting. It was like watching a suspenseful movie.

Meeting #2: Land Use

This semester has been very difficult for me in all of my classes. Always when it seems that all hope has been lost, I find a way to walk away victorious. I didn’t realize this second meeting would be due tonight until yesterday evening. As fate would have it, there were several meetings I could attend today and still manage to complete this assignment before midnight. Since after class I am dedicated to homework, I went to the earliest one: The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. The meetings agenda focused on land use, something I was not really confident on or knew anything about, but it was either that or a meeting about agriculture; something I know absolutely nothing about.

The meeting began like every other public meeting I have attended: The pledge of allegiance and a short prayer. Next a member of the board presented the chairman with a “slugger” or baseball bat for his achievements as board leader in the last year. Every member of the board had signed his unique baseball bat. Immediately after, they dove right into the first issue which I’m not too sure what it was even about. They voted right away before I could make any sense what they were voting on. Now I knew I had to focus.

Luckily, their next order of business was a gentleman asking for an extra million dollars for the construction area by I75 and Bruce B. Downs. Finally! Something I could understand and certainly could relate to. A member of the board then asked the gentleman when the construction by the interstate would be completed, but the gentleman did not know. The board all voted in support of the extra money. The board went on to a couple who are migrant farmers. The man has had medical issues that make it very difficult for him to work. The couple is going through a hard time and was requesting a sign on their property. I did not understand the purpose or even what they were trying to achieve. The vote passed 6-0 for the third time in a row; I began to wonder if any of the board members would vote no on anything.

The next item on the agenda was a staff item involving an outline on something I did not understand. Two people discussed the outline as something being involved in the community and that they claimed to have a PowerPoint presentation. They did not show the PowerPoint. Instead they voted again and again the vote passed 6-0. Surprisingly, the meeting was adjourned for the time being. The meeting would pick up again later in the afternoon. I was immediately surprised because this was the shortest public meeting I had ever been to and had also not realized they were going to delay the rest of the meeting.

William March: Campaign Contributions

“You cannot give money to someone else and have him or her contribute it to a campaign. It is illegal.”--- William March

It’s good to try and support a candidate financially, but you must follow the rules like everyone else. Everyone is allowed a limit on financial contributions to keep the elections fair. You cannot give money to someone else and have him or her contribute it to a campaign; it is illegal. It is one of the most difficult challenges for prosecutors to catch. No one will ever know unless someone tells, which is not likely to happen. William March gave my class a variety of websites to track down who has made contributions. By visiting these sites, as journalists, we can search for some unusual campaigns contributions that may be newsworthy, especially when the contributor donates a significant amount of money that he or she or the company does not have. These websites allow you to see what persons or company made contributions and whom they made contributions to.

March provided my class an example during the 1996 election where Bill Clinton received a large amount of soft money from an individual involved with a corporation named Future Tech. Soft money is given to a political party where there is no limit or cap on how much one can donate. March’s’ associate tracked down the guy through multiple public records. Some of the sites we were given as an example were: 1) sunbiz.org/, 2) moneyline.cq.com/pml/home.do, and 3) http://www.opensecrets.org/. March mentioned that the second website was his favorite and that we could check federal campaigns. You don’t have to use just these three websites; it’s as simple as going to Google and typing in campaign contributions.

Towards the end of the class we were lectured on the importance of self-control and opinions. March told us that he would not reveal to us his political party who whom he voted for. He stated that, “[we] could check public records and find out, but it is not something that I will reveal publicly” because of his job as journalist at the Tampa Tribune. I could sense he was holding something back, almost like an incident that occurred involving this topic. Something about his tone and the very serious facial expressions and body language revealed to me that this is a significant lesson to take in. I have never had a problem revealing which parties or candidates I support and disagree with, but then again I don’t work for the Tribune.

Preston Trigg- Budgets for Journalists

“It’s the money you take in and the money you spend. That’s all a budget is.”
---Preston Trigg

Preston Trigg was back for a second time this semester, this time to educate us on budgets. He explained that the beginning of most budgets includes a lot of facts, usually like the number of employees or background information on the government entity or the city or county. It is usually a lengthy document. But don't be fooled on the extensive length of the document. That's usually used as a decoy. “Don’t rely on just the summary—sometimes it is what the agency wants you to report." Especially for journalists, we need to keep it simple for the reader. These documents are so long and detailed that it wont be hard to lose the readers attention.

Triggs educated us on the differences between revenues and expenses that are permitted in Florida and also explained fiscal’s years. I never knew budgets were on a different schedule then the rest of us. Budgets fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th every year. One thing Triggs mentioned over and over and even mentioned it the last time he was here was to follow the money. The budget is clearly one of the most important pats of a reporter’s job. It can lead to your stories. He mentioned an example featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If the Buccaneers raise their ticket prices, that's a story. Stadium attendance to these games is how the Glaziers make their revenue and if they raise the ticket price you can assume their hurting in money (even though they are in serious debt and have blacked out all the home games.) I feel this would be my strong point in journalism. My dad has been a financial advisor for over ten years. I know how to manage, handle, and acknowledge what a normal budget should look like

Public Meeting 1: Northdale Recreation Center

The first required public meeting I attended was at the Northdale Recreation Center. The matter they were discussing was about the two intersections on Dale Mabry Highway at North Lakeview Drive and Northdale Boulevard. The two intersections were acknowledged by the County’s Department of Public Works as being two locations that have had severe traffic delay due to multiple accidents and the overcrowded roads. I was surprised to see how many people were at this meeting considering this didn’t seem to be something that would strike interest to the public. They even had to pull out extra chairs at one point to lend a hand to those who didn’t have a seat. A Preliminary Design and Engineering Study was conducted to establish enhancements to the intersections to diminish the traffic and improve the safety on these roads. The study found that the two intersections flow of traffic is horrible due to the lack of turning lanes. The study concluded that traffic safety and operation could be enhanced by: “Modifying and / or closing off the two nearest median openings that are located on North Lakeview within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway” and by “Modifying and closing off the nearest median opening located on Northdale Boulevard within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway.” They showed a video to everyone to demonstrate how they were going to improve these intersections. The video was very informative and provided specific details how the county would improve this. We were also given a pamphlet that listed all of these details. Most of the details were similar for the two intersections. For example, the county plans to widen both roads to make room for extra turning lanes. Also, they would replace streetlights and create traffic separators.

I found this meeting to be a little dull for me because I do not drive on either of these roads regularly. I know that most of the people attending must either drive on the roads frequently or was involved in many of the accidents on these roads. At one point one of the city officials or speakers said there was a possible option that was not mentioned on our pamphlet, which would prohibit any construction and leave it the way it is. As a frequent driver on Bruce B Downs by the construction by i75, I could definitely understand why many people applauded at this point. Construction traffic stinks! I think everyone can agree on that; however, I do understand that the county’s first concern is our own safety.

Field Trip: Hillsborough Medical Examiner Office

-----"I saw dead people”

I loved the fact that the Hillsborough Medical Examiner office was within two miles of the university. My friend Lou Lou and I were the last two to arrive to the presentation. Vernard Adams, the chief medical examiner, gave a great presentation, but spoke in a very low voice that made it difficult to hear the recording that I took that day. He stressed something that I thought would be obvious, but never thought about: Photographs of autopsies are not available to the public (even though I happened to see a photograph later on the tour). This came in effect after Dale Earnhart, the NASCAR race-car driver, was killed in an accident during the 2001 Daytona 500 race. Newspapers wanted photographs of the autopsy, but obviously the family objected to this. This introduced the Earnhart protection act, which prevented photograph autopsies to become public records. Written records of the autopsy are public records unless the case is under examination, like rape investigations or criminal investigations. Someone from the medical examiners office has to call the state attorneys office and get approval from the state attorney to determine if these are open to the public or not. Now you may get a different response if you ask the detectives handling the case. The police may not allow it to be a public record because it may interfere with investigations.

After the presentation Mr. Adams took us on a tour of the building. Our first stop was to see the clerical files room. This is where I accidentally managed to view a photo of an autopsy. With respect to the individual, I wont go into details about what I saw, but it reminded me of a prison photo only the subject was not alive. Each folder was organized with different color tabs to identify which ones were suicides, homicide’s natural death, drug related deaths etc. I was surprised to see that they had more suicide cases then homicides. As we continued the tour we saw a science lab that reminded me of the ones I saw in high-school and learned that the electric bill of this place was approximately $25,000 to keep fresh air circulating. Then we came to everyone’s favorite part: The Autopsy Room. We were originally told that were not allowed in the room because they were in progress of clearing the organs of one of the bodies; however, once we saw other classmates in the room we demanded to go in as well. The body we saw reminded me of a prop that didn’t even look real. Once I remembered that they clean the bodies and collect the organs, this made it easier to remember that this person was indeed real. Next we saw the fridge where multiple bodies were kept. The smell in this was unbearable. I literally had to hold my breath while in the room and could still smell it even after the door was closed. The tour ended with Mr. Adams explaining how much he loved his job because it’s always interesting.

Poynter: Associated Press Managing Editors Seminar

The ride to St. Pete had me hoping this seminar would be worth the gas and the time to travel. The moment I walked into the room I heard the three speakers talking about Lebron James, the NBA basketball player for the Miami Heat. Immediately these speakers had my attention before I had discovered a seat. Unfortunately, I caught this seminar towards the end and had to piece together everything on my own. It wasn’t too hard. During the time when I had arrived they were in the middle of a Q and A session passing around microphones to answer general questions about the presentation. The summary’s main focus was on local and recreation sports because it is believed by Debra Simmons, one of the speakers, that the public can get information on professional teams elsewhere. I agree with her statement because local high school and college sports are what folks are interested, especially in their local community.

The seminar was tilted: The evolution of sports coverage: Do they need us anymore? Ronnie Ramos, another speaker, brought up a point that I strongly agree with: Fans bring opinions to sports. It’s okay to hear something from an analysts point of view, but as a sports guy myself, I really don’t care what they discuss half the time on ESPN. Sometimes they keep a story going for too long that no one seems to care about. Hello Bret Farve!? Another example of this was when they were all discussing Lebron James and his decision to leave Cleveland. One of the speakers spoke on why he got the attention that he did that I had never really thought of. If James chose to stay in Cleveland, you can tell a story about the city being happy that their all-star had returned, not too long or much of a story. However; there was a strong belief for sometime that James would play for the New York Knicks. Once he chose to go to Miami, New York fans were angry. It was the amount of anger nationwide that drove the story and as we all know, anger and drama sells.

I hate Twitter. I think it’s a worthless social networking site. Even though my dislike towards this site is high, I have come to learn and was reminded during the seminar that Twitter is a great social network to gather information,. The speakers provided details that sources like Adam Schefter, a well-known ESPN analyst, tweets about certain topics on sports that we as journalists can take and use as quotes or information. I also learned a fun fact: Only 10 percent of people on twitter are under the age of 35. Never would have saw that one coming!

Library Day

Today my class gathered in the library to learn how to gain access to public records using the USF library databases. Cheryl McCoy led the presentation and gave everyone who attended a detailed walk-through on the USF library website. One thing I loved about the walk-through is that we were all seated in front of a computer and could follow Cheryl so we could access the information on our own. Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that if I ever get lost on the website Cheryl’s contact information is literally on the right side of the screen. The databases for our Public Affairs Reporting class are broken up into three tabs on the top of the screen: Information on Florida public records & open government, locating public records, and newspapers. I really feel that this will help me when I am searching for information about the person I have been assigned. It amazes me that all this information has been on our USF website this whole time. I wish I had known about these databases when I first arrived to the university. It would have made doing research papers a whole lot easier. I didn’t understand the difficulty in finding the resources needed to gain the information we need on our individual. I feel that all of these field trips and even the library website are helping all of us gain real life knowledge on how to find public information on anyone. The fact that we have an unknown individual is the perfect test. This way when we are faced with a news story featuring another unknown individual we can take all the practice experience we have gained in this class and apply it to our careers. Even if some of us don’t continue on the path of broadcasting or journalism, I feel everyone will walk away from this class learning multiple new things.

Field Trip: Court House

On Tuesday my class took a trip to the courthouse in downtown Tampa. Entering the building reminded me of a security check at an airport. We had to empty our pockets, remove our belts, and pass through a metal detector. We first got a presentation from Pat. Her position in the courthouse is the Clerk of the Court. Pat is also the Controller of Hillsborough County, which is also known as the chief financial officer. As the chief financial officer she is responsible of investing and keeping eight billion dollars in county money. Pat explained how a corporation titled Justice Served looked over 3,000 websites around the world and nominated the Hillsborough Courthouse website to be in the top 10. After Pats presentation she handed over the reins to Doug, who walked us through the website. We learned how you could search online for public records on anyone in Hillsboruough County and their court files. These court files include everything from misdemeanors, marriages, and birth and death certificates. I became intrigued by this and began surfing the website for friends and family info. As both Pat and Doug explained the website is real easy to find things and very easy to use. After Doug’s presentation Dana led us on a tour of the multiple adjacent buildings. The courthouse is literally connected to multiple different buildings nearby. We didn’t have much time because most of my class was parked next to parking meters. Dana showed us where we would have to go in the courthouse to find information and hardcopy documents that can only be accessed at the courthouse. This will help everyone in my class because we were all assigned to an individual and we must to collect public records and documents about this person. When Dana was finished we raced over to our car to find that the parking meter had just hit 0 minutes and began flashing.

Field Trip: Hillsborough County Jail

"Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?"
--Bob Marley

On Tuesday my class visited the Hillsborough County Jail. Upon entering the jail we were told to not bring anything that could be considered a weapon into the point of no return. We all emptied our keys and left behind our cell phones to begin the tour of the jail. I found it curious that the officers just took our word that no one was carrying anything that could be considered dangerous and let us all pass by the metal detector that was in front of the door that we entered.

The control room seemed very advanced and the camera footage was cycling through on multiple televisions. This is when I first realized that most of that footage could be available as public records. I asked the officer if there had been any escapes at the prison. Expecting a definite NO! I was surprised to find that two people had escaped the facility but were eventually recaptured. Everyone seemed stunned when viewing a prisoner up close. I had much sympathy for the girls in my class because I can't imagine how being the "eye candy" to these people must have felt.

After viewing the pods and areas where the prisoners mingle convinced me that I never want to be in jail/prison ever! The small room would drive me insane, that's why it wasn't surprising to hear that some of the inmates had done some pretty graphic things to themselves. I now know why all camera footage of jails and prisons have no sound. The echo in any room in the facility would cause so much noise to bounce back and forth that you would not be able to understand anything. I can't even begin to imagine a day for the prisoners or the officers in that room for the "crazies." There was literally a small entry at the foot of the door to feed the inmates because some of them were so bad they weren’t even let out but maybe an hour a day or less.

Booking was our last stop where we viewed all of the people who had been arrested within 24 hours. We were told to be silent as we walked past the obvious stare downs from the new inmates. Before we left we were lectured on what information we were able to collect from the prison (the only things unavailable were social security numbers and witness names). Overall, very educating and the experience motivated me to be a perfect law abiding citizen.

Field Trip: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

On Tuesday my public affairs class took a field trip to Ybor and visited the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to get a better understanding of public records. I learned that if you need public record within the Hillsborough County area, we as public citizens can request files any time at the sheriff’s office, jail and courthouse; however not everything is considered a public record. We were given a very useful and very descriptive pamphlet on the standard operating procedures describing news releases and media cooperation. Section six of this pamphlet specifically lists what may be released unless it falls into the 10 listing examples. Personally this pamphlet is a must-keep-item so we, as mass communications majors, can legally understand what can and cannot be released. Mrs. Nunez and Mr. Callaway (spelled like the golf club) provided my class with copies of affidavit reports, copies of examples of arrests that were recent and up to date, and copies of arrest warrant documents to see first hand what these documents look like. Nunez and Callaway also offered my class advice to help us become better journalists and to get a clear understanding how to communicate well with the sheriff’s office.

We were all allowed to watch 9-1-1 operators doing there job and learned some interesting facts about the job. I thought it was very interesting that they can trace your location accurately within 300 meters when you place your 9-1-1 call. The most stunning fact was how long each of these individuals trains for their jobs: a little over a year. As Travis mentioned in class, our carpool discussed on the way home how mental that job has to be. Imagine getting a 9-1-1 call and have to calm down a mother who lost a child or even explain to a confused child why her mother or father won’t wake up. Even though none of these events are the operator’s faults, going to sleep after receiving over one million calls in a year must be terrifying.

Guest Speaker: Matt Doig

On Tuesday September 7 my public affairs class got a visit from an investigative reporter from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Matt Doig. From the beginning, Doig offered some basic examples and advice to my entire class how to benefit from public records as journalists. With the mass amount of public records available to the community it can sometimes be difficult to organize paper databases in correct order. Without the technology we have today, it would take months or even years to discover any of the interesting facts in public records. Doig offered a lot of advice to my classmates on how to utilize databases for journalists. He first demonstrated a database in public records of every teacher in the state of Florida. That’s over 100,000 teachers! The database included such information like where they work, their social security numbers, and even their test scores to become teachers (which was not easy to obtain). He told us how he and some other colleague’s uncovered teachers who received low test grades that were placed at poorer schools than those who scored higher than them.


After providing us this example, Doig reiterated that everyone needs to learn how to use Excel or Access to make databases easier to do, “Databases can end a debate and give definitive answers.” Another fun fact I learned from this lecture is that Florida is the number one state for housing fraud in the United States. Even with the real estate market the way it was when the economy crashed, I never once suspected that Florida would be at the top of the list. Doig told us a story when he and his colleagues discovered, through public records, a way to catch some of these frauds. Through a database, they limited a search to 55,000 people who had sold a house twice within 90 days. From there they had to dig deeper to uncover the criminals who were abusing the system.

Guest Speaker: Tim Nickens

I didn’t realize how difficult it is to get information like what we get here in Florida then in many other states. We are very fortunate here in Florida; Tallahassee is well trained as an open government; however, Tallahassee can be frustrating at the local level. A local government such as a city hall is where you run into problems with open government. They may not be comfortable or not know the laws very well. Also, most of the staff are traditionalists with certain morals. There is a lot of information that I was unaware of that is made available to the public. I was surprised that you can get voting records, driver’s licenses, or even what you sold your house for and what it’s actually worth. Public records are your “toolbox” in all aspects of journalism for making a good story. I now understand the process of networking with sources. Keeping and knowing good sources may lead you to where you need too look in public records. Just because its public doesn’t mean it’s going to be right there in front of you. Your sources can assist you by pointing you in the right direction. Also, its helps the more you know about a document because its likely the source will be willing to help you “look under that rock” and point you in the right direction. Even though I’ve never had a problem with it, it’s important to never be afraid to ask questions. By doing this you will be able to read and understand what you are looking for. I found the story of the supposed college building that was actually an airport hanger to be an inspiring, hardworking, journalistic story. I believe that those in power who abuse the system need to be put in check regularly by the media.