Discussion. Answer the following questions:
Do you think Charlotte’s parents are to blame for her death? Do you believe Mark Latta murdered his daughter? Can you suppose it was his wife who caused Charlotte bodily harm? Could it have been somebody else who had access to the baby?
Have you heard of any similar cases when children suffered from cruel treatment? What charges should be brought against people who harm children?
Writing. We read at the end of the story: ‘The trial continues.’ Imagine what happened on the next day of the case, and write a report of it. Make your report about half the length of the one from The Daily Mail.
Unit 2
Part I. American Newspapers
Daily papers
There
are more than 1500 daily
newspapers
in the USA. Each one is usually sold only in one part of the
country, but they cover national and international news. Due
to the size and the federal character of the US, it was virtually
impossible to have a nation-wide press comparable to the British
press. However, several big newspapers have succeeded. USA
Today
was launched in 1982 as the first American national
newspaper.
The
Washington Post
and the Los
Angeles Times
have now established themselves as major national news organs, whose
political coverage and analyses play an important role in the
political process; the Philadelphia
Inquirer Miami Herald
and Boston
Globe
have produced significant, nationally recognized, coverage and
investigations; and the New
York Times,
which for most of the century has been the most respected and
influential newspaper in the United States, and the Wall
Street Journal,
the business daily, are both now printed and distributed nationally.
USA Today, a national newspaper introduced by Gannett in 1982, was one of the first newspapers to make heavy use of colour in pictures, maps and graphics. Most major newspapers in the United States now use colour. USA Today is being printed in 32 locations in the United States and two outside the country and has a bigger circulation than that of any metropolitan daily newspaper.
Other important newspapers are the Chicago Tribune, sold in the Midwest, the Rocky Mountain News, sold in the mountain states, and The Christian Science Monitor, sold in cities nationally.
Daily newspapers are published on every day of the week except Sunday. There are quality papers and tabloids which are also called the “yellow press”. Most American dailies are “quality” papers and reflect responsible journalism. Sensational press products like the New York Daily News are more of an exception.
Today there are about 9000 different newspapers with a circulation figure of 60 million copies. About 80 newspapers are foreign-language publications. Press organs of international excellence are furthermore The Christian Science Monitor and the two weekly magazines Time and Newsweek. The Wall Street Journal and The Herald Tribune with their different editions in Europe and Asia have started a new era, that of the world paper.
Sunday papers
Sunday newspapers are very big, often having several separate sections. They contain a lot of long articles and advertisements. Each section deals with a different subject, for example, national and international news, sport, travel. One section, the “classifieds”, has advertisements for jobs and things for sale. Another section contains cartoons and comic strips and is called the “funnies”. There is also a free colour magazine.
Ownership and political bias
The American press is not controlled by the state. Most newspapers and magazines in the United States are private commercial enterprises. Many newspapers are now part of large national chains, such as Gannett, which owned 83 daily newspapers in 1993 including the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Detroit News; Knight-Ridder, which owned 29 newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury-News; Newshouse, which owned 27 newspapers, including the Portland Oregonian and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Scripps-Howard, which owned 20 including the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Other large newspaper chains include Hearst, publisher of the San Francisco Examiner; Times-Mirror, publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Newsday and the New York Times Company, which now also owns the Boston Globe.
There are no newspapers with a clear Democratic or Republican leaning. American newspapers tend to be impartial and unbiased in their news reporting. Objective information and personal comment are clearly separated.
Notes
comic strip – usually a sequence of comic drawings, telling a story
staff-written stories – stories written by staff writers who work for a certain newspaper