Sep 27 2018
News Comment #6 – Rachel Mitchell, a Veteran Sex Crimes Prosecutor, Faces National Glare in Kavanaugh Case
This article plays to a bunch of different news values, one of the main ones being relevance. This for a while can be one of the evergreen stories we mentioned in class that for a while will be important to talk about. That time period is until the hearings are completed. Until that comes this story and topic is pretty evergreen.
Another news value that comes into play is the idea of prominence. Any Supreme Court Justice, current or future, is prominent in American society. Many people might not be able to name two justices but they are prominent and very important to every day life.
I thought the lead was good, bringing in a story from the previous career of Mitchell. Also showing how, in a few cases throughout history, the system may have been stacked against the women in these kinds of scenarios. The lead definitely kept me reading the rest of the story however.
One response so far
The story definitely has timeliness. I’m not sure how to interpret the lead. I’m not sure what the first seven paragraphs — the italics — is supposed to be. All of that is unnecessary. It’s the stuff about Mitchell’s background in Arizona that matters.