News Comment #2
For our second News Comment, I read an article from The New York Times called “3 Vermont State Troopers Investigated Over Fake Vaccination Cards”. The article discussed how 3 Vermont State Troopers were suspected of having various roles in producing fake vaccine cards. All three State Troopers have resigned at this point and are under an ongoing federal investigation.
After reading the article it did seem as if the writer, Jonny Diaz, wrote this in an inverted pyramid style. The most relevant or “important” information was found near the top of the story and the less important information was found later on. There really wasn’t any bias in this story. It was very straightforward and provided merely factual information. There weren’t really any points where the author’s opinion on the matter or the coronavirus, in general, came through. I also thought the necessary information was given and if anything was still in question it was explained why that information wasn’t included. For example, the story specifically references that no further comments will be made due to the ongoing investigation.
I found the story to be pretty relevant with the ongoing pandemic. At first, my thoughts were that this is pretty concerning if people in positions of authority are creating fake vaccine cards. Anymore today you go places that allow you to enter without wearing a mask on the basis that you are fully vaccinated. This goes for other things as well. So the idea that people are making up fake ones is a little alarming. With that being said, it was nice that Diaz included a quote from the director of the Vermont State Police saying “‘The accusations in this case involve an extraordinary level of misconduct — a criminal violation of the law — and I could not be more upset and disappointed,’”. From an everyday reader’s perspective, it was nice to see that the actions by the 3 state troopers were not found acceptable. Overall, I thought the writer did a good job including what was necessary and in a way that aligns with our learnings well.