The news article “Trump’s new interviews and appearances show that a storm is brewing” by Brian Stelter tackles the latest statements Trump has made publicly when interviewed for example with Dan Ball.

As the author of this article is commenting on entire interviews that Trump has given, he uses a lot of paraphrasing to reflect what has been said and to summarize it for the reader. The purpose of this article is to highlight the “threat” of the “instability”. Stelter points out how Trump “lies about the last election” stating that Biden did not get as many votes as listed. The author uses an informal tone for example when using “I” when describing the process of how he got the information or also addressing the reader directly by saying “You grab the remote halfway through, rewind to the beginning, and pay attention to every word. That’s what I did when Pamela Brown interviewed Rick Hasen and Ian Bassin on Saturday”. He also has a very casual tone, given how he starts off sentences with “well,..”. The article is also meant to entertain the reader as it is not fully fact based and displays the author’s opinion as well. The sentence structure also varies between long complex sentences with subordinate clauses and short simple sentences. This gives some sort of dynamic when reading the article and prevents it from getting monotone and too hard to follow. However, when addressing his concern, he uses the words such as “we”, to create a unity with the audience and to get the reader more involved in the story. He implies that his worries should worry the reader too and suggests that as Americans this affects everyone.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/26/media/trump-interviews-reliable-sources/index.html

A Crime Story of Milieus, Nightlife and Luxurious Lifestyles in Frankfurt’s Upper Class. 

On May 9th 2018 the corpse of Irina Aizina (29) was found in Frankfurt’s largest park “Nidda Park”, with 27 knife stabs into the face and neck. Only a few days later Jan Mai (53) was arrested and put into custody.

Mai was suspected of the murder because according to witnesses, he owed Aizina money from the sale of the “First in” bar they owned together in Frankfurt’s city center. The suspicion grew when Mai’s DNA was found at the crime scene.

Irina Aizina was the owner of Irina & Co Real Estate GmbH with only a mailbox listed as the address and books with red numbers (Northdata.com, 2016). She was driving a luxury Mercedes GLE and invested 175,000 Euros in a bar called “First in” where she worked as a waitress. Aizina was also the daughter of Oleg Aizina, someone who is said to be linked to organized crime in Moldova (Iskandar, 2018). Not only did Jan Mai testify in court that he was “well aware of the family Aizina’s ‘potential’ ”, after her murder, family Aizina members supposedly arrived in Frankfurt “highly emotionalized” and “of unsound mind” (Iskandar, 2018).

Aizina is described by many articles as outgoing and impulsive “partygirl” (Teutsch, 2019). The Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reports in an article how “the court learns a lot about Frankfurt’s night life in the trial about the murder in Nidda Park”.

It becomes even more bizarre when reviewing the testimonies of prosecution’s main witness Stanislava T. When being asked about her relationship to the victim, she testified that they were “best friends” and that their relationship consisted of occasional “fist-fights and cocaine” (Teutsch, 2019). 

News platforms such as the Daily Beast report on Jan Mai as being a character of “big muscle” with “connections to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang” (Huetlin, 2018).

The ‘Biss’ investment magazine released an article about Mai in 2018 stating that “among the public, Mai was regarded as a millionaire”. This assumption is further underpinned by articles labled: “Mai sells his penthouse for 1,75 million” published by BILD (Pfad, 2019) or a calculation by the court to determine his net worth at the time of the murder being 1.3 million Euros (Lang, 2019). When trying to prove that Mai was not broke, he testified in court that he also owned 50% of the house in Oberursel where his kids and wife lived and that his real estate investments resulted in 300 thousand Euro profit (Lang, 2019).

However, investigations revealed that his business’s accounts were all on the debit side and that he had no liquidity left (Lang, 2019). “Narcissism and Hybriss” is what got him involved in the murder says Judge Kaiser-Klan (Schlender, 2020). “You wanted to maintain the picture of the wealthy and successful gastronomist in public” is what the judge states in his verdict. 

The latest headlines about Mai prior to his arrest however involved both him and his supposed murder victim. During New Year’s Eve in 2017 the bar “First in”, run by Aizina and Mai at the time, made headlines in the BILD about refugees entering and molesting women. This story went around the world as it was a heated topic in Germany at the time. Only one year prior to that was the scandal of 2000 refugees raping women right after Germany opened the borders to all Syrian refugees (Noack, 2016). Since German politicians were accused of hiding this incident and only leaked documents had proven the extent of this event, Mai and Aizina’s accusations indicated another failure of German law enforcement and foreign politics. This was used by the right wing party AFD who was emerging at the time for their propaganda campaign against foreigners. However, according to the Washington Post, these accusations were proven false, when investigators found out that Aizina, who testified, was in a different country at the time of the incident (Taylor, 2017). After being asked why Mai went public with this story, he reported: “I was mad that the people in charge said that nothing happened during New Year’s, when I told my friend Kerry Redington about what was going on in that night, he offered to connect me with the BILD. When we met with the BILD in the “Frist in” bar, Aizina was there and offered herself as a witness.” The Trump supporter Kerry Reddington is an American member of the ‘local foreigner’s representation’, chairman of ‘Republicans Overseas Germany eV’ and a sympathizer of the AFD (Majic, 2017).

Due to the major media exposure of this topic, the German government started an investigation and filed charges against Mai and Aizina for inventing a crime. Both of them were scheduled to appear in court only months after the murder. This caused heavy speculations in the media ultimately after the body was found of Aizina, that Mai killed her because of her lying in the news and ruining their business (Langengau, 2018). Only months after the scandal, the “First in” bar was sold for 350 thousand Euros.

Nevertheless, the murder case seems clear to the public, the verdict states: Jan Mai could not pay back the money he owed Azina, after selling their business. Therefore he enticed her into the park with the wrong information that she would receive her money there from an unanimous third party (Archyw, 2021). The only evidence is drops of blood at the crime scene that belong to Mai and a bizarre testimony by Stanislava T. who stated that Mai still owed Aizina “20,000 Euros” (Teutsch, 2019).

Jan Mai had no criminal record prior to his arrest in 2018. He is in prison since May 2018 and still asserts his innocence. His appeal for a revision of his trial was denied in June 2021 (Archyw, 2021).

Work Cited

“Aizina & CO. Real Estate Gmbh, Frankfurt a. Main.” Www.northdata.com, https://www.northdata.de/Aizina+%26+Co.+Real+Estate+GmbH,+Frankfurt+a.+Main/Amtsgericht+Frankfurt+am+Main+HRB+103860.

Archyw. “Judgment against Jan Mai Is Final.” Archyworldys, 9 June 2021, https://www.archyworldys.com/judgment-against-jan-mai-is-final/.

Behr, Stefan, and Hanning Voigts. “Schießerei Unter Rockern.” Https://Www.fr.de, Frankfurter Rundschau, 3 July 2014, https://www.fr.de/rhein-main/schiesserei-unter-rockern-11244420.html.

Fienhold, Ludwig. “Der Gastro-Investor JAN MAI: BISS.” Kulinarisches Magazin – Frankfurt, Deutschland Und Die Welt, May 2018, https://www.fienholdbiss.de/aktuelles/der-gastro-investor-jan-mai/.

Iskandar, Katharina. “Mordfall Irina A.: „Die Ermittler MÜSSEN Ihre Arbeit Tun.’” FAZ.NET, Frankfurt Allgemeine GmbH, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/frankfurt/nach-mord-im-niddapark-geruechte-ueber-opfer-und-taeter-behindern-die-ermittlungen-15591959.html.

Lang, Anna-Sophia. “Mord Im Niddapark: JAN M. Will NICHT Pleite Gewesen Sein.” FAZ.NET, Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/niddapark-jan-m-aeussert-sich-zur-finanzlage-im-mordfall-irina-a-16539362.html.

Langenau, Lars. “Ein ‘Sex-Mob’-Skandal, EINE Tote, Ein Angeklagter.” Süddeutsche.de, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 12 May 2018, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/mord-in-frankfurt-ein-sex-mob-skandal-eine-tote-ein-angeklagter-1.3976930.

Majic, Danijel. “Einsturz Eines Lügengebäudes.” Https://Www.fr.de, Frankfurter Rundschau, 14 Feb. 2017, https://www.fr.de/frankfurt/einsturz-eines-luegengebaeudes-11664340.html.

Noack, Rick. “Leaked Document Says 2,000 Men Allegedly ASSAULTED 1,200 German Women on New Year’s Eve.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 Apr. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/10/leaked-document-says-2000-men-allegedly-assaulted-1200-german-women-on-new-years-eve/.

Pfad, Daniela. “Frankfurt: Jan M. Verkauft Seine WOHNUNG FÜR 1,75 Mio.” Bild.de, BILD, 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.bild.de/regional/frankfurt/frankfurt-aktuell/frankfurt-jan-m-verkauft-seine-wohnung-fuer-1-75-mio-65347546.bild.html.

Taylor, Adam. “German Police Say Major Newspaper’s Story about a Rampaging Arab ‘Sex Mob’ Was Wrong.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18 Apr. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/14/german-police-say-major-newspapers-story-about-a-rampaging-arab-sex-mob-was-wrong/.

Teutsch, Oliver. “Mord Im NIDDAPARK: „Partygirl’ Im Zeugenstand.” Https://Www.fr.de, Frankfurter Rundschau, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.fr.de/frankfurt/frankfurt-hessen-mord-niddapark-zeugin-sagt-gericht-12976750.html.

Schlender https://www.main-spitze.de/lokales/rhein-main/hybris-und-narzissmus_21425948

The article “At least 1 dead, 12 others injured after shooting at Memphis-area Kroger”, published by CNN and written by Rebekah Riess, writes about the information reported by multiple sources revolving the shooting in Tennessee.

Police Chief Dale Lane gets quoted that the shooter was “found dead”. Also the spokesperson Kimberly Alexander said that “at least one patient” was taken to the hospital. However, there is no further information on the condition and the extend of the injuries according to the town spokesperson Jennifer Casey.

The article is very short and only has the necessary information in one to two sentence paragraphs. Hence there is no proper lead. Notable is also that there are no quotes used what so ever. This means that the author solely relied on primary sources when writing this article which makes it credible and a reliable source of information.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/23/us/tennessee-colliersville-shooting/index.html

An Interview with Madison about what it was like when the Covid-19 pandemic started, how it affected her studies and if there are still any things that effect her today from the time of the lockdown.

During class we were supposed to interview a classmate about their Covid-19 experience during college. To start off I asked Madison about her first response to Covid-19 when it started in Spring 2020. She said that she was “happy over the extended spring break”. However, she reports that she was at nationals which meant her trip got cancelled and they had to “turn and head home, which sucked”. When asked about her motivation during the pandemic and if she had any troubles with studying she replied: “I enjoyed online classes more than in person because I could work at my own pace”. Covid-19 must have caused a lot of troubles for students at the time, nonetheless, not so for Madison. Lastly, I wanted to know from her if she adapted any new habits or if any of the acclimatizations transferred into her post lockdown live. She said that everything is “back to normal” and there is nothing really she did or did not do. The only thing that is still effecting her from the experience ist hat she is “still cautious” at all time about the virus.

The article “How a Muslim ‘Sex Mob’ Hoax Led to a Gruesome Murder”, written by Josephine Huetlin, covers a crime story in Frankfurt Germany that occurred in 2018.

When reading the article, one may realize that the headline and the lead are not very connected. The headline is supposed to catch the attention of the reader by dramatizing the facts with adjectives such as “gruesome”. Further the use of “how”one extraordinary event lead to another makes the reader want to know what caused this headline. Nonetheless, when reading the lead, none of what is said in the headline is further evaluated. Besides, the lead only informs the reader about the victim of the murder, neither her connection to the ‘Sex Mob’ nor how that got her murdered.

One can state that this is not a very discerning lead as it does not make the reader get further interested in the story but characterizing the victim with posts and hashtags. The article also drifts of when starting a new topic of “men at women’s march” in Berlin which has not been mentioned in the headline, subtitle or lead. The events mentioned in the headline have also taken place in a completely different city. Apparently the author wants to drag a connection between these two events, however it can be very confusing to the reader.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-muslim-sex-mob-hoax-led-to-a-gruesome-murder

The police is asking for help from the public to identify two masked men that robbed BJ’s last night at 8:30 pm. The robbery occurred on 1625 11th Ave and the suspects left in a vehicle, parked at the curb with its motor running.

“The men came in and held a gun to my head, so I gave them all there was in the cash register which was $382.65” says Barney Joseph Jr, the owner of the store. In situations like this, it is always best to do whatever is asked and not play the hero. Joseph reportedly kept a gun under the counter, however, he decided not to reach for it. When asked why he did not try to defend himself, he mentioned, that his father Barney Joseph was killed in exactly one of those robberies.

Joseph Senior was found dead with his gun in his hand 25 years ago in BJ’s Drug store with a bullet in the store’s ceiling. This suggests that he did exactly what would have been expected from yesterdays victim Joseph Jr but he learned from his father’s death. “I’d rather part with my money than my life” he said.

The police is asking for witnesses who have seen anything suspicious around 11th Ave to report to the police department immediately. They are also warning the public that these armed and dangerous men are still on the escape.

The article “Justice Department sues Texas over six-week abortion ban” written by Tierney Sneed and Evan Perez, published on September 9th 2021, tackles the controversy of the abortion law filed in Texas.

Pro-life activists have found a way in Texas to prevent abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. They used a legal loophole, in which they did not criminalize abortions through the criminal law but through the civil law, which now states that any individual person can sue someone who helps in the act of abortions.

The topic is very relevant because it is a scandal for many people in many ways. As this does not only reflect the heated political situation and the division of the country. It is on one side a big win for the pro-life side while it is a big loss for those who oppose it. Aside of the political dilemma, this might just be the beginning of this topic, as this law also opens up possibilities for other states to do the same. As mentioned in the article, the law was “unprecedented” which means there has not been a legal decision made before of which the judgement is based on. Hence, this case might be the precedent for the future lawsuits. The public interest is also very big as it especially affects all women in the country as it is said “to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights”. Lastly, the topic also has historical relevance has this throws the emancipation back by 71 years, when the abortion was first legalized in 1950.

The authors’ standing point on this topic becomes clear when realizing how negative this law is being viewed in the article as it is described as “unconstitutional” and people “should fear” this change. Nonetheless, the authors have also achieved to keep their personal opinion out of this abstract and keeping the article unbiased, by using multiple quotes of attorney General Merrick Garland who highly criticize this law. The reader, however, is somewhat persuaded to believe this opinion as it is argued in several ways.

First, the authors refer to the constitution and argue how this law is going against the American rights by using quotes from Garland, stating: “This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans — whatever their politics or party — should fear”. This argumentation appeals to pathos, as it tries to emotionally address the reader when mentioning that it is affecting every American as it is threatening American rights and giving the audience a feeling of unity. Further it appeals to ethos, as the authors quote a famous attorney who graduated from Harvard University which makes him a reliable and trustworthy source. Lastly, the authors try to convince the reader to be against the law by using logos, when mentioning further consequences that this law will have. It appears to be logic that now that this law exists, it is important to “protect abortion clinics” and refers to “threats against patients who are seeking reproductive health services”. Nevertheless, people will still feel the need to abort a child if necessary and hence more illegal activity can be expected.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/09/politics/biden-administration-texas-abortion-law/index.html

The article ”Why won’t US TV news say ‘Climate Change'” by Mark Hertsgaard, which was published by The Guardian on the second of September 2021, tackles reports on current natural catastrophes.

Hertsgaard claims, that major news platforms such as ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and MSNBC do not include the words ‘climate change’ in their reports. He backs this up by saying that out of 774 reports only 34 included it. He states that this is a problem because viewers will not make a connections between the reported events and the bigger picture. Furthermore he refers to reporters that put forward how the climate change is “super-charge” the events. Lastly, Hertsgaard quotes specialists such as Kerry Emmanuel who suggests: “This is exactly the kind of thing we’re going to have to get used to as the planet warms.”

To some extend this is a successful report as it fulfills criteria that make a good article. The article talks about a relevant topic, as the hurricane Ida is a disaster that affects many people in the US. Further more the event is current and therefore even more relevant. The author also connects these current events to the general topic of climate change and therefore uses the latest events and the public interest to create awareness for an ongoing topic such as global warming. Hence, this makes what the author says timeless at the same time, as it will still be relevant once the hurricane Ida is not present in the news and media anymore. The hurricane Ida was also compared to hurricane Katrina, known for its immense impact and damage in 2005. Therefore, the historical prominence of the topic is what makes the article more relevant. Finally, the article also encounters topics of conflict, as there is a disagreement amongst the population to whether or not climate change exists and to what extent it is caused by humans.

Climate change is a topic where opinions separate. There is scientific evidence that climate change and global warming does exist, however a portion of people still do not believe in it. When looking at the article, it becomes apparent that the author sees climate change as a severe problem and he allows his opinion to affect his writing. This can be seen at the negative connoted words he uses when referring to the lack of connection to climate change such as “inexcusably”, “malpractice”, “mistake” and “egregious”.

Further, the author involves himself in his writing by saying: “My own survey of the coverage confirmed the trend.” This underpins the lack of objectivity because he already has shown a negative attitude towards the topic and his research is therefore not going to be neutral.

Overall, the article strategically implements itself well in what it wants to address and achieve, however, it could have been written in a more sober tone. The lack of objectiveness by the author make the statements less credible as it seems as if he wants to convince the reader of his viewpoint, which is that everyone should be worried about climate change and take it effects serious.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/02/us-media-hurricane-ida-climate-change