Applying Fairness & Balance

First, we ask -- what do we know?

• A 15 year old was found not breathing in school, possibly after taking a dose of methadone .

• The child allegedly bought the methadone from a bus aide earlier that morning, in what may have been a pre-arranged sale.

• The bus aide has been arrested and charged for a "drug related" offense.

Next, we ask -- HOW do we know these things?

• The journalist tells us about the child, along with the detective.

• The detective also tells us about the alleged pre-arranged drug sale

• We see a mugshot of, and are told about the charged bus aide by the journalist.

Now, in determining whether this story is fair and balanced (if appropriate), it's helpful to use the three markers that we highlighted earlier -- Fair Language, Fair Presentation, and Fair Play.

In terms of Fair play, we'd say that this story doesn't exhibit markers of that, as we only hear from the police. This isn't to say that they aren't trustworthy, but a fair story would have included information from another source, such as maybe the doctors or school nurse, who might be able to verify that the child's affliction was caused by methadone.

In terms of presentation, the story also has problems, in that it only portrays the bus aide through a mug shot, and gives no indication that the journalist tried to reach out to either this accused or his lawyer for information on the drugs or the sale, if it in fact had happened. (This is known as transparency, which we'll discuss in another lesson.)

Lastly, language -- The story starts with a chyron (or graphic) that reads "bus aide busted", which automatically assigns guilt to the aide, who has not been convicted, but only charged with a crime, and gives no indication to the fact that the sale of the drugs may have been pre-arranged with the child.

Overall, we'd say that this story is not fair, nor is it balanced.