
9-year-old reporter breaks crime news, posts videos, fires back at critics - yurisagalov
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/04/05/9-year-old-reporter-breaks-crime-news-posts-videos-fires-back-at-critics/?tid=ss_fb-bottom
======
avivo
This is not a sign that "news organizations should try harder" (quoting
another comment).

It's a sign that good local news is not profitable to produce — e.g. a failure
of the free market to provide a critical public good. As a corollary, it's a
sign that a prerequisite of functional democracy is failing.

One potential solution is directly government funded news, but then the
government can control the news, which is a potentially worse scenario!

A more effective alternative might be a universal tax rebate of say $100,
which can only be allocated to news organizations. (though of course there are
lots fiddly details to make this actually work)

~~~
chickenbane
Ironically, I find government funded news - e.g., BBC and the PBS Newshour -
some of my most reliable news sources. The advantage of publicly funded news
organizations is that they don't have to chase ratings (and they obviously
don't).

~~~
rorykoehler
BBC is going downhill lately

~~~
deepnet
BBC suffers increasingly from D-notices (secret bans) on stories.

e.g. Unaoil scandal is _glaringly absent_ from the BBC.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=unaoil](http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=unaoil)

~~~
ForHackernews
The BBC and every other mainstream media source, it seems.

I had never heard of this, and the only "major" source I could find was a
Reuters wire story (that seems to not have been picked up by other media):
[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/iraq-probe-claims-unaoil-
corr...](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/iraq-probe-claims-unaoil-
corruption-122807385.html)

Honestly, from reading that, it's not clear why this would be a story worth
covering. Corruption in Iraq is like rain in Seattle: Depressing, but barely
newsworthy.

~~~
deepnet
Yes D-notices are applied nationally in the UK.

Unaoil is not intersting for Iraqi corruption but the foriegn offshore
multinatinational beneficiaries.

Deserving of a least a column inch - the obvious D-noting makes it a LOT more
interesting from a UK perspective.

~~~
vidarh
Here it is covered in The Guardian:

[http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/authorities-...](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/authorities-
monaco-raid-oil-firm-unaoil-hq-corruption-investigation)

Since D-notices are not legally binding, if The Guardian received one but
chose to report anyway, I'd be very surprised if they didn't mention a
D-notice - the times government have overstretched with respect to D-notices,
it has usually caused a major stink.

~~~
deepnet
Nice catch.

Isn't The Guardian is now based in the US, since GCHQ ground up some of their
computers ?

[http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/31/footage-
relea...](http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/31/footage-released-
guardian-editors-snowden-hard-drives-gchq)

~~~
vidarh
No.

The Guardian is wholly owned by a UK trust, and its head office remains in
London.

The only thing that changed was that reporting _of the Snowden affair_ was
shifted to their US office. The Guardian pointed out to GCHQ in advance that
it made no difference as they already had copies of the data elsewhere.

Furthermore, it was The Guardian itself who "ground up" their computers, as
they refuse flat out a request to let GCHQ inspect the computers and do the
destruction. Instead they agreed to destroy them in the presence of GCHQ
staff, exactly because it didn't matter, and let them avoid legal liabilities.
And frankly being able to put the story in the paper probably didn't hurt.
From the article you linked:

'"Three Guardian staff members – Johnson, executive director Sheila Fitzsimons
and computer expert David Blishen – carried out the demolition of the
Guardian's hard drives. It was hot, sweaty work. On the instructions of GCHQ,
the trio bought angle-grinders, dremels – a drill with a revolving bit – and
masks. The spy agency provided one piece of hi-tech equipment, a "degausser",
which destroys magnetic fields, and erases data. It took three hours to smash
up the computers. The journalists then fed the pieces into the degausser.

Two GCHQ technical experts – "Ian" and "Chris" – recorded the process on their
iPhones. Afterwards they headed back to GCHQ's doughnut-shaped HQ in
Cheltenham carrying presents for family members, bought on their rare visit to
the capital.

"It was purely a symbolic act," Johnson said. "We knew that. GCHQ knew that.
And the government knew that," He added: "It was the most surreal event I have
witnessed in British journalism."'

------
danso
Her name is _Hilde_? The same as the heroine Hilde Johnson in the greatest
movie about journalism (yes, that includes All The President's Men IMHO), _His
Girl Friday_? You couldn't ask for better journalism parents :).

BTW _His Girl Friday_ , directed by Howard Hawks, is not only one of the best
movies of its era, it is one of the few great movies that are truly in the
public domain. You can watch it on Internet Archive:

[https://archive.org/details/his_girl_friday](https://archive.org/details/his_girl_friday)

~~~
jdnier
Also a strong female figure from the seventh century: St Hilda of Whitby.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_of_Whitby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_of_Whitby)

~~~
marcusgarvey
>Hilda is considered one of the patron saints of learning and culture,
including poetry.

Interesting detail. I always enjoy learning about who's the patron saint of
this or that. Why did the tradition start, and how does each saint get
assigned a domain? How offbeat it can get? And are "they" planning to update
it occasionally to match how the world has changed?

~~~
yolesaber
I went to Catholic school and yes they do in fact update saints. There's a
patron Saint for the internet (Isidore of Seville), movies (Genesius), and
astronauts (Joseph of Cupertino). I would say the tradition combines derives
from Greco-Roman theosymbolism where divine beings represent specific domains
of contemporary life. Note that Protestant and Baptist denominations do not
generally recognize patron saints.

You can see a list of all them here and the rationale for their patronage as
well. Pretty interesting to see the swath of culture and technology they
cover:
[http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/patrons.aspx](http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/patrons.aspx)

------
aaron695
These articles are all so clichéd aimed straight at the masses.

A child seems to be doing something only an adult could do and better even!
Stupid adults, kids showed them.

There exists an adult who's mean about it! OMG get out the pitchforks we get
to be self righteous, the world is beating on a child.

Why can't we take things as they are. It's very cool she's writing stories.
It's an interesting slant for her readers that she's a child. Leave it at
that.

~~~
curiousgeorgio
These comments are all so clichéd aimed straight at the HN audience.

A reporter seems to be reporting about a child reporter who is doing something
noteworthy. Sensationalist reporters, HN commenters showed them!

There exists a reporter who wrote about it. OMG, get out the sarcasm we get to
be condescending, the world is reporting a story about a child reporter.

Why can't we take things as they are. It's very cool that Tom Jackman is
writing stories. It's an interesting slant for his readers that he's writing
about a child. Leave it at that.

:)

~~~
free2rhyme214
LOL

~~~
f1hybrid
I bet even aaron is :)

------
bobajeff
When a 9 year old consistently does your job better and more thoroughly than
you do purely out of enjoyment maybe it's a sign that you should try harder.

~~~
exolymph
Granted, she's subsidized by her parents. Real reporters have to serve a
business, even if they're not directly involved in discussions of revenue and
strategy. Often journalists aren't given the time or resources to dig up
stories and vet them thoroughly.

~~~
rjbwork
And thus, the sad decline of our media. Beholden to CPMs, CTRs, UPVs, CPAs,
CPLs, CRs, and a dozen other acronyms that mean one thing - more eyeballs ==
more money. So they write in the fastest, most outrageous, most viral manner
possible.

They're incentivized to do things like clickbait, and outrage/yellow
journalism to keep people spreading it, whether they agree with the viewpoint,
or dispute the facts, because it's better to get the eyeballs than have any
kind of integrity or skill at the profession.

~~~
yazaddaruvala
> And thus, the sad decline of our media.

Isn't Hilde's example exactly the opposite? That motivated individuals can do
the basics as a hobby?

Two observations:

1\. The barriers to entry have been dramatically lowered. i.e. Cost of
distribution is slightly about $0.

2\. For basic stories most people only care about the tldr: some drunk driver
killed a man on ...; Or about aggregations of tldrs: i.e. 5 people we killed
last week due to gun violence in ...

Regardless of the talents of Hilde or her more experienced competitors. When
I'm only reading tldr, I really doubt I can tell a 9 year old, from a 90 year
old, from some software.

Given the above: With enough motivated hobbyists, all we need is better
software news summarizers/aggregators and you can have great aggregations at
the local, regional, and global levels.

If your concern is the lack of substance, I would ask, what percentage of the
time do you actually care? I'm willing to bet, its a small percentage of the
time. I'd also be willing to bet that you only really care about substance for
stories that hit the top of news aggregators (i.e. "viral" stories)!

Given that: It should be relatively easy for "real journalists" to pick and
bring substance to this small number of stories deserving substance.

Actually, there could even be a BugBounty type exchange. How much do you care
about this story? $10, $20? If we collectively reach $1000 a Bloomberg
journalist will spend a day on it and so forth.

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "For basic stories most people only care about the tldr: some drunk driver
> killed a man on ..."

Without wishing to be offensive... perhaps that's a sign that stories like
that aren't really newsworthy. Lots of things happen on any given day,
including thousands of deaths, isn't the purpose of news outlets to select
stories that have significance to their audience rather than going for stories
where the main substance can be found in the title?

------
jsonne
That's super neat! It's really unfortunate people are being so negative.
Sometimes the anonymous aspect of the internet, while overall a good thing,
can lead to people being critical of others for no reason at all.

~~~
DanBC
They were being mean on Facebook, which means they were being mean under their
real names and photographs to a nine year old child.

~~~
jsonne
Interesting. I saw her video and they didn't list any names so I assumed they
were anonymous comments.

~~~
DanBC
Ah, the Facebook link is buried in the article.

> But her reporting did not impress some of the good people of Selinsgrove,
> and they let Hilde have it on Facebook Saturday night. “I think this is
> appalling that u would do a story like this when all the facts are not in
> yet,” wrote one commenter. Her parents were attacked too: “does no one
> realize that this is a 9 year old reporting this type of graphic
> information!” wrote a Facebook poster. “I mean, what parents are encouraging
> this type of behavior!”

------
bootload
_“Because she’s the only one doing community news, she’s developed sources who
trust her to cover the news. One of her sources contacted her, and she was
able to confirm it with law enforcement. She knocked on every door, like she’d
seen me do with the Daily News. There were no other reporters there.”_

Old school journalism. Ask questions, check with sources, get independent
confirmation, write it up. Woodward and Bernstein had to get confirmation for
three different independent sources before the Washington Post would run their
major story that took the President down.

------
davemel37
Reminds me of the Wonder Showzen segments called "Beat Kids"
[https://youtu.be/IwvrGHsjD7g](https://youtu.be/IwvrGHsjD7g)

~~~
ank_the_elder
Wonder Showzen was so incredibly insulting to everything and everyone, I will
forever be amazed that it aired at all.

~~~
minikites
I like the creators' take on this:

[http://www.avclub.com/article/wonder-
showzen-13983](http://www.avclub.com/article/wonder-showzen-13983)

> Standards are such a weird thing at a network like MTV. What's your moral
> standard when you're celebrating 16-year-old kids spending $2 million on a
> party? That's always our argument—"You show this stuff that's actually
> offensive!" There's not even any satire to it, just people yelling at
> workers.

------
ArnoldCarlyle
I'm not sure whether being 9 makes her more vulnerable to manipulation by
figures who want to make themselves look good in the news, or less. It's
certainly _different_ , ie unlikely to have the same sorts of biases as other
reporters, which can be quite valuable.

------
matt_morgan
Well, MY 9-yo can tell you how to beat lots of Pokemon gym leaders and Elite
fours.

------
erikb
Like: little girl already takes something that serious and works hard on it.

Not like: Hard to believe that a 9 year old kid gets these ideas really by
herself. I worry a little that her father is pushing her too much. Also
investigating murders is maybe not something a child should do.

Not understand: Why is it such a big deal that someone reported something
first? Never really got behind why that's a deal. Maybe this way you can
understand your "job" more as a "game"? I don't see people switching from
newspaper/blog number one to newspaper/blog number two, because number two
reported one story faster.

~~~
djaychela
I'm not sure about her not getting ideas like that herself. I'm a step-parent
to four kids, and one in particular has an imagination that most people would
kill for. She takes it upon herself to get into all sorts of things, writes
stories with real depth of imagination and concepts behind them, and has
recently taught herself to do stop-motion animation to tell these stories. I'm
sure if she'd taken to journalism it would have been a similar story, so here
I see a kid who has real ability and has taken to the role model she has in
her father. Maybe Dad is pushing her too much, but maybe she's really into it.

Reporting first seems a big deal to me as everyone else could well be copying
what's already been reported. I would think that the first person to report it
accurately is serving the most purpose (subject to being correct, etc).

------
cpeterso
The article available without a paywall on this news site:

[http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/apr/05/9-year-old-
repo...](http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/apr/05/9-year-old-reporter-
breaks-crime-news-posts-videos/)

------
benclarke
What a promising young woman, I'm sure her parents are very proud! Sadly, it's
not very hard to beat the local paper anymore. Now that we consume most of our
news online for free, media companies rely entirely on ad revenue and simply
can't afford to provide good local coverage. Ad-supported professional
journalism just does not work for local stories that can't attract a huge
audience.

Some of you have suggested Government funded news - while I agree that quality
local news is a critical public good, I believe that Government intervention
in the industry is dangerous. I'm confident that the free market will
eventually solve this problem with a creative new business model.

------
doozler
Such a shame about all of the online trolls targeting a 9 year old girl. I'm
so glad she has not let it faze her and stood up to the bullies!

------
caffinatedmonk
[Here's a link to the original response video which the article failed to
include.]([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShfNQOUeAY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShfNQOUeAY))
Probably to reduce bounce rates or something.

------
DaniFong
I love this kid

------
pknerd
At one side I am happy to see this new kind of journalism where people would
get news from genuine sources instead of some _madeup_ stories while on other
hand I am sad for this kid who got into such things in the age where she
should get involved in things that help her to enjoy life.

~~~
zaphar
That's an odd statement to make. The whole article is about how she is doing
exactly the thing that helps her enjoy life.

------
free2rhyme214
I remember hearing about a startup that tried to crowd fund the news. I don't
think it worked but it's a cool idea.

------
numinit
Probably better than the typical sensationalized crap, that's for sure.

------
ps4fanboy
I am sure she has better content than Buzz Feed

------
ilostmykeys
way to go!

------
sydneysider
Cute

~~~
sydneysider
why the downvote? I actually meant it's cute, not the cynical 'cute'

~~~
mrspeaker
I didn't downvote you (else I wouldn't be able to post a reply!) but the
downvote comes from not adding anything substantial to the conversation: it's
the +1 of github issues - any "thanks for posting!" kind of comments tend to
get killed (again, it would be better to post something more substantial, like
why you liked it etc etc). Your reply to yourself got downvoted, 'cause "no
complaining about being downvoted"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
ars
> I didn't downvote you (else I wouldn't be able to post a reply!)

Eh? Yes you can. Why do you think you can't?

In fact if you downvote you are encouraged to post a reply to explain why.

It's actually the opposite: You can't downvote people who reply to you.

------
RudeLouis
"Her father is an author and former New York Daily News reporter who took
Hilde to his newsroom and to stories he covered around New York and hooked her
on the rush of chasing news."

Welp.

~~~
tdoggette
Well, yeah, _someone_ had to teach her that flawless inverted-pyramid writing
style.

