Website Report

The website I chose to write about it is www.pbs.org/wnet/expose/, The website was produced by Thirteen WNET New York in association with the Center of Investigative Reporting. This website is reporting on how investigative reporters are surely, but slowly losing their jobs and how we the public are in the dark about certain that are in our household that is harmful to our health. Is the government keeping secrets from the people a surprise to you? I hope not because it is not a surprise to me. Our lovely U.S.A. was born on secrets and lies, but besides the obvious let us take a deeper look on the Laura Frank Expose.

The story that I focused on was “The Withering Watch Dogs Part 11” by Laura Frank. In this article she started off by saying that about 35 million Americans have a harmful toxic substance in their household called Asbestos. This substance apparently causes damage to the lungs, and eventually leads to the individual having cancer or being unable to breathe. The EPA said they wanted to put flyers in local department stores and go on talk shows to warn the public of the danger they may be in, but until this day the public is still not fully aware on the issue. The reason I believe this issue is not being publicized is because it would be a big financial loss to businesses, which basically correlates to our government. The government’s job is to promote “social welfare” a perfect Utopia. If people found out that our government knew about this Asbestos and still didn’t act it would make them look bad (so my best bet is their probably going to keep this issue contained for as long as they can).
Another issue that Laura brought up is the decline on investigative reporters. Investigative reporters are losing their job from left to right. Why? Hmm I know because government sees them more as a menace then a solution to our society (that is my theory at least). However, investigative reporters has brought plenty of awareness to us consumers like for example reporters reporting about the dangerous chemicals that were in baby bottles or the report on fixing the rudder control problems on jets. Then their was Torres’s work on how high temperatures, high taxes, and lack of infrastructure left Floridians paying some of the highest gas prices in the nation. That story landed Torres her to be the finalist for the “Green Eyeshade, until once again she was also let go as reporter t the famous Sun Sentinel newspaper. Now Torres is just one out of many investigative reporters that have been let go from the their job. It is said in the article that one of every five people were let go from the Sun Sentinel, and that is just one newspaper company. The same continued in that same rate with other newspaper brands leaving an estimate of 25,000 new investigators being laid off. Now the question remains, where does this leave the public? Oh I have an answer! This means they’re will be no one digging up scandals that are being hidden from us and we the people continuing to be uninformed about issues and walking around dumbfounded.

The main purpose of “The Withering Watch Dog” is to keep the public informed on the many issues they may not be aware of because of the lack of investigative reporters. As I stated in the previous paragraph, this article wanted to emphasize the many cases reporters have kept the public informed on as well as show how they themselves were the basis for change in society. In addition, if the employment of investigative reporters continue to decline there will be no voice for the people. Although having reporters report on certain issues didn’t always fix the problem it brought enough attention to help bring about a change. The main objective of the website is to help all the wrongs that were being made by our supposed leaders be corrected. Without reporters, who is going to keep us informed about faulty nursing homes or chemicals in baby bottles, or the massive housing scandals in Miami. I can’t think of any at the moment, can you?