Newsletter
Spring 1998 Issue
Lawyers, journalists to seek
common ground at conference
By Cheryl Wormley
NINA's spring conference puts two of the most-hated professions in the
same room: lawyers and journalists.
"Strange bedfellows, maybe," said Rick Nagel, NINA board member
and editor of the Geneva Press-Republican, "but the conversation promises
to be lively to say the least."
The one-day conference begins at 9 a.m., Friday, April 24, in the Skyroom
of Holmes Student Center at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. It is
co-sponsored by NINA, the Kane County Bar Association and NIU schools of
communication and law. Featured presenters include Linda Cunningham, executive
editor of the Rockford Register Star; Nagel; Dean LeRoy Pernell of the NIU
Law School; media-law expert Don Craven of Craven and Thornton; and several
lawyers and judges.
The mission of the conference is to improve relationships and communication
between the law community and the print media.
Three morning sessions are planned:
* What the press needs to know about the legal community;
* What the legal community needs to know about the press; and
* Media rights and restrictions.
Lunch will be served in the Regency Room.
Cunningham will speak from 1 to 2 p.m. She is a frequent speaker at regional and national media conventions, and has worked at the Rockford Register Star as executive editor since 1991. Prior to that, she was executive editor at two New Jersey newspapers: the Morristown Daily Record and the Trenton Times.
The formal program will conclude with a panel of lawyers, judges, editors, reporters and Craven role-playing the unfolding of an actual news event or a frighteningly-real "made for the day" situation.
A reception for socializing and networking will follow from 3:35 to 5 p.m.
Plan now to attend. More information will be mailed to NINA members in early April.
When
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 24
Where
Holmes Student Center, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb.
Parking
Free to NINA members as space allows. Use the coupon on Page 2. Park in
the Newman Center lot, behind the Campus Life Building on Normal Road, 1
block north of Lucinda Avenue. If that lot is full, use the NIU visitors
lot ($4) next to the library.
Registration
$20 a person. Includes lunch and reception.
Deadline to register
Wednesday, April 15. Please send fees with registration to guarantee a spot.
High-school award aims to
protect journalism's future
By John Etheredge
NINA President
A high school student with aspirations for a career in print journalism
will be selected this spring as NINA's first High School Journalist of the
Year. The student will receive a $500 scholarship, the first ever awarded
by our association to a high school student.
In February, application forms were mailed to public and private high schools
throughout northern Illinois. NINA's education committee will review the
applications and announce the winner in April.
The committee will award the scholarship to the high school senior who plans
to continue his or her education in print journalism at the college level.
The committee will be looking for a student who has demonstrated an understanding
and commitment to quality community journalism.
Last January, NINA's board of directors approved the new scholarship with
the understanding that this year would be a trial run. Funding will come
from NINA's existing revenues. A dues increase was not required.
As NINA president, I was especially pleased by the board's decision to fund
the scholarship since advancing the cause of print journalism education
in northern Illinois is one of our association's primary objectives. And
this is a particularly crucial time for journalism education. Twenty years
ago, during those first few years after Watergate, college journalism programs
across the country were filled with record numbers of aspiring Bob Woodwards
and Carl Bernsteins, and perhaps too many Hunter S. Thompson wannabes. But
since that time j-school enrollments have steadily declined and many programs
either have folded or been consolidated into other departments.
Evidence of those changes is becoming increasingly apparent at many of our
member newspapers. No longer are we guaranteed a flood of resumes when we
advertise for entry-level reporters. And the quality of work as indicated
on the tearsheets we receive with many of those resumes is often not as
good as it should be.
We have to do what we can to encourage talented college and high school
students to continue their journalism educations. With our scholarships
--including the new one -- we are doing just that.
The truth is out there, interrogator says; you just have to know where to look
By Jim Killam
The day after news of the White House sex scandal reached the public,
Bill Clinton shook his head while telling a PBS reporter, "I've always
cooperated fully with every investigation."
To Steve Rhoads, the president might as well have held up a sign that said,
"I'm lying."
Rhoads formed a similar opinion about ex-Congressman Mel Reynolds who, when
asked if he'd had sex with a teen-age girl, answered: "Not one time!"
And don't even get Rhoads started on O.J. Simpson.
Analyzing TV interviewees serves as job-related entertainment for Rhoads.
The world-renowned police interrogator watches spoken language and body
language -- especially eye movement -- to tell when a person is lying. Rhoads
spent Jan. 23 at the Daily Herald relating some of his interviewing techniques
to NINA journalists. While reporters aren't necessarily trying to coerce
a confession out of subjects, Rhoads said they might determine when to press
for a clearer answer, or when to probe deeper when they believe the interviewee
is lying.
"We try to tap dance around the truth, but it's impossible," he
said. "Our right brain won't immediately let us lie." A person's
most telling answers, he added, are those that come immediately after an
event or accusation -- before the person has had a chance to be coached.
Rhoads says that when people lie or hide something, they talk faster, louder
and use more words. Other signs of verbal deception can include when the
interviewee:
* stutters, clears throat before responding in a subdued tone
* stalls or hesitates to respond (is he deciding how to lie?)
* laughs or giggles at inappropriate time
* re-asks or rephrases the question
* avoids harsh, realistic words that describe a crime
* develops a poor, or incredibly good, memory of events
* uses justification after responding to your question -- for instance,
following a statement with, "And that's the God's honest truth."
Another potential red flag: Does your subject's answer equal your question?
O.J. Simpson, when asked, "Did you do it?" responded with, "Trust
me. I would never harm Nicole."
"He never said, 'I didn't kill Nicole.'" Rhoads said, pointing
out three verbal cues in Simpson's response that raised suspicions. "Trust
me" is justification. "I would never" is in the future tense.
The murders happened in the past. And "harm" is an understatement
for what happened to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
If a person's words don't give him away, his eyes may. Rhoads calls that
"body leakage."
The first step is determining a person's orientation: sight, sound or feel.
Sight-oriented people (45 percent of the population) depend on visual images.
Sound-oriented people (another 45 percent) think and react by sound. Feel-oriented
people (10 percent) think and react according to their mood.
To determine this, Rhoads said, ask a person to think about something. A
sight-oriented person's eyes will move up. A sound-oriented person's eyes
will move side to side. A feel-oriented person's eyes will move down.
Next, determine whether a person is right- or lefthanded. Righthanded people
are left-brain oriented, and vice versa.
Now, watch the eyes as righthanded people answer questions:
* Sight-oriented people: eyes move up and to the left when telling the truth.
Eyes move up and to the right when lying.
* Sound-oriented people: Eyes move across and to the left when telling the
truth. Eyes move across and to right when lying.
* Feel-oriented people: Eyes move down and to the right when telling the
truth. Eyes moving anywhere else indicates a lie.
If the person is lefthanded, reverse the left-right direction. The up-down
directions stay the same.
Rhoads claims 98 percent accuracy for this lie-detecting technique, versus
72 percent for polygraphs. How much weight do such observations hold in
front of a jury?
"I can't come into a courtroom and say 'I know this person was lying
because I watched their eyes.'" But, he added, the information makes
a much more credible argument that, "well, there was just something
about them."
Lest anyone think Rhoads exerts political bias when making judgments, consider
his final piece of all-purpose advice about body language: "With a
politician, if their lips are moving you know they're lying."
Steve Rhoads' systematic interviewing
1. Receive information.
* open-ended questions
* don't interrupt
* wait out pauses
* don't volunteer information
2. Relieve emotions.
An intervierwee likely is experiencing anxiety, fear, nervousness or frustration.
Try changing the subject briefly. Talk low and slowly. This has a calming
effect.
3. Reflect.
* confirm earlier answers
* specific, directive questions
4. Regress.
Take what you've learned and, starting with the most recent event, review
backwards. You will always get additional information. And, it's almost
impossible for a person to lie in reverse.
5. Reconstruct.
Go to the scene with the person. If you can't do that, then talk about the
exact sequence of actions.
6. Reanalyze.
"I'm not saying that you did it. But, if you were the person who did,
where would you have hidden the weapon?"
7. Research.
Now that the subject is relaxed, ask the stressful questions.
8. Review.
Be sure that what you have is what the person said.
9. Resolve.
Give the person a chance to explain misunderstandings or discrepancies.
10. Retire.
The last question should always be: "Is there anything else I should
have asked?"
Back to NINA Home Page