Letter To Konnikova

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Letter To The Reader My aim of this project is to create an argument against informative media with the aid of Konnikova by using the Central Park Five Case. I believe I my first paragraph will be strong towards emotions that will be backed up by my second paragraph that will provide statistics on why so many people still thought of the five as monsters after they were freed. Headlines: The Ultimate Grudge On April 19, 1989, five teenagers were accused and arrested for the brutal assault and rape of a New York City jogger. They were claimed guilty based on their confessions in their interrogations. Newspapers and news stations everywhere exploded with articles shaming the five for the crime they had supposedly committed, which soon allowed…show more content…
In 2003, “ ...new DNA evidence, flawed confessions and the candor of convicted murderer Matias Reyes, who says he alone raped the jogger.”(Ross) ascended to the courtroom which evidently proved the innocence of The Central Park Five. However, people were outraged with this final verdict saying “"It's completely outrageous - unbelievable that you're going to overturn these convictions without a hearing," said Linda Fairstein, former chief of the district attorney's sex crimes unit”(Ross). With hard evidence like this, it is impossible to even ponder that the five, now grown men, are still guilty. Headlines, articles, and media influences is the only thing that keeps this story two sided; Which proves Maria Konnikova’s position on media’s dirty trick correct, again. In her article, she provides a psychological experiment that proved “...a misleading headline hurt(s) a reader’s ability to recall the article’s details.”(Konnikova) to be true which also correlates to the mistrial and wrongful jailing of Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salam and Antron McCray. Not only did the truth startle the public, but also left a lot in confusion, including Donald Trump. When the story just published and sat on newsstands everywhere, Trump decided to “...took(take) out full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty… he wanted the ''criminals of every age'' who were accused of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park 12 days earlier ''to be afraid.””(Wilson) The media covering this controversy desensitized the public to feel that they deserved the death penalty for this crime. The headers on these newspapers cultivated the public to want this and now since the truth and real evidence is tangible, Trump and the public are lost for words. “''They confessed. Now they say they didn't do it. Who am I supposed to
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