Nicholas' Blog Entry #3

Nicholas Savasta
Blog 3

Chapter 8- The Government Watch
The relationship of the news media and the government is marked by constant tensions. The case of the missing children illustrates at least two of them.

Article:
Vermont to Implement New Sex Offender Laws
ABC News- July 28, 2008

A second tension comes from defining the role the news media should play in the running of government. Sun-Sentinel’s Maucker, however, believed the media should be independent of the government. It was the government’s job to watch over the children in its custody; it was the media’s job to watch over government. (Smith, 143-144)

The new stories early this year about Brooke Bennett are the kind of news stories that reminded me of “The Government Watch” role that the media plays.

This story and the coverage from national news stations peaked my interest in the topic and many other Vermonters. There was a call for action in updating our laws in Vermont and something has finally been done.

In this way, the medias’ job wash to watch over the government and with that watch and push new laws are being passed to protect children and keep sexual predators at bay.

“When a state Senate committee begins deliberating later this summer on how to respond to the kidnap and killing of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, it also will be under pressure to deal with a new federal law named for another slain child.”

These changes were mentioned here:
"It will mean some huge changes for Vermont," said Sherry Englert, sex offender registry program coordinator with the Department of Public Safety.

The article goes on to talk about this classified information that is sometimes necessary to release.
“Vermont currently has about 2,500 sex offenders on its registry, but access to the information is tightly controlled in a system lawmakers designed to take into account the privacy rights of people who've already served their time and in the hope that they'll have a smooth transition back into society.”

“Sears said he expects one result if the state complies with the Adam Walsh Act will be a larger number of offenders with information posted online, including some as young as 14 if they are convicted in adult court. But with Gov. Jim Douglas and others calling for a "Jessica's Law," with 25-year mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders, and with national media personalities pummeling Vermont as being soft on sexual predators, any concern for youthful offenders or for the privacy of those promising to mend their ways is at an ebb.”

Overall, I thought this article was a great example of the role that media sometimes has to play and some of the positive things media can bring to the table. Without this coverage, questioning, and push something might not have changed.