Situation Definition:
Julie K. Brown is an award-winning investigative reporter of the Miami Herald. Brown, a Temple University grad, has over 30 years of experience under her belt, having won the George Polk and RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights Story of the Year awards. Brown’s journalism career has been defined by her extensive work with Florida prison reform, and manipulation of the prison systems and inmates. Brown is best known as being responsible for giving a voice to the victims of child rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Brown reported on a cover-up of child sex trafficking committed by Jeffrey Epstein and multiple other officials through a plea deal. Jeffrey Epstein and allegedly many other officials were responsible for trafficking young teenage girls for years under the radar, and though arrested at one point, somehow exploited his way out of any federal charges. On Wednesday October 23rd, she hit the Schwab Auditorium at Penn State University to talk about her career and advice on reporting multidimensionality of stories.
Analysis:
Brown started her career at Philadelphia Daily news, as a Temple U. student, she mostly covered minority communities within her reporting. As someone who used to live near Temple, I can say that there is a stark juxtaposition between the state of the school, and the communities that surround it. There’s is an almost visible line in socio-economic states of the rich communities and poor communities based on the visual representations of how the communities look, and how people perceive the people from those communities (which are minority dense from years of red-zone housing). Often times, it seems as though the communities around the area have been purposefully forgotten. So reporters like Brown are essential to keeping the stories of these communities alive and relevant in our societal consciousness. Brown describes her feeling of wanting to give a voice for those that do seem to have been left behind. This will go on to greatly influence her dominance in reporting racial injustices and corruption among many systems like the housing, prison, etc. She went on to explain a story she covered in Florida about a mentally ill inmate who was severely abused by not only guards, but the prison system itself. This story severely impacted her and forced her to keep diving into the corruption that highlighted the prison system specifically in Florida. Her reporting eventually went on to actually help not only inmates who were abused by the system, but those that were mentally ill and pretty much left to fend for themselves. This story really touched my heart because often times, I think people hear the word “inmate” “prisoner” “felon” and forget that some crimes, like marijuana possession, are non-violent and make up a significant portion of those who are locked up, and that those with violent crimes actually make up a small percentage of inmates. So society often treats them as less than human because they have a record, contrasting any evaluation of why they’re actually in jail. So to have someone pay attention to this, and the perpetual violent abuse of mentally ill persons, especially in jail, is very important to not only inmates, but I can argue society.
Brown’s groundbreaking work on the Jeffrey Epstein case is perhaps her strongest representation of the innate sense of justice she has carried all throughout her career. She went on to explain that she was captured by the story due to the fact that Epstein was clearly using his socio-economic status to get away with such a disgusting and heinous crime. She pretty much describe a sort of cover-up around the case as it had gotten very little attention, and it seemed someone or many people were actively trying to keep it that way. Brown’s main focus however, was not on the criminal, but on the victims that had been left behind by corruption and greed. The young girls whose lives were ruined by Epstein. This led to her phenomenal work that essentially uncovered the whole problem with the plea deal and got Epstein arrested.
Julia K. Brown teaches us many things, not only as a reporter, but as a fellow human being. And one of those things is that all of us cary some type of civil duty to do right by others. Reporters more so than common citizens. Reporters have an unwritten law that comes with being on the job, and that law is that journalists must cover and uncover those stories that society tries to leave behind. The stories that bury voices, and shatter lives. Brown sh0ws us that it’s not a journalist’s job to tell you how to think about something, but it a journalist’s job to tell you what to think about. Brown highlights that journalists shouldn’t have an agenda, but are responsible for finding and telling the truth that already exists. Reporting on stories that are often hard and unpleasant I think sets journalists apart from many other professions due to the raw and organic attitude that many possess about our society.
Sources:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article221957120.html