Blog Assignment #2--6/7

The article I’m writing about, “Stolen or tossed?  Hospital patient’s rings missing” is found on page News 5 of the June 5, 2016 edition of the Morning Call.  This article is about a patient whose rings disappeared two months ago after she took them off at Lehigh Valley Hospital to get an MRI.  Overall, it was a well-written piece.  However, it is not without bias, as the author of the piece is clearly siding with the patient.  The bias begins with the title itself, which begins with the word “Stolen,” unconsciously priming the reader to assume that a criminal act has been committed.  The word “tossed” right after it gives the sense of negligence.  The article continues in the vein, beginning the article with a narrative version of the events from the patient and her daughter’s points of view, and the fourth sentence reveals that the patient’s daughter blames the hospital.  The article continues this slant throughout. 

Furthermore, the article gives contradicting quotes from the hospital’s spokesperson.  In the first quote, he states that hospital staff should have given the ring to hospital security, and that hospital security was never told anything about the rings.  Later, the article reports that he said that it is the “internal policy” of the hospital to encourage patients to send valuables home, and that “any valuables that remain [at the hospital] are the responsibility of the patient or their designee.”  Further along in the article, the author reports that the hospital’s website has a statement saying they are not responsible for lost personal items.  This leaves the reader unclear as to who was supposed to be responsible for the rings, as well as the hospital’s policy about who is responsible for patients’ valuables.  This confusion also contributes to the bias in the patient’s favor, as it portrays the hospital as unorganized in this area.

At the end of the article, it is stated that the patient’s daughter believes the rings were stolen, while the hospital’s investigating officer believes they were accidentally thrown away.  This is another example of bias because it well known in the journalism industry the majority of people do not read until the end of an article.

The article makes a lot of good points, informs people about what they should do with their valuables when in the hospital, and warns them that there have been incidents where valuables have been lost or stolen.   However, it is heavily biased against the hospital, which is important for readers to be aware of before they form their opinions on the incident.