Hi;
I'm not totally clear with that part of the chapter, but I'll try to make a more "guess-based" comment.

The general attitude of journalists is to exagerrate news of any subject. This is mainly because the main aim of a newspaper or any media is to gain money and make profit. Informing people comes in the second place.
So having a news related with the working people (the obvious majority of the population); it is understandable that journalists want to make the case more interesting by using a little "make-up" (which leads to a completely different conclusion)to reach a higher percent of their intendend readers than that of the original, true version of the story would do.
In the situation discussed in the book, journalists play with the numbers to show that workplace violence is a quickly-growing important issue that even worth to take care about. But in fact; when "true maths and statistics" are used (as Larson did), it's obvious that there is no such a fatal threat for working people. Larson's character and so the style of journalism is very importnat because he provides the people with real facts (without worrying about the financial side)in a world invaded by the journalists who produce fictitious stories, mainly aiming to increase the rankings of their newspapers.
As the behaviour of Larson is something related with the "work-honesty", his style of journalism (reflecting the true data and news) is rare.

That's all from me...
Halil

I think that Larson was pointing out that the crime rates on the job weren't as bad as other reporters make it seem. Some journalists like to make things more "scary" in order for people to read them. His style is important because its the truth rather than "making up" stats or what not. There aren't more journalists like him because they know that they wouldn't be as successful.

Reporters in general, according to CF, attempt to embelish any story to make it more appealing to the readers. I think this is done because the reporter wants to have the top story which will give them more credibility and more work as a result. It is stated in the book that workplace violence is a touchy subject to journalists because they fall in to the same category themselves. Therefore if the journalist releases a story explaining that a worker assaults or kills some of his ex-coworkers after being fired, because the CEO decided it was better to fire a few thousand workers; the CEO or boss of the journalist might feel offended because they have to do that as well. As a result, the journalist might be fired himself. I think this is the reason why the journalist might find some other excuse to explain why a person would go to work and kill a few people. Larson also showed how reporting violence is exaggerated in general because the majority of the public likes to hear the worst of society, rather than the "boring" happy ending. This is why a reporter listens to half of a story and decides what the rest of the story is, instead of what it really is. Larson is one of the few reporters who really understands that the public wants the truth and even the truth is just as interesting as a half-truth, half-fiction story. It is a good thing that there are journalist out there like Larson, but there aren't that many because the truth sometimes isn't as interesting and can get a reporter fired or outcasted.

Hey,
I agree with these comments. Sometimes reporters have to make news more atractive to get more of the publics interest. He talks about other job occupations in which you are more likely to die from. He also informs that it is not as likely as reporters make it seem. That it is infact more probable to die at other jobs. His style of writing is important because it lets readers know the truth and saves them from the fear of false statistics.

Personally, I think that the motive behind most journalists is money. So, when a journalist can take a controversial situation like workplace violence, and instill fear into millions of working Americans they have essentially done their job. By, skewing data and numbers, and giving intellectual information nobody can really question their facts. However, Larson dug deeper and found that most workplace violence is very minor or caused by an outsider.

You guys have said it all! Larson also recognized that 90 percent of murders at workplaces are commited by people that don't work there. Reporters try to bring fear to people by making it seem like the person working next to you is bound to go nuts. I think there are not too many reporters like Larson because a lot of them are not focused on reporting the truth to the readers. They just want to impress their bosses by increasing sells using catchy headlines even if it means overexaggerating!