• About
  • Contact
  • Give
Newsletter
NOQ Report - Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes
Monday, May 16, 2022
  • Home
    • About
    • Give
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Quotes
  • Around the Web
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
    • About
    • Give
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Quotes
  • Around the Web
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
NOQ Report - Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes
No Result
View All Result

How fingers sticking out of a trunk 40-years-ago made me become a journalist

by JD Rucker
December 25, 2019
in Videos

The first real job I ever wanted as a kid was to be a journalist. This was deemed odd at the time because my dad was a cop. I’d get to hang out with him and his firefighter buddies at the fire station while they played pinochle. My mother was a nurse practitioner and Captain in the U.S. Army. My highest aptitude was in math, in which I won awards in grade school. Why did I want to be a journalist when both my surroundings and perceived skill sets pointed in other directions?
It was because of fingers sticking out of a trunk in 1979. At least that was part of the reason. I was still in grade school when I heard the story over dinner. Gary O. Collier had been beaten, stabbed, robbed, and thrown in a trunk of a car in Birmingham, Alabama. But there was a gap between the trunk door and the car’s body that allowed him to squeeze his fingers through while his attackers drove around contemplating where to finish him off and dump the body. People would pull off and call in to police and radio stations telling of a hand waving at them from a trunk, but without cell phones available 40-years ago, nobody could get a bead on them from their last known whereabouts.
That’s when Mark Winne, an intern reporter, and veteran photographer Jerry Ayres from The Birmingham News set out to try to find the anomaly. And they did.

Hand in trunk; incredible story of 1979 kidnapping and rescue caught on camera

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2016/03/hand_from_trunk_newsmen_recoun.htmlAfter a while, and just as the two had already given up hope of finding it, Winne spotted the beat-up beige Dodge travelling northbound on Interstate 20/59 in Ensley.

Winne was in the front passenger seat and Ayres was driving. They followed the Dodge through traffic moving northeast bound on the interstate. At one point Winne takes the wheel so Ayres can snap some photos of the Dodge and the hand sticking out through a crevice in the trunk.

The Dodge exited at the Airport Boulevard off-ramp as the driver of the Dodge, a woman, apparently realized they were being followed. The driver then began weaving through a neighborhood.

All the while Winne used their radio to tell their ever-changing location to on-duty editor Garland Reeves, who relayed the information to a Birmingham police dispatcher.

Police stopped the car and arrest three people – Joseph Fendley, 27, of Morris, his uncle Wilburn Fendley, 49, of Bessemer, and the driver, Robin Green, 24, of Birmingham. They also freed Collier from the trunk.

A young little me was mesmerized by the tale. I asked questions about what journalists could do and not do. I asked if they saved the man’s life, and my policeman father and nurse practitioner mother both affirmed they did. They told me that a good journalist seeks the truth, and oftentimes the truth is just as necessary as pulling a gun on a bad guy or saving a patient’s life at the hospital. That’s all I needed to know. I was hooked on the prospect.
But journalism has changed. The most notable journalists aren’t simply seeking the truth or finding ways to help people, as I naively believed they did when I was a child. Today’s journalists are ever-seeking the truth in the form of dirt. That’s not to say journalists today wouldn’t hop in the car to track down a hand waving from a trunk, but such stories are no longer fodder for those who want to become famous within their trade.
Many Americans have heard of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Very few recognize the names Mark Winne and Jerry Ayers.
I’m not going to throw stones at my fellow journalists when I’m just as guilty at working from an agenda and seeking to expose truth the behooves me. I’m a political analyst, not a news reporter. I don’t look for hands in trunks, though I’d report it if I saw it. In many ways, my romanticized recollections of what journalism meant to me as child cannot change what journalism means to me now. Maybe I should have listened to my mother and became an engineer.
40-years-ago, a man’s life was saved because two journalists got off their butts and chased down a story. Literally. Is that even possible in a world with smartphones and social media? The oddities of today get reported in real time by amateurs.

We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.

[gravityform id=”2″ title=”true” description=”false”]

Mixi.Media News



They’re Trying to Shut Us Down

Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.

For us to continue to deliver the truth that Americans need to read and hear, we ask you, our amazing audience, for financial assistance. We just launched a GiveSendGo page to help us pay the bills. It’s brand new so don’t be discouraged by the lack of donations there. It’s a funny reality that the fewer the donations that have been made, the less likely people are willing to donate to it. One would think this is counterintuitive, but sometimes people are skeptical because they think that perhaps there’s a reason others haven’t been donating. In our situation, we’re just getting started so please don’t be shy if you have the means to help.

Thank you and God bless!

JD Rucker

Prepper Organics 2


All ORIGINAL content on this site is © 2021 NOQ Report. All REPUBLISHED content has received direct or implied permission for reproduction.

With that said, our content may be reproduced and distributed as long as it has a link to the original source and the author is credited prominently. We don’t mind you using our content as long as you help out by giving us credit with a prominent link. If you feel like giving us a tip for the content, we will not object!

JD Rucker – EIC
@jdrucker


 

Tags: AlabamaBirminghamBob WoodwardCarl BernsteinGary O. CollierJerry AyresJournalismMark WinneMediaThe Birmingham News

RSS The Federalist

  • Texas Supreme Court Allows Child Abuse Investigations Over Mutilative Sex Surgeries To Proceed
  • EXCLUSIVE: Ron Johnson Demands Federal Law Enforcement Address Terrorist Attacks On Pro-Life Groups
  • Devin Nunes Derides Twitter As A Potemkin Village Of Bots
  • House Counsel Who Subpoenaed McCarthy For Jan. 6 Under Fire For Conflicts Of Interest
  • Virginia’s GOP Leaders Say They Can’t Enforce The Law Against Leftists Harassing SCOTUS Justices

RSS The Blaze

  • Katy Perry says moving to Kentucky has been an 'amazing experience' because it 'reminds you that Hollywood is not America'
  • The CNN+ trainwreck somehow managed to get even more humiliating
  • Nebraska's Republican governor says he will call a special legislative session to pass a total abortion ban if Roe v. Wade gets overturned
  • Buffalo supermarket shooting update: 'Troubled' suspect investigated for threat last year, shooter linked 'hate crime' to Waukesha massacre, 'hero' security guard died in gunfight
  • Saudi oil giant Aramco reported record first-quarter profits as oil prices soar around the globe

RSS PJ Media

  • The War of the Zombie Empires
  • The Morning Briefing: Ghoulish Left Quick With Ignorant Hot Takes About Buffalo Shooter
  • UPDATE: Shooting at California Church Leaves 1 Killed, 5 Wounded
  • Your Member of Congress Can Now Order 'Drinks on Demand' at the Capitol
  • White House, Twitter Still Silent About Tweet Claiming No Vaccine When Trump Was President

RSS National File

  • Senator Ron Johnson Asks Why Madison Pro-Life Bombing is Not Being Called Domestic Terrorism
  • Child Sex Abuse Center Hires Academic Who Wants to ‘Destigmatize’ Pedophilia
  • Yale Students Call on Classmates to ‘Ostracize’ Conservative Peers
  • Fairfax County Plans Co-Ed Sex Classes Backed by Trans Lobby for 4th Graders
  • Finland Officially Announces its Intention to Join NATO

RSS Townhall

  • The Five Most Important Americans Alive Right Now, And The Missing Elephant In The Room
  • The MAGA King Vs. The Malarkey King
  • The Buffalo Shooter Wanted to Murder Blacks and Jews, Especially Jews
  • Conservatives, Stop Falling in Love with Politicians
  • The Age of Rage

RSS RedState

  • Report: Three Middle Schoolers Have Been Charged With Sexual Harassment for Not Using 'They/Them' Pronouns
  • Fauci Laughably Says if Trump Is Re-Elected, He Won't Serve Again
  • Profess Your Privilege: Southern University Launches 'White Student Accountability Group'
  • Biden Admin Pulls a Fast One, Swiftly Changed Status of Five Foreign Terror Groups Friday
  • Laguna Woods Mass Shooter Partially Identified
  • About
  • Contact
  • Give

© 2021 NOQ Report

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
    • About
    • Give
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Quotes
  • Around the Web
  • Videos
  • Podcasts

© 2021 NOQ Report

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

>