Read this report and decide who might have written
each one. Which one is the least biased
and why?
Version One
Late one day a
leather-jacketed, teen-age gang member named Bolger pistol-whipped William
Daly, the friendly pharmacist, in his neighborhood drugstore, as Mr. Daly was
helping an regular customer out the door.
The criminal scooped up some money and made a mad dash into the arms of
a waiting police officer. The stolen
money was recovered.
Version Two
A person who gave his name
as John K. Bolger and his age as 17 was brought in handcuffs by Patrolman
Arthur Smith to the Fifth Street Police Station at 5:32 p.m. on October 15,
1991. Patrolman Smith reported that at
5:05, he had seen Bolger run out the door of the Daly Drugstore at the corner
of Main and Fifth Street with a pistol in his hand, and that a second or two
later the proprietor William Daly, 66, appeared with blood on his forehead,
shouting, "Stop, thief!"
According to Patrolman Smith, Mr. Daly reported that Bolger had struck
him on the head with a pistol, taken $15 from the cash register drawer, and run
through the front door. In Bolger's
jacket pocket, the police found $15.
Version Three
Late one day shortly before
dinnertime, a half-starved unemployed homeless youth named John K. Bolger was
dragged to the Fifth Street jail and charged with armed robbery and assault on
the unsupported report of a store owner who claimed that Mr. Bolger had
attacked him and taken a few dollars from the firm's cash drawer. The cop who hauled Mr. Bolger to the jail
had been loitering in front of the business at the time.