The knight in the big world of American TV series

Chapter 2082

Chapter 2082

Joe was very angry, but he was actually used to it. With the development of the media, reporters were becoming less and less ethical. Iris and his colleagues were relatively good, at least they were really risking their lives to investigate, while some reporters just made a living by making up stories and "catching people in the news".

"Catch-the-people news" that uses any means necessary to attract attention has become a unique media culture in the West.

There is often such a scene in Hollywood movies: the protagonist tries every means to set a trap for the villain and lure the villain into taking the bait, and finally when he succeeds, he is overjoyed, punches the ball excitedly, and cheers: "Gotcha!"

The so-called "Gotcha" is a common word in spoken English. Its full name is "I have got you", which can be understood as "I caught you" or "I tricked you".

Today, "Gotcha" is not only a cliché line for American actors, but also a common trick used by Western journalists, forming a unique media culture. The American news industry calls it "gotcha news", which generally refers to the media setting traps to induce or expose the subject of the report to "make mistakes" in order to attract attention. It is also translated by scholars as "trap interviews". How does "gotcha news" work?

The term "gotcha news" first appeared during the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982. The British newspaper The Sun published a front-page news article with a huge title "Gotcha", and excitedly cheered, "Our boys sank a gunboat and crippled a cruiser." This "good news from the battlefield" earned the Sun an astonishing sales volume, but it also attracted widespread criticism. Many critics believe that such bellicose headlines are not only "unfair and objective", but also cold-blooded and ruthless, with no journalistic ethics at all.

However, more Western journalists saw that The Sun was selling well, and sniffed out the "wealth code": as long as they "catch" the heat of various politically sensitive topics and say something shocking, they can attract attention and gain attention. If they can "catch" the big shots speechless, they can get the limelight, get promoted and get a raise, so why not do it? The "catch-people news" was thus carried forward by the Western media, creating a group of aggressive and sometimes rude Western journalists.

The most classic routine of "catching people in news" is to forcibly interrupt the interviewee, or ask questions that are irrelevant to the interview topic, catching the other party off guard, deceiving or even angering the other party, causing the interviewee to be embarrassed, speak out of turn, make mistakes, and make a fool of himself.

Every American president has been "caught" by American reporters. George H.W. Bush was publicly questioned whether he had ever taken cocaine. George W. Bush was "tested" on the names of the leaders of Chechnya, Pakistan, India and Taiwan. When Obama was still running for president, a reporter asked him why he didn't wear a flag pin during a campaign event, implying that he was "unpatriotic."

There are countless examples.

This is why Joe hates reporters.

Another point is their smear campaign against the police!

To be honest, Joe also knows that not all police officers are good people, there are also bad ones. This is inevitable, after all, we are all human beings. But reporters always report the bad ones for a purpose, but for the police officers who are really willing to give everything for this job, reporters never pay attention to them.

The easiest one is Joe himself.

The reason he has such a high reputation in the police station is not because he has been there for a long time.

That stuff doesn't fool anybody.

Joe has always been a key member of their police station, with a very high crime-solving rate. But he has never received any praise from the media. There is only slander and ridicule.

"Okay, okay, stop arguing!" Barry stopped the father and daughter from arguing again with a headache.

To be honest, this kind of scenario happens almost every day, and he is helpless.

On one side is the girl he loves most, and on the other side is the adoptive father who has been so kind to him. Barry is really in a difficult situation.

"Let's get back to the point! What should we do?"

Barry said seriously.

He had to bring the topic back to where it would go. Otherwise, who knows where it would go.

"Of course you go and catch them all, and then the police will clean up the mess. Just like they did before."

Iris said without hesitation.

Joe objected immediately: "No! Don't always think about making a big news! You need to think about the victims! No matter how powerful Barry is, he is only one person. If there is any accident, those poor girls will be hurt!"

Joe is a policeman and he knows how cruel those human traffickers are.

Especially the Albanian gangs, they are notoriously cruel and ruthless.

He understood better than anyone else here what the Albanian gangs were like. In fact, the confrontation between the Los Angeles police and the Albanian gangs started much earlier than these reporters knew!

The horrific reputation of Albanian gangs is not a regional stereotype against Eastern Europe, but a certification from an official report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The report mentioned that Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Eastern Europe are the hardest hit areas of human trafficking in the world. Eastern European countries such as Albania, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova have become the main sources of human trafficking after the dramatic changes, and the dark forces that manipulate all this are mainly Albanian gangs and Russian gangs.

Today, all studies on the origins of Eastern European gangs will mention the geopolitical disaster of the Eastern European upheaval. This disaster is not from the perspective of politicians, but from the perspective of ordinary people. The changes in the nature of the regimes of these former Warsaw Pact countries are often accompanied by economic collapse and political turmoil. The collapse of order is followed by the outbreak of ethnic conflicts. The Balkans where the Albanians live were the bloodiest place in Europe in the 20s. As the victorious party of the "Cold War", Western Europe was enjoying the fruits of victory at the beginning. Western European capital bought high-quality assets in Eastern Europe at low prices. Educated and high-quality talents in Eastern Europe began to enrich the labor market in Western Europe. Even the economically backward southern Italy could afford to hire young nurses and nannies from Eastern Europe. But things often have two sides. The upheaval in Eastern Europe not only brought about the unemployment of a large number of high-quality people, but also the excess force of the former Warsaw Pact. These weapons that were originally prepared for fighting lost their opponents overnight, and the country's finances could no longer afford so many professional soldiers who were off duty.

These muscular men have no other skills except military skills. They can only steal guns from the arsenal previously prepared to fight against NATO and join gangs. Their goal of making a living is to protect the women of their own ethnic group whom they swore to protect.

After the Iron Curtain fell, Albanians’ understanding of capitalism was like a three-year-old child steering a car on a highway. This small country was suddenly full of financing companies, each offering an outrageous interest rate. Almost all Albanians fell into the dream of selling all their assets, handing the money over to the financing companies, and then becoming rich overnight. This obvious Ponzi scheme naturally “exploded” without any surprise.

From the dream of getting rich overnight to the reality of bankruptcy overnight, Albania fell into nationwide riots, and the country's arsenal was hit in the riots. Albania was at odds with both the United States and the Soviet Union during the "Cold War", and the entire country suffered from severe persecution paranoia, so the arsenal stored millions of various types of firearms to prevent invasion.

However, this huge number of guns flowed into the civilian population during the riots. At that time, the streets of Albania were full of unemployed young people wandering around with AK assault rifles. Albania has long been a mountainous country with very scarce products and resources. In this extreme environment, poor unemployed young people took up guns and went to various European countries to "hunt". At that time, various industries in the old capitalist countries in Western Europe had developed very maturely, and the profitable industries were controlled by locals, leaving little room for outsiders. In this situation, Albanians turned their attention to a special industry: crime, and the main "products" were drugs and people.

Compared to drugs, which require production and transportation, human trafficking is much simpler and more brutal. All you need to do is kidnap someone. In the 90s, the war-torn and turbulent Eastern Europe was full of young girls who dreamed of living in Western Europe. Albanian gangs only needed to trick girls into going with them under the guise of working as waitresses or models in major Western European cities, at almost "zero cost." When the girls found out that everything was wrong, it was too late. They had been sent to a deeper hell. This is an industry that involves the darkest aspects of human nature. They were sold to red-light districts in major cities in Western Europe, where their personal freedom was controlled. If they disobeyed the gang's arrangements, they would be beaten or even injected with drugs to control their minds.

In the process, the Albanian mafia established a human trafficking network throughout Europe. Even in Albania, a country with a population of less than three million, at least 1,400 girls are trafficked every year, many of whom are not even adults. The judicial authorities throughout Europe are inefficient, and the crackdown on human trafficking has not been ideal for many years. In addition, the Albanian mafia has armed firepower that is not inferior to that of the police, which has further fueled their arrogance.

These Albanian gangs are called bandits because they are more violent and unscrupulous than other gangs, and have even opened fire on foreign military and police forces on many occasions, causing heavy casualties.

If they find Barry, they will definitely use those hostages to threaten Barry.

Even if it doesn't work in the end, they won't hesitate to kill those girls...in order to escape justice.

Of course, this is the most extreme case, and the biggest possibility is that Barry gives in... Really, this is very likely to happen. Barry is the kind of 100% pure good person who can even hurt himself for the sake of others.

This is of course good, but Joe always felt that it was a flaw.

But what can be done?

He taught this child very well.

This is also the reason why Joe finally let Barry go to the forensic department, which is a civilian position among civilian positions...a position that doesn't even require a gun.

Because he doesn't need to face criminals. Even if he does, they will be dead... Well, Barry has a forensic qualification, so he will do autopsies. Of course, Barry is not qualified yet.

Los Angeles is a big city.

Forensic pathologists are all leading figures.

(Forensic medicine is difficult, and the training process is very long and complicated. Becoming a forensic scientist requires rigorous training, usually including undergraduate and medical school studies, which takes 10 to 15 years. This long training process discourages many people, making it difficult to expand the forensic team)

In short, Joe is very proud that he can raise a child like Barry, who is well-behaved and obedient, has good academic performance, and most importantly, is kind!

But this is not an advantage for the police... at least not being too kind.

As fate would have it, Barry actually became a superhero...

Barry was often hurt because of his kindness and almost died several times. If it weren't for the speed force that gave Barry healing abilities far beyond ordinary people, he would have died countless times.

(The Flash can speed up the body's metabolism to speed up the healing of wounds. Even if the water pressure at 2000 feet under the sea is crushed and the bones are broken, they can heal as before within a few minutes.)

"It's best to cooperate with the police. In this way, we can catch them all at once and reduce the chances of those poor girls getting hurt."

Joe's suggestion is correct.

But he was despised by his own daughter.

"You are just trying to flatter the police! They have been doing this for several years, but you police have no information at all and let them do whatever they want. Now you want to take advantage of them! It's disgusting!"

"Hey! Girl, I'm your dad! You're a policeman's kid too!"

"No! I am a reporter first. The point is, I am a reporter with a conscience. Secondly, I am your daughter! And then I am a police officer's daughter!"

"Damn it! You're just a photo editor! Not even a reporter... and you're abandoning your dad now. Sure enough... I was right to adopt Barry! If it were up to you, I can't imagine what my old age would be like!"

"Don't be like this, Dad. I love you."

Joe felt comfortable with Iris's surrender.

But then, Qiao felt that he might as well give birth to a piece of barbecued pork instead of her!

"I love your father, but I love the truth more!" Iris added pretentiously, "A famous quote from Aristotle."

"Aristotle?" Joe looked at his daughter in surprise. He actually didn't know what Aristotle was, but anyone who could say that was a famous quote must be a big shot. He was surprised that his daughter could say such a thing.

"What's with that expression? I'm a reporter!" Joe's expression was so obvious that Iris felt insulted. "Reporters are also intellectuals!"

"But... dear, your high school grades are about to give Mrs. Ross a brain congestion. Until now, I have seen Mrs. Ross walking with her head down... I really dare not look at her eyes. Damn it, every time I see her, she looks at me as if she is looking at a mentally retarded person!"

"That's because you are indeed mentally retarded! She once told me that she was surprised that you could find a job as a police officer. If you hadn't done well later, she would have moved to Mexico. After all, she couldn't imagine what a disaster it would be for the community if you became a police officer. She even thought that you shouldn't have children because she felt that IQ was hereditary and that it would harm the next generation, that is, me!"

Mrs. Ross, a respected teacher, is not only Iris's high school teacher, but also Joe's teacher. She has excellent professional skills and loves this job very much, but she can't control her mouth. She... speaks a little directly... But this does not affect her respect at all.

At least she treated all the children the same, saying the most sarcastic words but giving everyone her unstinting help.