Article Analysis

2 Relatives of Jennifer Hudson Reported Slain
By Mitchell L. Blumenthal
October 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/08/25hudson/html?ref=music

This article is about the mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson, an Academy Award-winning actress were found shot to death in their mother’s house in Chicago on Friday. Police said that a 7-year-old nephew was missing. Police are searching for William Belfour, the father of 7-year-old Julian King, and the husband of Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson. Illinois Department of Corrections said that Belfour had a history of serving time in prison for attempted murder. They have suspicions that Belfour might have done the crime.

After Blumenthal mentioned the main information about his article, he started talking about the background of the Hudson family: the church they go to and how the mother, despite of her daughter being a celebrity, did not move away from the South side Chicago.

I think that it’s not a bad idea to mention these things in the article, but once Blumenthal got to the end, he did not have much of point of the entire article. He ended with a statement of Jennifer’s Hudson’s achievements as an actress, which is completely irrelevant to the story of the death of the mother and brother.

Since this article is kind of an obituary, Blumenthal used honorary titles for the mother and the brother, but he also used it for Jennifer Hudson, which is not correct because she was not part of the obituary; she is not dead. Blumenthal did not use any quotes from the family or the police.

The lede of the article was well written, it gave most of the five W’s. I think Blumenthal could have elaborated more on the article, and end with more details about what will be done about the murders.