Today I am writing my blog on another blog. The CNN Political Ticker has an interesting story pitting frontrunner Hillary Clinton against her Democratic rival Barack Obama.
The entry basically cites jabs that each candidate has made at the other. Kinda a he said, she said thing just to add a little heat to a battle that is getting just a tad to old (considering they started 2 years before the actual election). Here's what it boils down to:
She said: Obama doesn't have the political experience necessary to run the country.
He said (the focus of the article: Clinton is just an extension from her husband's presidency and are using their longevity to tey and get elected.
Obama also took the time to remind the public that 5 years ago this week he voted against the invasion of Iraq, and is basically using every opportunity he can to get this point across. What's more is that Hillary voted FOR the invasion, so it's just another ace to put up Obama's sleeve.
What this artice boils down to is that Barack Obama seems to be using all of the tools he has to gain a noticable competative edge on Hillary Clinton. Although she is still the frontrunner of the party, his "experienced inexperience" may be enough to give the New York senator a run for her money in New Hampshire.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Readings Four
I just got done reading the assignment fot this week. Only one- Chapter 10 in the textbook- but somehow, like always, it takes me all the way til the last day to get my readings completed. In any event, this chapter dealt with obituarty writing and the many aspects to create a good story of one's life.
The best piece of information I got out of the chapter was a quote, by Michael Best of The Detroit News. He said, "I don't write about death, I write about life." So many people may think that the cause of death is the most important part of an obituary, but as the book indicates this is not the case. Although some causes of death are worth their own story, the obituary should be an account on someone's life and the legacy or memories they leave behind.
This notion also brings the idea of good reporting to light. Just as you should make calls or do research on an event or other story, obituaries should be treated the same way. A normal report on the who, when, and funeral information is sometimes an acceptable minimum, but there is so much more to a person's life that their town, friends, and family deserve to have printed in the news for everyone to see.
Like any news story, there are some limitations on what can and cannot be said, and a few ethical judgments may need to be passed. Deciding what life stories can be used and if the cause of death is important are a few examples, but there are many others. In my opinion, the phrase "don't speak ill of the dead" comes to mind, and I say no matter who the person was, an objective yet respectful obituary is important for all people.
The best piece of information I got out of the chapter was a quote, by Michael Best of The Detroit News. He said, "I don't write about death, I write about life." So many people may think that the cause of death is the most important part of an obituary, but as the book indicates this is not the case. Although some causes of death are worth their own story, the obituary should be an account on someone's life and the legacy or memories they leave behind.
This notion also brings the idea of good reporting to light. Just as you should make calls or do research on an event or other story, obituaries should be treated the same way. A normal report on the who, when, and funeral information is sometimes an acceptable minimum, but there is so much more to a person's life that their town, friends, and family deserve to have printed in the news for everyone to see.
Like any news story, there are some limitations on what can and cannot be said, and a few ethical judgments may need to be passed. Deciding what life stories can be used and if the cause of death is important are a few examples, but there are many others. In my opinion, the phrase "don't speak ill of the dead" comes to mind, and I say no matter who the person was, an objective yet respectful obituary is important for all people.
Bush endorses...Clinton?
I was reading The Drudge Report on FoxNews.com today, and saw an interesting story. Even more interesting than most of the crazy stuff the Fox News usually has. I know, hard to imagine, but here it is. President Bush has predicted the outcome of the Democratic Primaries, and the winner is Hillary Clinton.
Excerpt from The Drudge Report:
“She's got a national presence and this is becoming a national primary,”Bush told Sammon in the book, according to Drudge. “And therefore the person with the national presence, who has got the ability to raise enough money to sustain an effort in a multiplicity of sites, has got a good chance to be nominated.”
So although it isnt in perfect black-and-white, the president has essentially said that he believes Hillary has what it takes to gain the Democratic support for the presidential nomination. Although this doesn't guarantee much for the New York Senator, it does give her even more attention and press than before, and even gives her an audience of Republicans she may have not previously had. With someone as recognizable at the President referencing your credentials, this may put America one step closer to a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton White House progression.
(Although later in the book Bush does say he thinks the Repiblican nominee will beat Hillary. We'll see how far his insight goes.)
Excerpt from The Drudge Report:
“She's got a national presence and this is becoming a national primary,”Bush told Sammon in the book, according to Drudge. “And therefore the person with the national presence, who has got the ability to raise enough money to sustain an effort in a multiplicity of sites, has got a good chance to be nominated.”
So although it isnt in perfect black-and-white, the president has essentially said that he believes Hillary has what it takes to gain the Democratic support for the presidential nomination. Although this doesn't guarantee much for the New York Senator, it does give her even more attention and press than before, and even gives her an audience of Republicans she may have not previously had. With someone as recognizable at the President referencing your credentials, this may put America one step closer to a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton White House progression.
(Although later in the book Bush does say he thinks the Repiblican nominee will beat Hillary. We'll see how far his insight goes.)
Monday, September 17, 2007
Readings #3, with 3 Readings
This week I read 3 different passages for homework, and each one gave me some new insight to further my journalism training.
One short passage I read was on the importance of timelines when covering a topic with a long time span. In his blog the author illustrates (literally) how animated timelins especially help online reporting becsause of the ability to easily organize dates and events without having to write a long article that gets too boring or too reptative. I dont think I've ever used timelines in writing (except maybe history homework) so putting it into practice may be difficult. Maybe i'll acquire the usage the more i use my computer to write.
Another article was from a webpage made by the Poynter Institute who seems to be a pretty well-versed leader in the writing world, in terms of usage and studies. This specific article dealt with "e-tidbits" and the flow of information online. It showed how one site with a small environmental news feed can effect (affect?) several different institutions on a very large scale. From a broader standpoint, it goes to show you how online journalism has such a long reach in society and how information knows no bounds when it comes to internet accessibility.
My final reading was from the textbook, namely Chapter 4 on interviews and quotes. A good portion was common knowledge or past teachings like correct questioning and when and when not to use direct quotes, but one topic was a little iffy to me (and the writers apparently). The section in question was when it talked about editing quotes to fix grammar or speech. Now, I don't know how much of a change they allow, but some of the sources they used said it was ok to edit. This could be as simple as changing "I dunno" to "I don't know," but i'm not sure if this is fair to the speaker. I mean if i was interviewing a southerner who talked with an accent, am i allowed to change his "y'all" to "you all" or should I leave it as is? The chapter says to give everyone the courtesy of proper grammer to treat people fairly, but I'm not totally conviced. I'd rather give the readers a true sense as to who they are "listening" to (in print). I guess it's debatable. If I ever come across a problem in this field I guess I'll make the decision then.
One short passage I read was on the importance of timelines when covering a topic with a long time span. In his blog the author illustrates (literally) how animated timelins especially help online reporting becsause of the ability to easily organize dates and events without having to write a long article that gets too boring or too reptative. I dont think I've ever used timelines in writing (except maybe history homework) so putting it into practice may be difficult. Maybe i'll acquire the usage the more i use my computer to write.
Another article was from a webpage made by the Poynter Institute who seems to be a pretty well-versed leader in the writing world, in terms of usage and studies. This specific article dealt with "e-tidbits" and the flow of information online. It showed how one site with a small environmental news feed can effect (affect?) several different institutions on a very large scale. From a broader standpoint, it goes to show you how online journalism has such a long reach in society and how information knows no bounds when it comes to internet accessibility.
My final reading was from the textbook, namely Chapter 4 on interviews and quotes. A good portion was common knowledge or past teachings like correct questioning and when and when not to use direct quotes, but one topic was a little iffy to me (and the writers apparently). The section in question was when it talked about editing quotes to fix grammar or speech. Now, I don't know how much of a change they allow, but some of the sources they used said it was ok to edit. This could be as simple as changing "I dunno" to "I don't know," but i'm not sure if this is fair to the speaker. I mean if i was interviewing a southerner who talked with an accent, am i allowed to change his "y'all" to "you all" or should I leave it as is? The chapter says to give everyone the courtesy of proper grammer to treat people fairly, but I'm not totally conviced. I'd rather give the readers a true sense as to who they are "listening" to (in print). I guess it's debatable. If I ever come across a problem in this field I guess I'll make the decision then.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
McCain's Military Support
I was reading a CNN blog story on John McCain earlier today and found some info that didn't really surprise me, but furthered my understanding of McCain's stances and fight to get to the White House.
The Arizona senator has made much of his career choices based on his former service in the military and his heralded both as a P.O.W. and an injured veteran. Earlier today though, he showed his support to the military while showing his obvious disdain for democrats. Kinda killing two birds with one stone I suppose.
In a speech today, McCain bashed MoveOn.org, a Democratic website that mockingly refers to General David Petraeus (chief of Iraq operations) as General "Betray Us." McCain said that on one hand the Democrats say he is an honorable military man, and on the other hand they are writing bad things about him online.
I think it's a good thing that McCain brought this subject to people's attention, and the military support he already had could only improve from this gesture. It's smart for him to rely on military disputes to make his biggest points, since his past and experience obviously make him an expert in the subject. With any luck, more debates and speeches like this may follow and McCain could see himself in a favorable position (in terms of Republicans) in 2008.
CNN blog story
The Arizona senator has made much of his career choices based on his former service in the military and his heralded both as a P.O.W. and an injured veteran. Earlier today though, he showed his support to the military while showing his obvious disdain for democrats. Kinda killing two birds with one stone I suppose.
In a speech today, McCain bashed MoveOn.org, a Democratic website that mockingly refers to General David Petraeus (chief of Iraq operations) as General "Betray Us." McCain said that on one hand the Democrats say he is an honorable military man, and on the other hand they are writing bad things about him online.
I think it's a good thing that McCain brought this subject to people's attention, and the military support he already had could only improve from this gesture. It's smart for him to rely on military disputes to make his biggest points, since his past and experience obviously make him an expert in the subject. With any luck, more debates and speeches like this may follow and McCain could see himself in a favorable position (in terms of Republicans) in 2008.
CNN blog story
Monday, September 10, 2007
"-:...##Punctuation##...:-" (Readings 2)
I looked over the AP Stylebook today on a number of puntiation topics that can help you on your writing skills. Many of them are self-explanitory, but some are a little out there. First of all, the semi-colon. Or semicolon. ; <- that thing. I rarely if ever use it and when I do, either MicroSoft Word or my teachers tell me its wrong. I'll probably never use it as a normal part of my articles, but for lists and comparrisons it's good to have the stylebook handy. Colons in lists are a little odd to me as well, but now that analogies are off the SAT people probably won't worry about this sort of thing as much. Ok, enough punctuation. Most of the stuff I know, it's just the things that don't have their own poster in elementary school that get a little confusing now and then.
My other reading came from the News Reporting & Writing book, namely the first three chapters. Whereas my first reading was a general refresher on how writing the inverted pyramid was, this reading was an all-around Journalism refresher. Almost made me feel like a freshman again, but considering you lose a lot of information during the summer it was good to look over again.
Relevance, usefulness, and interest are cited by the book as the most important things to consider in a written piece. You want the work to be current enough that it still matters in the world (don't annouce the invention of the lightbulb), useful enough so that after reading the audience will walk away with new knowledge (don't explain in 3 pages how to button a shirt), and finally interesting enough that a person will actually read the article and not just flip the page to the comics section. Other factors such as impact, conflict, novelty, prominence, proximity, and timeliness also help guide the writer to a good story.
I work at ICTV and although all of these tips aren't directly taught, the experience we get there is very helpful to both my classes and my future careers. Working there also exposes me to two other key points in the treading: technology and interviewing. Although unrelated in nature, these two factors greatly improve my abilities to gather news and also greatly improve the quality of the show (NewsWatch 16). The book shows that technology is an ever-changing process and that journalists need to be fluent in all mediums to be able to work effectively and effeciently in the "real world." Interviewing is also essential because it not only adds a character to your news story, it also gives you opinions and perspectives not often found in simple research books or press releases.
All in all these chapters were a simple reminder of key journalism techniques that I may have laready known, but aren't to be taken too lightly.
My other reading came from the News Reporting & Writing book, namely the first three chapters. Whereas my first reading was a general refresher on how writing the inverted pyramid was, this reading was an all-around Journalism refresher. Almost made me feel like a freshman again, but considering you lose a lot of information during the summer it was good to look over again.
Relevance, usefulness, and interest are cited by the book as the most important things to consider in a written piece. You want the work to be current enough that it still matters in the world (don't annouce the invention of the lightbulb), useful enough so that after reading the audience will walk away with new knowledge (don't explain in 3 pages how to button a shirt), and finally interesting enough that a person will actually read the article and not just flip the page to the comics section. Other factors such as impact, conflict, novelty, prominence, proximity, and timeliness also help guide the writer to a good story.
I work at ICTV and although all of these tips aren't directly taught, the experience we get there is very helpful to both my classes and my future careers. Working there also exposes me to two other key points in the treading: technology and interviewing. Although unrelated in nature, these two factors greatly improve my abilities to gather news and also greatly improve the quality of the show (NewsWatch 16). The book shows that technology is an ever-changing process and that journalists need to be fluent in all mediums to be able to work effectively and effeciently in the "real world." Interviewing is also essential because it not only adds a character to your news story, it also gives you opinions and perspectives not often found in simple research books or press releases.
All in all these chapters were a simple reminder of key journalism techniques that I may have laready known, but aren't to be taken too lightly.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Oprah'bama
Well I wasn't planning on doing 2 Obama stories in a row, but I found this new story interesting. Check it out:
CNN Story
Oprah Winfrey, who basically owns everything and can pretty much sell anything too, is now publically endorisong Barak Obama for president. Normally when stars suport politics it isn't much more than a fundraising boost or a small public relations spike, but Oprah s no normal star. Through her television show, her Harpo Magazine, her book recommendation, and regular public appearances, Oprah's influence surpasses many if not all of American celebrities. There isn't much word yet on whether she will appear in any endorsement commercials or feature Obama in any of her various mediums, but the star power she has has already created a big buzz in both Hollywood and Capitol Hill
Some say that this may be the beggining of the end for Hillary, and Oprah may swing the Democratic women's vote away from Clinton and over to Obama. This long-standing friendship between two Chicago African-American socialites may turn out to be one of the most dynamic duos in America.
I dunno yet about a Obama-Winfrey ticket in '08. We'll see.
CNN Story
Oprah Winfrey, who basically owns everything and can pretty much sell anything too, is now publically endorisong Barak Obama for president. Normally when stars suport politics it isn't much more than a fundraising boost or a small public relations spike, but Oprah s no normal star. Through her television show, her Harpo Magazine, her book recommendation, and regular public appearances, Oprah's influence surpasses many if not all of American celebrities. There isn't much word yet on whether she will appear in any endorsement commercials or feature Obama in any of her various mediums, but the star power she has has already created a big buzz in both Hollywood and Capitol Hill
Some say that this may be the beggining of the end for Hillary, and Oprah may swing the Democratic women's vote away from Clinton and over to Obama. This long-standing friendship between two Chicago African-American socialites may turn out to be one of the most dynamic duos in America.
I dunno yet about a Obama-Winfrey ticket in '08. We'll see.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Readings 1
Just got done with my readings this week, not too bad.
One of the things I read was The Missouri Group Book I have, chapters 7 & 8. The first chapter dealt with the inverted pyramid which I know fairly well, but it was a good refresher. The examples help a lot, cuz i usually like to ramble and it drills the point about being clear and consise. The second chapter was a little more up my alley since it talked about being able to add your own identity to stories and make it more readable and more appealing to the readers. I like doing TV so the writing aspect is obviously important and needs a good flow to keep viewers inticed. Most of the examples are from newspapers or online, but so far this book is definitely helping.
The other reading assignment was from the website stateofthemedia.org. This article assessed in great detail the direction that our news media is going in. According to many sources such as the Poynter Institute for media, newspapers (the objects) are losing sales at a rapid rate, but newspapers (the companies) in general are generating money through new and extensive online programs. Because space on the internet is infinite, the journalism aspects of coverage and detail are utilized better online, and the "news hole" could be considered a thing of the past. Papers [like the New York Time and Washington Post] and news companies [like CBS and NBC] have essentially duplicated their normal stories and turned them into webpages accessible to everyone, usually for a small subscription fee. Also, new online-only news sources rival the big corporations in an attempt to garner the new generation of investigators and media savvy readers into the ever-growing World Wide Web.
( To view this artcile, see http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2007/narrative_newspapers_intro.asp?cat=1&media=2 )
The article primarily addresses the question as to whether newspapers were a dying medium, but because companies can still generate money, I agree with the article in saying papers will be just fine. Divisions may be changing, office space may be cut, and subsciption may be lower, but there's no way newspapers are leaving the public media's attention.
One of the things I read was The Missouri Group Book I have, chapters 7 & 8. The first chapter dealt with the inverted pyramid which I know fairly well, but it was a good refresher. The examples help a lot, cuz i usually like to ramble and it drills the point about being clear and consise. The second chapter was a little more up my alley since it talked about being able to add your own identity to stories and make it more readable and more appealing to the readers. I like doing TV so the writing aspect is obviously important and needs a good flow to keep viewers inticed. Most of the examples are from newspapers or online, but so far this book is definitely helping.
The other reading assignment was from the website stateofthemedia.org. This article assessed in great detail the direction that our news media is going in. According to many sources such as the Poynter Institute for media, newspapers (the objects) are losing sales at a rapid rate, but newspapers (the companies) in general are generating money through new and extensive online programs. Because space on the internet is infinite, the journalism aspects of coverage and detail are utilized better online, and the "news hole" could be considered a thing of the past. Papers [like the New York Time and Washington Post] and news companies [like CBS and NBC] have essentially duplicated their normal stories and turned them into webpages accessible to everyone, usually for a small subscription fee. Also, new online-only news sources rival the big corporations in an attempt to garner the new generation of investigators and media savvy readers into the ever-growing World Wide Web.
( To view this artcile, see http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2007/narrative_newspapers_intro.asp?cat=1&media=2 )
The article primarily addresses the question as to whether newspapers were a dying medium, but because companies can still generate money, I agree with the article in saying papers will be just fine. Divisions may be changing, office space may be cut, and subsciption may be lower, but there's no way newspapers are leaving the public media's attention.
Obama Rap
Well here's my first post on this Blogger and I'd say it's a pretty good topic. Barak Obama is now not only being supported by rappers, he's actually making it into their songs. sites like hiphop-elements.com show his name and say stuff about Master P and other rappers supposting him, and now CNN and the Associated Press show rappers dropping his name in lyrics.
Talib Kwali has a lyric that says "speak to the people like Barak Obama"
Common has a song with the line "My raps ignite the people like Obama"
And Jin even put the namesake in his title in the song 'Open Letter 2 Obama'
I think it's pretty cool that politics is getting into new forms of the media and becoming more culturally diverse. I mean i'm a typical middle class white kid from the suburbs so my understanding of the black culture isn't perfect, but to see a young politician being referred to as "B-rock" and influencing people in a way not geared towards violence and abuse is fairly new and pretty cool. In terms of the 2008 election, this appeal can't do anything but help him. He gets a new following, free advertising, and has his image shed in a new and positive light.
Talib Kwali has a lyric that says "speak to the people like Barak Obama"
Common has a song with the line "My raps ignite the people like Obama"
And Jin even put the namesake in his title in the song 'Open Letter 2 Obama'
I think it's pretty cool that politics is getting into new forms of the media and becoming more culturally diverse. I mean i'm a typical middle class white kid from the suburbs so my understanding of the black culture isn't perfect, but to see a young politician being referred to as "B-rock" and influencing people in a way not geared towards violence and abuse is fairly new and pretty cool. In terms of the 2008 election, this appeal can't do anything but help him. He gets a new following, free advertising, and has his image shed in a new and positive light.
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