Two headlines, same story?

Take a look at the different takes the Detroit papers had on the day-after Christmas holiday sales. The Free Press headline takes an optimistic approach, saying "Big discounts lure shoppers to malls." The Detroit News tells a different story, with a headline that says "After sluggish holiday, Wednesday is another letdown." It's the same coverage area, same malls, same shoppers. Can they both be right? Can headline writers or news editors slant the news with their own interpretations? A close read of both stories shows they had similar facts. But reading the headlines side-by-side this morning left me - a reader - puzzled.

Have no regrets

I'm hoping one thing everyone learned this semester is that accuracy in journalism must be taken seriously. If you have any doubts, take a look at the roundup of the worst errors in newspapers in 2007, compiled by Craig Silverman in Regret the Error. You don't want to be included in this list. You also should look at the alarming number of ! plagiarism cases reported in the past year. Hopefully, the lessons of JRN 300 will keep you off both of these lists forever!

A candidate's religion

As per our discussion in class today about Mitt Romney's forthcoming speech on his faith and the parallels between JFK's similar predicament In 1960, I pose a question: Is it in the interest of good journalism to raise questions about the basic character traits about a candidate? Should a story appear in a newspaper that questions whether or not a candidate is going to confuse his religion with public policy (even if that religion is largely misunderstood and there exists a national misconception of the tenets of that religion)?

By 1960, the country had been run by white protestant (some more fervent than others) males. Catholic doctrine states that all Catholics must believe that then pope is infallible and only those baptized in the Catholic Church are going directly to heaven. Kennedy then had some explaining to do...what if the pope tells you to do something on a public policy matter? Do you have to listen to him? Are all of your predecessors therefore going to hell? Kennedy successfully defused the issue by portraying himself as a staunch anti-communist and a patriot and said that his faith would not get in the way of public policy.

Romney is also called upon to answer similar questions on the tenets of his largly misunderstood religion. He says we are all united in that the constitution protects (and does not advocate) and single religion.

But what if the candidate is of not religious persuasion? It is hard to argue that this country wasn't founded with the firm belief in the higher power. ("In God We Trust" is on all the money and the forefathers clearly had a "reliance on the protection of divine providence")

So what if the guy is an atheist, or a Satanist? If he isn’t religious, is he against the basic tenets of this country and therefore a serious risk to our republic? Is a candidate’s religion as newsworthy as how many times he goes to the bathroom?

Job Shadow Shout Out

I was fortunate to job shadow Adam Graham of The Detroit News last week, and I would like to give him a plug.

Adam is the music writer for The News, and his blog 'In Tune' is pretty awesome. I have added it to my favorites, and if you are a music fan, I suggest you do the same.

Right now he has blogs on Christmas music, the new White Stripes video, and one of his favorite movies of the year, 'Southland Tales'.

They are brief entries with some interesting music news and opinions, so check it out.

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/musicblog/index.cfm

Mall Shooting

I checked to read The Drudge Report today, and there was a big picture of a young teen boy with glasses and "Why?" printed boldly underneath, so I had to see what was up. Remember when we talked about the mail-man shootings, this story is similar is some ways.

Robert A. Hawkins, 19, went into an Omaha Von Maur store on Wednesday afternoon, shooting it up with an AK-47 rifle he had stolen from his stepfather. He had several victims, including himself. Hawkins is dead along with two others, while the rest of the victims are still in the hospital or have been released.

Apparently, Hawkins had dropped out of school, and have been fired from McDonald's recently, and was in a bad mental state. He had written a few suicide notes, and committed this crime beause in was in a large pulic place, and he would be famous.

http://www.ketv.com/news/14782867/detail.html

What to aspire to

Andrea Elliot of The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize this year for her feature writing. As the Pulizter Board says, "For a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to quality of writing, originality and concision, in print or in print and online." Elliot's awarding winning work is a three part series on Muslims in America. Her articles specifically explored a mosque in Brooklyn documents the lives of Muslim immigrants post 9/11, as well as Imams, which are leaders in Muslim communities. To read touching and truly great journalism check out 'Imam in America.'
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/series/muslimsinamerica/index.html

Form and Function

In this class we've talked a lot about how to write a story correctly and interestingly. We've talked much less about why we're writing the story to begin with. Obviously there are a lot of reasons for that. But it got me wondering about what others motivations were. Journalists can function as watchdogs, help build community, expose corruption, inform, entertain, put things into perspective, and so on and so forth. And of course there's always the more selfish reasons too. So, why do you do it?

gay and in the media

So I have a habit of compulsively checking this one celebrity gossip website that also has a lot of gossip about people in the media industry. The website is constantly insinuating that CNN reporter Anderson Cooper is gay. So I was wondering if it turned out that Cooper is gay and he decided to publicly come out, would it at all affect how he was perceived as a newscaster? It shouldn't, seeing as though it has absolutely nothing to do with his career, but when CNN newscaster Thomas Roberts came out at an annual convention for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association last year, the newscast that he co hosted was cancelled a week later. CNN said it was cancelled due to budgetary reasons, which it very well might have been, but the timing does seem rather coincidental. I don't know of many high profile journalists who are openly gay, but I hope the time comes soon enough where journalists (and anyone for that matter) will not have to worry about whether or not coming out will affect their careers.

A plastic instrumented Rock Band

I never thought I'd see the day, but despite how much my jaw hit the floor ... it's here: A game that allows four people to play four different plastic instruments to real songs by indicated notes on the TV, through an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals - get your friends ... it's time to rock.

Reporters, bloggers, columnists, reviewers and technology analyzers are hitting every end of the spectrum on this one. Some say it's the lamest thing ever - saying the $170 price is outrageous, seeing as one could buy and learn to play the real guitar for not much more. Others, on the other hand, are praising the game, saying it is the definition of "fun with family and friends."

More than 120 different media sources attended the release party last month in New York City, each covering the event in their own unique way.

But what do you guys think? Is this the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? Or is it pure genius?

You be the judge.

Celeb-Crazed Nation

OK, I get it: Brad Pitt is one of People Magazine's "Sexiest People Alive". But seriously, is it really necessary for him to be a headline on CNN.com's homepage?

The article, whose headline is on the same list as a Clinton-Obama story as well as one about a mall shooting, is considered to be one of the most important stories on the website. I guess I just never understand America's obsession with celebrities. I mean, they're people. They're not the second-coming of the messiah. I believe People Magazine even has a section entitled "Stars Are Just Like Us!" Which shows fascinating pictures of celebrities such as Pitt or the Olsen twins doing things like picking their noses, changing a flat tire, or picking up dog poop. Riveting.

So in a world where there's war and genocide happening every day why are we so fascinated with celebrities? It is it to turn off our minds to the terrible things happening, just for a moment, or is it because we truly have lost sight of what's important?

News Feed

After the magazine 02138 published a less than flattering article about The Facebook father Mark Zuckerberg, he sued.

The story covers Zuckerberg's geeky wardrobe, cracking voice, and a lawsuit accusing him of stealing the Facebook idea from fellow Harvard students.

It is accompanied by documents that had been ordered "sealed" by a judge in his recent legal dispute. They include his handwritten Harvard application and an excerpt from his old online journal, "biting comments about himself and others".

Video Game Guru Luke O'Brien, the freelance reporter who wrote the article accompanying the revealing documents, denies any malicious intent. A court clerk apparently made a mistake by letting him read and photocopy the secret documents.

A federal judge ruled in the magazine's favor, and the article is still online, along with all of those juicy documents.

Are 02138 and O'Brien ethical? Should links to Zuckergerg's online journal and application to Harvard be published alongside an article making fun of him?

Read the article. I think the magazine went too far.

Day at the LSJ

Thinking about it, my afternoon at the LSJ turned out to be fairly depressing. The newsroom was struggling - not many seemed to really be into their job, except for the new guy who does multimedia, and there was a lot of complaining about menial pay and crap equipment (which is probably common in newsrooms).

Of course, there will always be an LSJ, at least for a while, but there lacked some serious excitement.

Are these newsrooms just step-up positions for young reporters looking for the cool job? What about the veterans there - are they just waiting on a pension?

It really made me think deeply about what I want to do with a journalism degree. I don't want to be a bitter sap 10 years from now wishing I had a "cool" job.

The Times Make Staffing Cuts

A little more on print vs. online journalism...While I and everyone else who pays attention to journalism trends is well aware that online news is becoming increasingly popular while the print medium is going down the tube, I wasn't entirely aware of the fact that large newspapers such as The New York Times were also suffering from the trend. Just last week the Times announced they would be cutting a significant amount of jobs from its newsroom, and a couple weeks prior, they announced a freeze on all new hires. I know they've run into some budget issues, but I'm still somewhat surprised to find that a paper with such a wide ranging audience and well respected reputation is still affected by the success of online journalism.

Get It Straight

In light of our pending broadcast efforts, I figured I should mention something that happened over the weekend with the quality journalists at ESPN.
Kirk Herbstreit, the former Ohio State quarterback turned football analyst, reported that his sources said Les Miles, the head coach of Louisiana State football, had taken the job to replace Lloyd Carr at U-M. The only problem is he hadn't.
Miles called a press conference specifically to deny these claims 20 minutes before his game against Tennessee for the SEC championship. Miles first heard of his new job from friends and had to clear the air with his team, university and everyone involved that he had not taken the job and was at LSU to stay.
Herbstreit says it was bad timing and LSU worked out a deal after he had spoken to his source and before he made the announcement.
Sure other publications speculated Miles would take the job, saying Miles was a near lock to join U-M because his best friend said he would, or that he couldnt pass an opportunity to coach his alma mater.
But, if they are going to break the story as fact, shouldn't a station as large and influential as ESPN leave the breaking news investigative journalism to actual journalists?

Slander doesn't hurt the famous

Does Don Imus deserve to be back on the air? After almost an eight-month hiatus, the radio personality is sorry about his racist comments to Rutgers women's basketball team, according to this CNN article. How much can a celebrity like Don Imus apologize until people think he is really sorry? Imus says his comments have changed his life for the better, but who's the sucker here?

Despite the four-year, $40 million contract with CBS he signed right before being fired for the comments in April, he is not announcing his salary at this time. Even if he is not making as much as before, he is rewarded with the same job back.

This leads to one conclusion: not every journalist will lose their job for good when exhibiting slander, especially if the source absolutely did not deserve it. Money is power in this business, not necessarily good judgement.

Stranger Than Fiction

This week in the news: A police officer in Washington State pulled over a man using a mannequin as his passenger to drive in the HOV lane, two hostages were taken at Hilary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, and a British teacher was arrested in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Mohammed".

You really can't make this stuff up.

In 2003, a New York Times reporter, Jayson Blair, was caught fabricating material for many of his stories. He made up things like quotes, details, and odd behaviors that his sources supposedly displayed. All of this information could have been collected the right way- through an interview. Needless to say, he was caught and his career all but ended.

The sad thing is, many people he misrepresented in his stories didn't come forward because they beleived that most news stories had some stuff made up. Tabloids and the paparazzi give us a bad name for distorting the truth. Credibility is something that is earned, and once lost is hard to gain back. People like Jayson Blair break the eggshells that people in the business are already walking on.

So with all of the news out there that's already compelling, strange, and interesting, why do journalists feel the need to make stuff up?