I'll still do Black Friday...

I am sure all of you have heard of the incidents that occurred at a Walmart during black friday earlier today. One of the workers was trampled by a mob who rushed into the store and killed him. I love black friday, it is such a fun experience for me. Last year I camped with my cousin and a few friends at a local Best Buy for 36 hours, and the rewards is getting whatever I want and to stare back at a long abyss of a line that stretched around the whole parking lot. From my experience last year, I can see how this could have happened. Everyone is constantly pushing and shoving, and the mob mentallity kicks in. When a pregnant lady was being squished by the line I was on last year, and people were being told to thin the line out (because the line became 5-6 people thick), no one listens. Everyone is looking out for themselves, and it is kind of like the voting mentallity. Everyone thinks "someone else will do it, I'm just 1 person, it doesn't matter if I don't do it," and what ends up happening is no one does anything! So I can see when this poor guy was pushed or shoved to the ground, no one thought to stop and help this man, he was just trampled, and people just kept running over him until he was killed. What a sad way to go...

Timeliness... this story gets a 5, it just happened today.

Al Qaeda and Obama

Front page of Thursday's NYtimes, Al Qaeda addresses Obama as president-elect through videos and what his victory means for the country. They spin-doctor some of what Obama is doing, such as withdrawing troops from Iraq as a sign of admitting defeat. They also use a pretty sneaky and slick tactic by using Malcolm X against Obama. Since he has been compared to the likes of black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, this is a pretty powerful message they were sending. They used Malcolm X against Obama by quoting him, and also Malcolm X's and his father's muslim faith is like Obama is a traitor to his people and that he has turned his back on these people. The message was very childlike and kind of high-schoolish, because it's all twisting around words and reality. It is almost like Al Qaeda is trying to instigate a reason for trouble to continue to happen. Why did this tape have to be made? I love what the last line says as it states that this video was not very smart, because most of the world looks like Obama, and people are going to remember that when they killed many on 9/11, Al Qaeda did not target any specific groups of people, leaving all of the world a victim of Al Qaeda and that day.

Barackberries...

I just thought it was funny that our president elect has a blackberry that he can't pull himself away from. The newspaper front page had an article about Barack Obama and his blackberry. Almost everyone I know, and their mother's (seriously no pun or figure of speech here) has a blackberry, and I guess it's true... Barack Obama represents the common American down to their mobile devices... He may have to lose it due to this smart phone supposedly being a national security about a president who is constantly emailing.

I just thought this was a funny article... seriously... why is this on the front page?

Sensationalism = 5... this is something that catches someone's eye from a celebrity tabloid magazine or something, I don't see any other reason to see this on the front page.

Gay Marriage Ban

The newspaper I believe on Thursday, the front page had the story about the ban on gay marriage in 3 different states. These states were Arizona, Florida and California. For my friends who are McCain voters, this was big. Many of my friends are conservatives, which drove them to vote for McCain instead of Obama. Since Obama is now the president, the fact that California banned gay marriage was huge. To some conservatives (including myself), the banning of gay marriage were answered prayers, both from the many prayer rallies, and by individuals. For myself this was huge, as an Obama supporter, what made me 2nd guess a few times on where I stood, was the morals, and in some ways Obama was way too far-left. Now that something like this is happening... perhaps I can have best of both worlds, and not only that, but maybe McCain supporters are beginning to like their new president-elect just a bit more for these same reasons.

Newsworthy Value... 5 out of 5 for timeliness, the votes on proposition 8 just happened this week.

Colombian Army

I read about a week ago about a story that the Army in Colombia has been killing many of it's civilians. The Army has become corrupt, the soldiers have been killing innocent civilians and planting weapons on them to make them appear as gang members. They would do this to rank up in the army, and to also receive more pay and more days off. With all the gang activity in south america, and now reports of corruption in Colombia's Army seems absolutely terrible. I don't know what they could do now, it seems as though countries like this are soon gonna have no where else to turn to, to better the lives of the citizens of these countries.

Computer start times too long?

One of today's front page stories, was about how some people were complaining about the 3-5 minute boot time for their computers. People demand that companies should start making fast booting computers... Now don't get me wrong I don't just sit there for 3 minutes looking at it boot. I'd do something else like some of the people in the article said they do. Whether it is brush teeth, use the bathroom, what ever. But it is definitely not something to complain about. I just feel it is ridiculous how impatient society has become. Everything needs to be quick, with instant satisfaction. Cell phones, texting, emails, the internet high speed, faster cars, everything needs to get quicker and quicker. Which I feel is a good thing... if the technology is there use it. But the impatience is ridiculous... People can't live without instant gratification, 3 minutes for the computer to boot up is not the end of the world to make the front page of the paper!

Way too many garage sales...

One of the front page stories today in the New York Times was about the limiting of garage sales to some households to 3 a year. Many people are desperately selling items in their households for dirt cheap prices to pay the bills. The story mentions a family's selling their child's tricycle for $3, while the child was still riding it! Although, in my opinion that seems a little exaggerated... the imagery of desperation for these people seem to be having is sad. I sympathize with all those who are struggling, and I've also been seeing many people around where I live have garage sales. In this time of a financial crisis, it seems as though the government is just trying to make it harder to pay the bills as it is.

Story gets a 5 for proximity... I see these garage sales every weekend. (well except for this one... I didn't go out today... I'm a loser."

This story also gets a 5 for currency.

As for titillating and sensationalism, and uniqueness, it's about a 1... it isn't too interesting nor special... the story is just reporting on one of the ways families are struggling to pay the bills in this time of crisis.

Silencing a Journalist

I feel that politics have not place in journalism, I know we all feel this way too. Unfortunately that is not the case. In Afghanistan a 23 year old journalism student wrote about Islam and woman's rights. Somewhere along the way he puts down the prophet Muhammad. Pressure from militia and political leaders which he also criticized, led to the panel of judges to sentence him to death. Afghanistan's freedom of speech isn't as abundant as it is here in the United States. However, it was overturned, but he was still sentenced to 20 years... This is still sad though... that a journalist cannot print and distribute what he wants to say, because of a ideology that limits any kind of defamatory remarks towards their beliefs. I'm grateful we live in a country that gives us the freedom of speech and press, and not having to worry about getting arrested.

Susan G Komen for the cure!

I came across an article a little while ago about breast cancer and pregnant women, that pregnant women are more likely to suffer from breast cancer, because some women overlook the fact that there are lumps in their chest. When pregnant it is natural for a woman's breast to be tender, so statistically most women don't report it until about 12-16 months after birth. I'm glad that there are so many things being done to support the Susan G Komen cause. Never in my life have I seen so much support for breast cancer awareness. I saw many people wearing the shirts, pink empire state building, the whole block where bloomingdales is in the city was all pink in honor of it, pink nike swooshes on baseball player gloves, pink nintendo DS, pink HP laptop from bestbuy... and many other various things. It is great to see a cause getting so much recognition, that kind of stuff is always pretty cool in my opinion.

I want to become rich!

Investors are saying that right now it's time to invest in some stocks... they're at dirt cheap prices and... history shows that... stocks pretty much rubber band back up. Now there are concerns that this time stocks may not see themselves coming back, I believe and some experts are saying that this is the perfect time to buy and that they will come back up. G. Kenneth Heebner, a mutual fund manager, says that the stocks are falling not, because of any statistical or rational reason, but because people are panicking and overselling. That is one of the reasons why he believes the stocks will come back up. David P. Stowell, a former managing director from JP Morgan Chase, says that a few years from now people are going to look back and say that this was a total value-buying opportunity. So, with that all said, I think I want to buy some stocks... some extra money in my pocket would be nice.

Wind Energy

"The wind is free. There's energy here all the time", says a poor tribal official Ken Haukaas. However, their lack of financial abundance may turn around. The reliable winds in Rosebud, South Dakota may become a great inheritance to the tribes that inhabit the plains. The natural, free, and constant energy source is just what America should be investing their time and focus on, as the outlook for oil is not promising. Not to mention oils being incredibly costly. The booming wind-industry is something that the Energy Department has invested in with nearly $450,000 invested in wind farms to be built on the Rosebud reservation. Hopefully this project, and many of this sort come through, as our reliance on foreign oils, or oils in general, seems like a dead end.

Suicide is always selfish and cowardly

Karthik Rajaram killed himself and his family on Monday October 6th, because (based on suicide notes left behind) he had "broken down emotionally, physically and financially." This man killed his 3 sons, who seem as though their lives had bright futures. One of the sons had a full scholarship at UCLA! Rajaram's act was nothing, but a selfish act that probably made him feel as though he was running away from his problems. That's fine... for him to run away from his problems, if he saw fit that killing himself was his only escape from his problems, great whatever... but why kill your family too? What a selfish act a person can do. This sort of thing is always confusing and frustrating to fathom. It reminds me of the double-murder suicide by professional wrestler Chris Benoit a little over a year ago. Both were selfish acts, and both seemed very out of the blue, based on what close friends and family say.

For newsworthy value... I feel as though the proximity gets a 1, why does this story get a spot in the NEW YORK Times... if it happened in Los Angeles... probably the titallizing macabre interest people have in stories like these.

Religion in schools

The article about the Muslims in catholic schools in France caught my eye for a couple of reasons. One being a French native myself, and the other is the obvious mention of religion. What got to me was that this catholic school understands and accepts Muslims into their schools, because the state schools do not offer the same openness. This makes sense to me... The United States of America is built upon the Judea Christian bible, and like Christianity, it tolerates other religions. The first amendment, like discussed in class, is all about freedom of religion. And one more thing I thought that was interesting was the mention of how Catholic schools, and other religious schools offer one thing that state schools have lost sight of. That is the implementing of moral values and respect, which I agree, today I went to the library, museum and several trains, and each one of them contained cursing and disrespectful children. It's sad.

Now going on to news values... I'm sorry but this article scores a 1 on every on every single value. Maybe a 2 out of 5 for impact on people, only because it involves two of the biggest religions in the world, other than that it scores very low, even the timeliness is virtually unknown, but I'm sure this school has been this way for quite some time now.

China and the tainted milk

This tainted milk scandal for the past few weeks now has been such a blow to not only China's dairy industry, but China's image. This event has completely overshadowed 2008 as the year of China's coming out, to the year with some of the most problems it has faced in years. With the Beijing Olympics ending a little over a month ago, China's "contaminated dairy products is demonstrating" to the world "the weaknesses" of its political system. It is sad to see a country that was finally starting to get world recognition, get hit left and right with events such as this, and let us not forget earlier this year's earthquake in Sichuan. With thousands of children being affected by the tainted milk, I'm just glad to see that only 3 or so have died, which is devastating in itself. At least it was caught early though, otherwise it could have been a lot worse. But it could have been caught even earlier! This is in part China's own fault for covering up this story during the Olympics. Why are they so obsessed about presenting a false image to the world. They kicked bums out of the city during the Olympics, and set aside Olympic lanes... which is reasonable, no harm in separate lanes. But this is ridiculous... the safety of thousands of unknowing customers of the tainted milk could have been avoided, if they would have just let the public know as soon as they could have. What an ignorant move by Beijing authorities.

Goodbye Yankee Stadium

As many New Yorkers know, last night was the last game at the 85 year old Yankee Stadium. It was covered today in the sports section in the times, in 4 different articles. Two about the legends that were there, and one about the return of former Yankee Bernie Williams. The one I'm focusing on is the one about the game and stadium itself. How they won the game, a little history of the stadium and some small statistics. I'm going to try this newsworthy values thing now with this article so here goes...

Timeliness: 5, it happened about 6 hours before the paper got to my house, so I don't think it could have been any more timely, plus this is something that happened. So... nothing has changed from the moment it happened 'til when the paper hit my doorsteps.

Currency: 3, it was the talk of everybody all day... but mostly by males aged 16-30... That and the fact that mainly sports fan even cared to tune into the game on television.

Impact on people: 1, this is really irrelevant to anyone's everyday lives. It doesn't impact myself, or anyone that I know. It was purely entertainment.

Proximity: 4, it is pretty much 15 minutes away from City College, so it hits pretty close to home. This was the last game at the stadium of the home team. The New York Yankees... NEW YORK.

Prominence: 4, one of the most famous sports franchises in the world. The players on the team are recognizable all around the world as well, so there's a great deal of prominence.

Uniqueness: 4, the last game of all time at a historic stadium with rich (possibly the richest) history, only happens once. It was pretty special.

Conflict: 1, There was no conflict except for two teams facing each other in a game of baseball, but really this was an event of pure celebration.

Sensationalism and emotionalism: 3, it was sad to see a stadium being used for one last time, that many new yorkers grew up with. It wasn't too moving to read about it in this article, but if I were to guess, it was probably overwhelming in person.

Education and public service: 2, We learn some history of baseball and the use of a new stadium in new york. Other than that this newsworthy value doesn't score too high.

Texting!

The article about texting and the laws being passed for it caught my eye... because I'm a young adult and I text a lot. The article was pretty funny. A guy mentions how texting distracts people and some people are always looking down, sometimes running into parking meters. That's pretty funny, I would love to see that happen to someone. The laws being passed are for drivers and train conductors. Too many incidents both minor and fatal, have happened from people texting. The article also mentions how texting has just become a bad habit. I agree with that, sometimes it gets annoying when people are texting, and I'm guilty of it also. When eating dinner with my family, my parents always get annoyed when I'm texting at the table. But I feel it's pretty embarassing that people are getting into severe accidents, because of this though... You either learn to multitask or you stop doing such a thing.. this goes with everything. Why do laws have to be passed? This goes with everything, any mobile device or distraction... If you walk onto on coming traffic, because you're doing something else... it's your fault... you were stupid. End of discussion.

Young people and Chile

One of the front page stories of the September 13th New York Times drew my attention immediately. The article about the youth of Chile having clubs that encourage teens to make out with as many people as possible. The picture itself just drew my attention and it's inapproriateness. I found it to be very sad, but aside from the moral issues I found from the article, what was interesting was the factor with the internet. It's true what the article said, that the internet is changing a lot of how young people are expressing themselves and their social lives. I see people who are always attached to texting and using the internet, sometimes lack certain social skills. They find trouble expressing themselves through words, find themselves in many awkward social situations, and so on. So this culture change in Chile with hooking up and attending parties based on internet popularity, this most definitely has played a factor in how children are growing up in Chile. The internet is truly changing how people interact and those who use it the most (young people) have been most evidently affected.

Hard working man.

On the September 11th, for the first time, instead of reading the front page stories and Page A1, A2 etc, I went to the Metro section, because there, they had all the 9/11 stories. But this blog isn't about 9/11. What this blog is about, is about the killing of a storekeeper named Amou Fall. He was murdered during a robbery that occured in his store. Mr. Bah, Amou's friend, said it excellently in the article when he says that "It was for no reason. You just go to kill a person, why? Just because you want to take what belongs to them?" That sums up nonsensical killing in a nutshell. This article also really hit home, only because this hard working man who immigrated to America for a better life, worked day and night, much like my own parents. It reminded me a lot of my own parents and and from the description that they give of this man, he was very much like my own father. So... he must've been a great man. It's always really sad when I see articles like these. Every article like these regardless if they remind me of my real life or not, it's sad that this stuff happens all the time. It's crap.

How to write a report

After reading the article about the death of Joey Giardello. I think I'm learning a little better on how to report on any given topic. The first paragraph summarizes pretty much what the article is going to be about, and then goes into detail. Since it was an article about the death of a famous person, I expected that the opening paragraph would announce said person's death and then give a quick overview in 2-3 sentences what this person was remembered for. Sure enough this article starts off stating that Joey Giardello was a middleweight boxing champion, and what he has done outside of boxing that people would remember him for. In the last sentence of the first paragraph it announces his death, date and age of death. It then goes into a little more detail about his death in the next paragraph, and then the rest is a quick biography from beginning to end of some of the highlights of his life. The article then ends with some quotes he has stated earlier in his life. I think this article gives me a better idea of how to write a better report, since it was easy to see what the article was trying to tell me, the format was pretty clear.

Jumping and sucking sounds.

Weird articles are the kind that get my attention, and the Monday edition of the New York times article on the jumping carp caught my eye. This article was about a lake in Pennsylvania where when tourists throw bread into the water the carp go crazy. The article then goes on to explain that it has been a long tradition and the state want them to stop doing this 70 year old tradition due to health issues. This article to me just screams "new-guy at new york times gets shafted with covering a useless story." It seems to me the writer of the article Sean D. Hamill is really trying to earn his stripes by working his way up from these silly articles to one day making it to covering the big stories. After googling Sean D. Hamill, he's done other rather useless articles such as Pole-dancing, and museum T Rex stories. I guess when you become a journalist you work your way up just like any other job. First your just the employee, hoping one day to get promotions until you're the head-honcho.