fandomhigh | Journalism Class - Monday November 7

Fires were burning in several places Sunday night and hundreds of youths were reported to have clashed with the police in Grigny, a southern suburb of Paris, where the shooting took place. On Saturday night, a car was rammed into the front of a McDonald's restaurant in the town.

"We have 10 policemen that were hit by gunfire in Grigny, and 2 of them are in the hospital," a national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon, said this morning.

He said one of the officers hospitalized had been hit in the neck and the other in the leg, but that neither wound was considered life-threatening.

Rampaging youths have attacked the police, property and ordinary people in cities as far away as Toulouse and Marseille and in the resort towns of Cannes and Nice in the south, the industrial city of Lille in the north and Strasbourg to the east.

"The use of "hundreds of youths" makes it sound as though the poor police was completely overwhelmed. Using "when shooting took place" makes it uncertain who fired shots, but because of the context, makes it sound like it was the youths." Jake took a deep breath. "And they're telling us that policemen were wounded, but not whether any of the, ah, youths were. "Rampaging" and "attacked" are bias words too."

"And it's horribly written," Angela interjects. "Passive voice all over the place. Were burning, was rammed, was considered ... nobody actually does anything in this article."

"I agree with Jake -- it's a very anti-rioters article."

Jake nodded, leaning back. "And the use of those passive voices? Makes it sound like they're reporting rumours rather than fact. At least I think it does."

"And the focus on injuries to a police officer - non life-threatening at that, with, again, no mention of any injuries to the 'youths'."

"At the very least, it confuses the reader by not letting them know who's saying or doing what," Angela says in agreement. "Also? They let us know it was "hundreds" of youths, but not how many police were there."

"They might not wanted to have admitted how outnumbered they were - or how much extra and unneeded force they sent in."

"Well, no, maybe not the police, but I don't think journalists should depend on police statements only." Jake squinted. "Isn't there a rule or something that things should be backed up from at least three different sources?"

"Yes, but 'should be' is the operative word in that sentence. Just because something should be done, it doesn't mean that all journalists do it. In fact, there was a guy who was fired from this paper for totally making up his own sources."

Angela leans back, twirling a pen. "Yeah, journalists are like anyone else -- sometimes they get lazy and don't do their jobs right. I think we can guess this article was pretty much entirely based on police sources."

[OOC: Jayson Blair was my first editor in college.]

Chloe nods. "That's what it looks like to me too."

[ZOMG really? That's kinda cool. *g*]

[OOC: Yeah. I had no problems with him -- though in fairness, *any* editor would have impressed me at the time -- but a lot of my friends were, ahem, not surprised when he went down in flames.]

Three yards was all that stood between the Jets and a feel-good victory against the San Diego Chargers, an outcome that would take the edge off the injuries two more key members of their offense had sustained Sunday.

Four downs to go 3 yards for the go-ahead touchdown: they were so close to a new lease on the season that the Chargers could see it on the Jets' faces. McCareins's eyes were jack-o'-lantern wide as he streaked toward the back of the end zone, causing Jammer to turn and look for the ball.

Brooks Bollinger, who replaced Vinny Testaverde at quarterback in the third quarter, threw a spiral that was well within McCareins's reach. At the last second, Jammer swatted the ball away with the back of his left hand.

John says, "While this article is sports related, I believe that it's biased against the defense of the San Diego Chargers. The focus is placed on why the Jets lost, how the loss was a slap in the face to them while paying no attention to the offensive and defensive effots of the San Diego Chargers that allowed them to win the game."

Jake nodded. "I think he's right. Um. And they use.. similes too. "Jack-o'-lantern wide"? Is that a simile?"

"Seems like this writer was a little too into the Halloween spirit. If it's a simile, it's a bad one," John laughs. "I guess the term 'bug eyes' didn't sound as good."

Republicans and Democrats in Congress called on Sunday for greater restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ability to demand business and personal records in terrorism investigations without a judge's approval and to retain the records indefinitely.

...The F.B.I. has long acknowledged that, with new authority granted to it under the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, it has increasingly turned to national security letters as a way of collecting information on suspects. But it has refused demands from members of Congress to make data on the use of the letters publicly available and has provided figures only in limited form in classified settings.

The national security letters became particularly controversial in August after it was disclosed that the bureau had used one to demand internal records from a library association in Connecticut. The legal tool bars recipients from publicly disclosing that they have received such a demand, and the Connecticut recipient has gone to court in an effort to have the restriction removed. The New York Times first identified the recipient of the letter, based on court records, as the Library Connection, a consortium in Windsor, Conn.

Link to article. (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/politics/07fbi.html)

"The slant is most definitely against the Bureau's use of power without any attention given to the possible benefits of their actions." He looks vaguely amused by the topic, not yet evincing any particular bias of his own. "Particularly the use of 'demand', 'demanding' and the focus on the use of the library information without any thought as to the cause for requesting those specific records."

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 - In their long and frustrated efforts pushing Congress to pass legislation on global warming, environmentalists are gaining a new ally.

With increasing vigor, evangelical groups that are part of the base of conservative support for leading Republicans are campaigning for laws that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming.

In the latest effort, the National Association of Evangelicals, a nonprofit organization that includes 45,000 churches serving 30 million people across the country, is circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions.

Environmentalists rely on empirical evidence as their rationale for Congressional action, and many evangelicals further believe that protecting the planet from human activities that cause global warming is a values issue that fulfills Biblical teachings asking humans to be good stewards of the earth.

Full article

The article seems to be slanted towards the environmentalists, describing their efforts as 'long and frustrated' and saying they rely on empirical evidence, while quoting the anti-legislation guy as saying that global warming is a hoax, but not really explaining where he's coming from. They give his political opinion on how successful the evangelicals who don't agree with him are going to be, but never really explain his position.

It also doesn't address any other reasons a large religious group might be interested in helping push through environmental legislation - pretty much the 'stewardship of the earth' thing is presented at face value, without offering (or getting any expert opinions on) what their other political motivations might be.

This Time, Schwarzenegger May Not Get a Hollywood Ending

A startling change has come over California's larger-than-life governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as voters prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday for an unpopular statewide election. His television advertisements have taken on an uncharacteristic tone of humility. And ordinary people, no longer awed by his Olympian persona, are openly challenging him in public.

The four ballot measures Mr. Schwarzenegger supports are trailing in the polls, and his re-election prospects next year appear, for now, to be dimming. His approval ratings are in a tailspin, and his stage presence has been drained of much of its bombast and bluster.

At a televised forum here last week, with audience members picked to represent a cross-section of voters, several questioners interrupted Mr. Schwarzenegger and accused him of distorting facts to sell the four ballot measures, which are among eight up for a vote in an election ordered specially by the governor.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was explaining Proposition 75, a measure he favors that would require public-employee unions to receive the written permission of members before their dues could be used for political campaigns.

Democrats and union leaders who oppose the proposition have called it a naked attempt to silence the unions' political voice. The governor says the proposition is about protecting workers' paychecks.

An audience member who gave his name as Chris Robeson and said he was a health care worker from Camarillo angrily cut the governor off. "That's just Rovian spin," Mr. Robeson said, referring to Karl Rove, the White House political guru. "That's fraudulent."

Such bald impertinence would have been unthinkable a year ago, when Mr. Schwarzenegger was riding high in the polls and rolling over the opposition. But political missteps and unending battles with Democrats in the California Legislature and the public-employee unions have taken their toll. The governor seems chastened for the first time in his public life.

Full article here.

"This article was obviously written by someone who doesn't like the governor. Even the headline of the article, saying he won't get a 'Hollywood ending' is condescending. There's an almost gleeful tone over the whole article, like the reporter is excited to see the governor getting knocked down a few pegs." Chloe frowns a little, reading more. "She calls his tone of humility 'uncharacteristic,' and compares him to ordinary people almost like he's super-human or something, which probably isn't a good thing for someone who's trying to be a man of the people."

Veronica grins at her roommate.

"I think some people have a hard time separating the governor from the actor," she says.

"But I also think he's suffering, like other Republicans, fall out from all the scandal in the White House."

After listening to Spider's instructions, D'anna removes her laptop from her rucksack and logs back into the site from Friday and begins to read for content instead of surf for photographs. The longer she reads, the more serious her expression becomes. She doesn't want to repeat the articles chosen by her classmates, but as she reads on, somethings became very clear to her. First, this publication had a very specific target audience in mind. Second, she was not included in that. Third, this fabled thirteenth colony had no concept of a cohesive identity as a planetary unit.

Sure the colonies had their disputes with each other, but each colony saw itself as a unit; first as one global colony and then as one of twelve parts of the Federation of Colonies. It was easy to understand back home if someone from say, Saggittaron felt disconnected from someone on Picon - they were from different planets. But even then, they were connected through government and technology despite having existing separately for at least the last two thousand years. Earth, colony of legends and prophecy, was so divided and out of touch with big picture at D'anna was amazed. It was difficult for her to come to terms with how cut-off and disconnected these colonists?, er, Earth people? seemed from each other.

With these thoughts swirling in her head and her coffee gone cold, D'anna begins to speak, "It is difficult to choose just one article from a site which is awash in bias towards those from this planet; those knowledgeable in certain areas of popular culture. It is geared for readers from a specific city that, I gather, is quiet large and influential. The publication assumes that the reader will be familiar with local recent events. The hypertext links provided in some articles were helpful but in quiet a few cases, much of the information referenced is likely to be unknown to many of those here on the island."

She pauses a moment before continuing, "You can pick a up a bent in each of the pieces. This one (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/national/08polio.html?hp&ex=1131426000&en=d3e5b6fa9ea2add5&ei=5094&partner=homepage) in favor of immunizing children, that one (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/business/07link.html?ex=1131512400&en=918e55d7af9398b1&ei=5070) of the opinion that politicians are not technically suave, or another (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/science/space/04nasa.html) that thinks space exploration needs more funding. However, they each ascribe to the same fundamental fallacy; that their reader is of extremely local origin and up on recent happenings. Or rather, up on anything and everything of major cultural importance which has ever occurred on Earth, in some way."

Duce tilts her head at D'anna. "That's an interesting take on things. In quite a few of our space-fiction television shows and movies, the non-Terran lifeforms have gathered their knowledge of Earth from broadcasts of Earth news and radio. You mean that doesn't really happen?"

(ooc: Spider/D: I absolutely cannot get to NYTimes for love nor money - have tried from both work and home and it gives me a big fat error message saying my login failed due to script error.)

"No." D'anna snorted then regained her composure, "Sorry Duce. Where I'm from Earth is a myth. Something the priests speak of when they want to touch on the topics of discord and hope. No one actually believes it exists." D shrugs and says quietly, "I didn't till I wound up enrolled here." She didn't add that she half expected to wake every morning back on Leonis to find that the last two months had been nothing more than a fever dream.

[ooc: From what I can gather from D's canon, her galaxy really is far, far away. Also, the tribe that went to Earth (hence the mythical knowledge of its existence) split off from the other twelve that make up the colonies of D's world some two thousand years ago or more. We're (bsg watchers) not sure how the Colonial time line fits in ours at all.]

Journalism Class - Monday November 7

Youths vs. Police

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Demanding Limits on FBI Power

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