CNN vs Fox News Channel

After watching both CNN and the Fox News Channel recently, I have decided that I definitely prefer CNN because it is nowhere near as biased as Fox News. I like to think that I am a pretty intellegent person and that I can figure out my opinions on my own. For that reason, I prefer CNN because I can get the facts and then come to my own conclusions on an issue. Also, I definitely do not agree with the conservative bias on the Fox News since I am extremely liberal. I personally think that Bill O'Reilly is a complete idiot and that he is just insane with some of the things that come out of his mouth. On CNN, however, I feel like I get more of a sample of both sides of the issue and that way I can make my own educated decisions regarding those issues. However, I do feel as though, at times, the broadcasting on CNN can be bland and the broadcasting on Fox News is more of an active, debate style. This is especially on shows like the O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes. But for the main reason stated above, I definitely prefer CNN.

The Daily Show

Although The Daily Show has not had any new episodes recently due to the writers strike, when all the episodes were new, this was the source of news for many college and high school students. Jon Stewart is an energetic and entertaining host who blends just the right amount of comedy with actual news in order to keep the audience coming back for more. As a few of our most recent readings in The Politics of News book has pointed out, in order for the audience of this group to understand the jokes that are made, the audience must be educated on the news. Because of this, I believe that the people who watch shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are extremely intellegent. However, not all the stories on these shows are for those intellectuals who might be watching.

Overall, I really believe that this type of news program is much more enjoyable then the normal nightly news because the normal nightly news tends to be bland, but Jon Stewart makes this program so entertaining. On YouTube there is a clip from The Daily Show called "America To The Rescue", in which Jon Stewart talks about American foreign policy and how our government solves all the international problems that exist. Basically, either by giving other countries money or weapons. Its a really funny clip, but it is informative at the same time, which is why The Daily Show is so successful.

December 5th, 6:30 NBC Nightly News

The NBC Nightly News was much more enjoyable for me because I felt as though I got to learn much more from the program than I did from the CBS local news. However, I noticed that the NBC Nightly news continued the trend of having the important stories come first and the "fluffier" stories come towards the end of the program. The first story had to do, ofcourse, with the shootings in the mall in Omaha, Nebraska, which was without a doubt the biggest story of the day. The second story had to do with the mortgage crisis that many people are going to experience, and Bush's plan to help by freezing the interest rates of some people. However, the pointed out that they arent helping people who need help the most. They are helping more of the middle group of people, who can pay their current rate but who would not be able to afford their mortgage if the rate went up. The third story, which I found to be extremely interesting, had to do with the Supreme Court and the current case they are looking at. The case is whether or not detainee's at Guantanamo Bay have the same legal rights as average Americans and if they should be able to get a fair trial, instead of being detained without being charged with a crime. The fourth story had to do with the defense secretary visiting Iraq and the fact that December 5th, was a violent day in Iraq. The last really major political story that was discussed had to do with Iran's situation with nuclear weapons and Bush's response to the reports that had come out earlier in the week regarding Iran.

After the first 5 stories came more "fluffier" stories. The first had to do with the damage in the Pacific-Northwest due to the storms that had hit there. Then the childhood obesity problem was discussed. The eighth story was about thr rise in the stock market and the ninth was about the risk of collisions on airport runways, which freaked me out but really didnt have much to do with the current political situation in our country. The last two stories were complete fluff. The tenth story had to do with the Polar Bear Knut's first birthday at his zoo in Germany, since the world adopted him when he was born and his mother abandoned him. The final story was a touching one about a getaway for all the children who had lost mothers and fathers during the war against terrorism, since they are able to understand one another and have all gone through the same thing.

Although I thought this was much better than the local news program from the same day, the final stories were definitely full of fluff, so I was slightly disappointed that it was not just hard, informative news.

December 5th, 5:00 PM Nightly News on CBS

On Wednesday, December 5th's nightly news on CBS at 5:00 PM, out of the 26 stories, only approximately 6 of them had to do with politics, whether state or local. Ofcourse, the news on December 5th was not typical, as it was the day of the "mall massacre" in Omaha, but I was shocked when the news began and it was not the first story. The first story had to do with shots being fired at Newark police, and this only goes to show that this is meant to be a local news program. Throughout the hour long newscast, they had the weather forecast 3 times, and the only other story they showed three times was to update the viewers on the situation in Omaha. 4 of the 6 more political stories occured during the first quarter of the news cast and included stories on the stock market rally, President Bush helping the mortgage crisis by freezing some interest rates, Bush and his reaction to the new releases about nuclear weapons in Iran, and whether or not America is ready for a mormon president. Towards the end of the program was a report on Princeton University subsidizing the price of birth control, since the price rose. The very last story which had to do a tiny bit with politics and the state of our country had to do with childhood obesity and its effects later in life. Although the last two stories arent overly political, they both have to do with some sort of health care in a way.

The end of the program really seemed to pour on the fluff in my opinion. For the last story, which was the health report on obesity and the flu, instead of being behind the newscaster's desk like normal, the two hosts of the program were sitting on comfy chairs, in more of a living room type setting. I found this to be almost comical because it was bringing a talk show aspect to the news. One of my favorites stories, even though it was complete fluff, had to do with the couple in California who got married and although began their first dance by slow dancing, the music suddenly stopped and Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back started playing and they broke out into a choreographed dance. Then, the videographers of their wedding asked if they could put it on youtube, which they thought was a great idea so the family members of theirs who could not attend the wedding would be able to see it on the computer. After it was posted, the video spread like wildfire and has become one of the most popular videos on youtube. Most of these stories were definitely aimed towards the local crowds, with the most important news coming first and the fluff coming towards the end.

Rachael's Post on Evolution and Its Future in the Education of Texan Children

Tonight I read a post in Rachael's Blog about an op-ed piece in The New York Times from December 4th entitled "Evolution and Texas". The article is about Christine Comer, the former Director of Science of the Texas Education Agency, having to resign from her job because she forwarded an email about a talk by a professor who does not believe in creationism. I agree with Rachael's opinion on whether or not creationism and/or evolution should be taught in schools; however, Rachael seems to be much more tolerant of teaching creationism even though she does not believe in it. Her point of tolerance in learning both sides of the story is definitely valid, but creationism is not science, it is religion. Last time I checked, it was a science class, not a class in church. I definitely do not believe in creationism and I dont think that teaching proper science will be hurting the knowledge of children of religious Christians who believe in creationism. If evolution wasn't taught in schools, however, I really believe the knowledge of the children in those schools would be compromised. Also, I am not saying the creationism should not be mentioned at all, especially in extremely religious areas, but it should be mentioned minimally so that the view can be put out there but not discussed as one of the main topics of the class.

Even though what I am going to say next might offend some people, that is a risk I am willing to take. I am sick and tired of extremely religious people trying to force their views on everyone else. I don't like the fact that they want to teach creationism in school because that is what the bible says happened. I don't like the fact that they are trying to completely outlaw abortion and force women into having children, instead of letting women be free to make their own decisions about what is best for them. I don't like the fact that they disagree with gay marriages and are fighting to ensure that gay marriages wont be recognized, instead of being able to open their minds to people who are different from them, and allow those people to marry whomever they love regardless of gender. I am sick of them fighting against stem cell research, which could really help to be able to treat horrible diseases, because a fertilized egg is what they classify as a baby. I know that I am going on a bit of a rant, and I am not saying that religious people are bad people, but I really wish they would be open to the fact that not everyone in our country is the same as them. Instead of allowing the freedoms that people have to make their own decisions about their own lives, they believe that the bible should dictate the lives of everyone in the United States. Well I have to tell them that I don't read their bible, I don't live my life according to their bible, and I am not going to try to take their bible away from them. So why are they trying to limit my freedoms and the freedoms of my fellow Americans when we are not trying to limit their freedoms? It just doesnt seem all that open-minded to me.

In conclusion, I definitely agree with what Rachael said in her blog and I am glad I read the article.

Hannity and Colmes on Tom Tancredo's "Scare Ad" and Sexual Behavior in San Francisco

Tonight, as I was watching Hannity and Colmes on the Fox News Channel, they were talking about a lot of political issues when they came to the issue of Tom Tancredo's scare advertisements regarding illegal immigrants in the United States. Due to my interest in the topic, I went on you tube to find the ad in question and happened to find a clip from an older episode of Hannity and Colmes on which Tom Tancredo talks about the ad. After watching the ad, I found it quite disturbing and the fact that Tancredo backs it up so much concerns me. It appears as if he is saying that all illegal immigrants that enter our country are terrorists who are looking to kill Americans. He doesn't think that most immigrants are coming to our country in order to achieve the American dream, find work and make lives for themselves in our country.

Also on tonights episode they had a discussion about sexual behavior that occured at a street fair in San Francisco, on which their guest was an extremely conservative member of an interest group. The guest wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi responsible since it is her district and the group is disappointed that she had not spoken out yet about the event. The guest said that there were groups of men having orgies in the middle of the street fair and performing sexual acts on one another, also there were men and women dressed up in sexual costumes whipping one another. Hannity and Colmes both grilled the member of the group on the topic and at times made him look absolutely ridiculous for considering Pelosi as responsible for it (especially Colmes). Overall I found this program to be enjoyable with its high speed style of debate.

Media and Mis-reporting the Facts of Tragedy

Recently two major tragedies occurred, and because each media outlet wanted to be the first to report the "big story", there were many inaccuracies and misreports. The first tragedy was the death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor in his Miami home early last week. The second tragedy occurred today, when a man went into a department store in a mall and ended up killing 8 people and himself. It is extremely upsetting when reporters feel the need to report a story prematurely, before finding out all the facts, and upset their audience or make a tragedy seem much larger or smaller than it actually is.

As I was reading this weeks edition of Sports Illustrated Magazine, I came across an extremely interesting article about the misreporting that occurred surrounding Sean Taylor's death. Early in the morning on Monday November 26th, 4 young men planned to rob his home in Miami, FL, not knowing that anyone was home. As he and his wife heard noise outside of their bedroom, Sean grabbed a machete he hid under his bed and went to go investigate what was happening in his home, but he never made it out of the door of the bedroom. He was shot in the leg, which cut his femoral artery and by time paramedics arrived he had lost too much blood. Doctors did everything they could to save him but on the following morning, he passed away. In the days after the shooting, many media outlets began to report about Taylor's past, which had multiple run-ins with both NFL officials and police. However, his friends had reported that he was a changed man. Still, many in the media felt the need to taint his name and report that the shooting most likely had to do with the fact that he was a "thug", a stereotype usually associated with young, African American men. This idea upset many people who knew Sean Taylor, since they were close to him and the media wasn't. We have since learned that Taylor's past had absolutely nothing to do with the robbery, it was his wealth.

Today, as I was watching the 24-hour news channels, I saw reports of the shootings in the Westroads mall in Omaha, NE. As I watched, the reporters began to think about what could have caused the shootings, whether it was a domestic dispute or a disgruntled employee who had recently been fired. I know that the media's role in any tragedy is to begin to interpret the events so the audience has a feeling of comfort, but in my mind I tend to think: wouldn't it be better if reporters decided to wait for all the facts so they can provide their audience with an accurate story? As of the most recent reports, we have learned that the shooter was a young, emotional man who wanted to commit suicide and as he wrote in a suicide note "he wanted to go out in style". However, the media had many different reports regarding the shooter. First, police were still searching for him. Next, the police had a man in custody who they believed was the shooter but ended up not being the shooter. Finally, they figured out that it was a suicide. This information is misleading to the audience and this can be extremely dangerous.

I just hope that in the future, reporters make sure not to make any reports that either taint a victims name or that could put some body's life in danger if that are incorrectly accused of committing a crime.

The Wendy Williams Experience: An Experience To Say The Least

Everyday on station 107.5 in the New York/ New Jersey area, a woman named Wendy Williams hosts a radio show called The Wendy Williams Experience. Wendy is the Queen of the Radio and some people view her as the African American, female Howard Stern. From 2-7 in our area, Wendy is on talking about whatever comes to her mind and whatever her viewers call in with. Yesterday, when I was listening to her show early in the afternoon, they were talking about a rapper friend they found out had passed away yesterday afternoon. During the show, Wendy's sidekick Charlamagne stopped her in the middle of a conversation with a viewer to inform her of the death. When Wendy found out that rapper Pimp C from the Underground Kingz had passed away at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles she was upset but the show must go on. A couple of minutes later one of her listeners called in saying that he probably died of an overdose because most black men were drug addicts and alcoholics in the listener's opinion. Well Wendy disagreed with this woman's point of view saying that it was a very broad generalization. Wendy talks about all topics so even though her show is not explicitly political, at times she will discuss politics or issues that are extremely important in most peoples lives.

My favorite thing about Wendy is that she, like Howard Stern, is not afraid to speak her mind even if people will not like what she is saying. She is known for gossiping about many celebrities about anything and everything, which makes her so entertaining. However, she probably is not a good example to young women about how to live their lives except that she is extremely successful and self-made. She was able to accomplish everything she has accomplished because she worked hard. However, she is always talking about her insanely expensive pocketbooks and shoes. She is a crazy woman and she is extremely entertaining.

Newark: The Closeted Community

On NYTimes.com this morning I read an article written by Andrew Jacobs entitled "In a Progressive State, a City Where Gay Life Hangs By a Thread" which talked about the anti-gay sentiment that exists in Newark. According to the article, though many homosexual and transgender people live in the city of Newark, they are often scared to walk down the street and there is no place in the community that they can use as a safe haven. New Jersey is one of three states in the country which legally recognizes same sex civil unions and many believe that same sex marriage is on the way. Also they article says that many gay couples and their children have been able to successfully become a part of the suburban areas throughout the state. However, one of New Jersey's roughest cities is slowly becoming known for the open hostility towards homosexuality that exists there. Churches openly criticize homosexuality, and although mayor Cory A. Booker has attempted to make some strides in a more open and accepting society for gays in Newark, those tries have more or less not been successful. The article does note that Booker was the first public official to hoist a rainbow flag over city hall to recognize Gay Pride Month, but this action was met with much criticism from those people who live in Newark. Also, many of the police in that area have strong feelings against homosexuality and use a person's sexual preference in helping to determine how they will handle a particular crime against that person. The article ends by discussing one group on the outskirts of downtown Newark called Project Wow, which was originally created in order to inform the homosexual community about AIDS and HIV but has become the only place where homosexuals are able to come together as a group and many frequent the building where Project Wow is located in order to get shelter from the relentless anti-gay society in Newark.

After reading this article, I can't really imagine a place in New Jersey where homosexuality is frowned upon and treated the way that it is in Newark. Growing up in suburban Bergan County, I knew a small number of children throughout high school who were homosexuals and everyone was extremely accepting of them. They werent know as "the gay kids" but they were our friends and classmates and leaders of clubs and some of the smartest children in the school. However, Newark is very different than the area I grew up in, despite the fact that it is only 15 minutes away. I really hope that Mayor Booker is able to make some changes, however, since Newark is such a rough community with so much violence, I highly doubt that those changes will be possible in the near future. Until then, I hope Project Wow is able to keep its doors open to the homosexual community in need of its shelter and its support.

Will He or Wont He?

Yesterday, on one of the most important days in the college football season for Louisiana State University, despite the SEC Championship game coming up, the only thing the sports media was concerned with was "Will He or Wont He?" Anyone who knows college football knows that this refers to whether head coach Les Miles aka The Mad Hatter will stay at LSU next season or if he will leave to take the head coaching job at his former school Michigan. At 10 AM on College Gameday, Kirk Herbstreit (an analyst and co-host of the program) announced that his "sources" had confirmed to him that Les Miles was going to leave for Ann Arbor, MI in the next week to announce that he would be accepting the head coaching job there. However, Herbstreit's comments led only to a crazy day full of press conferences, corrections and anger for Miles.

As a fan of the football program at LSU, I could not stand Miles in his first season coaching the team during 2005. However, through his crazy rants and enormous passion for the team, I have gradually warmed up to Miles, and upon hearing of his possible departure I began to hope that Herbstreit had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. The head coach leaving was also not a distraction the team needed as they were playing their conference championship game in under 6 hours and still had a remote possibility at playing in the national championship game in January. As I continued to watch ESPN throughout the day with a small amount of hope, I began to hear reports that conflicted with those I had heard earlier in the day. At around 1 pm in the afternoon, ESPN News reported that Miles was going to be having a press conference to straighten out the lies that had been told and to announce that he was going to remain at LSU. In an announcement that lasted less than a minute, Miles made an angry statement to the media.

The question I have now is: Should sports media do anything possible in order to make sure that their reports are accurate? Obviously Herbstreit did absolutely nothing to ensure that his "sources" were accurate, like calling the sports director at LSU or attempting to contact Miles himself. Herbstreit was irresponsible in his reporting and that led to a roller coaster day about Mile's future which had to have had an impact on the young men he is currently coaching. Modern media is everywhere in our world, and I am sure the players on his team had many questions for him as they woke up and turned on the televisions in their room only to see a breaking news sign flash across the bottom of the screen on ESPN informing them for the first time that their coach was leaving. These men are not professional athletes yet and college football is extremely dependent on emotion, as this season has shown alot of proof of. I really believe that Herbstreit should have been much more responsible in his reporting by either confirming the information he got from his sources or by not reporting it at all, since he probably knew there was a good chance the players on the team would hear it and it would lead to uncertainty in their hearts and heads and therefore would not be able to play as solid of a game. Thankfully Miles held his press conference which made the team play for him with even more passion and desire to win the game and in the end they did win. Kirk Herbstreit should take responsibility for reporting false information and he has yet to do so.

OJ Simpson and the Jury

On April 7th, 2008 former football great, OJ Simpson will be on trial, yet again. During the 1990's, as essentially everyone who was alive at the time knows, OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and a young man, Ron Goldman. Due to errors by the police and the "dream team" of defense attorneys, OJ was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. During that trial, the jury had been sequestered, meaning that they had more or less no access to the outside world. They were not exposed to the many media outlets that were discussing the trial and so they were unable to have much of a bias concerning what the media was saying. When OJ was found not guilty many across the country could not believe it because all the evidence seemed to point to him. Now, he is back in court and another jury is going to be assembled. The problem I have with this is that there is absolutely no way the jury will not be biased. At his first trial, there was alot of racial tension, with the white jurors more likely to believe he was guilty and the black jurors more likely to believe he was innocent. For this trial, not only will racial bias exist, but everyone has seen OJ coverage on the television and many people believe he was the one who killed Brown and Goldman. The question that exists in my head is: Will potential jurors be able to put their biases from the murder trial aside and listen to the evidence to determine if he is guilty of these new charges?

I have to be honest, and if I was called to be on the jury, I would not be able to honestly say that I could approach this trial and be able to put my biases aside. The murder trial is one that I have studied closely in recent years and I have read OJ's book "If I Did It", and I really believe that he did it. He should have been smart enough to stay out of trouble with the law, but I am sure prosecutors in Las Vegas see this as an opportunity to redeem their counterparts in Los Angeles and convict the man who got away. I truly believe that the prosecutors in Vegas have greatly been helped by the media, since many reporters who are covering the story have led to the major bias in believing OJ's guilt. Jury selection for this trial should be a long, drawn out process, and if I was the judge, I would want to be completely sure that no members on the jury were too biased, so the trial would be as fair as possible. Basically, they need to find a group of people who have been living under a rock, and that is not going to happen. This trial should be extremely interesting to watch as it unfolds.

The Writers Strike Must Come To An End

Before today, I knew that the writers strike was going to have a big impact on my weekly television schedule, however, it wasnt until I read an article about the shows that are going to be effected that I realized how much this writers strike is going to impact my life. As the article shows, most popular programs will not be able to air too many more episodes before they will run out of episodes that have already been filmed. I had always believed that television shows would film a majority of the episodes of any show long before the season actually started, but I was wrong since most of the shows on that list have filmed just about half of the episodes in the current season and its already the end of November. The television audience needs to be prepared for a season of repeats if this strike continues for the next few months.



A few of my favorite shows wont be able to consistently be on air until this strike is over:

1) 24- This show was supposed to begin to air during January, however, since the writer's strike began, they were not able to film the entire season, and so they are postponing the season premiere until the entire season has been filmed, which is extremely disappointing. As a fan who has never missed an episode of this show during all of the first six seasons, I can not wait to find out what happens to Jack next season, but I guess I will have to wait until the strike is over.

2) All 3 series of CSI- As that list shows, none of the CSI's have completed filming the entire season and soon they will no longer be able to air new episodes, or they will have to alternate a week with a repeat and then a week with a new episode. This is disappointing because it will break up the season and it wont flow consistently from one episode to the next.

3) Thursday night on ABC (Grey's Anatomy and Big Shots)- Both of these shows only have approximately 6 more episodes left until they are done airing all the episodes that are currently done filming. Already, for the last two weeks, Big Shots have not been on air and Grey's Anatomy wont be on air next week. This is upsetting for the entire audience of both of these shows, since the shows always leave us wanting more, and having to wait an extra week or two is not fun.

Because of this, I beg the writers and the producers of these shows to come to a deal which both sides can agree on because this strike is having a major impact on many of the more popular shows on the television.

Subway: Trying To Make A Difference

On the blogging site The Practical Environmentalist there was a great blog post about Subway restaurants and their attempts to help make their stores more environmentally friendly. The post was labeled Subway Sandwich Franchise Makes Efforts To Reduce Environmental Impact and discussed the different ways that Subway is attempting to reduce the amount of paper and oil they waste. The first method they are using is making three garbage bins in which people can throw their garbage away. The first bin would be for the actual food and garbage, the second bin will be for any paper products that will be recycled, and the third will be for any plastic products that will also be recycled. They also built a store which they are specifically calling their "eco-store" in which they will be trying out all the new methods for being eco friendly. The store was constructed using some recycled materials, it uses a more efficient air conditioning and heating system, a plumbing system that conserves water and high efficiency lighting. Also Subway plans on using napkins made out of recycled materials and cups and plastic cutlery made out of polypropylene which will be saving oil. Lastly, the store is opening a facility in Utah that slices the deli meat and distributes it, instead of having it sliced in Iowa and distributed from Colorado.

I think that it is great seeing a store that is trying to take the first step in helping the reduce the amount of pollution in our earth and helping to save some trees. The people who run Subway are extremely smart, and I believe that having "eco-stores" will be a great advertising technique for them, since when customers go to their store they will feel as though they are helping to save the Earth. Now, if only other chain restaurants could begin to follow Subway's lead this would be one step in the right direction towards saving the planet we live in.

Female Activists in Saudi Arabia

I just got finished reading a blog post on the site Feministing.com, a feminist blog, about women in Saudi Arabia who are protesting a recent judgment that was made against a woman in that country. The post was called Saudi Women Activists Speak Out Against Rape Ruling and was about Saudi women's reactions to a ruling in which a woman who had been gang-raped had been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail for being in the same car as a man who was not her family member. This outraged women in many countries because a victim should not be punished for something that would not be considered a crime in any first world countries. Also, the Saudi women were speaking out against the judicial system in their country in general since women are degraded throughout the entire process. Women do not have the right to represent themselves during any part of the trial, and further the judge will not even address the woman. Instead, the judge will talk to the male gaurdian of the women and the woman is rarely allowed to speak. Hillary Clinton was one of the women who spoke out against this ruling, saying that she was present for the Beijing Platform for Action, that it is no longer correct to view women's rights as being seperate from human rights in general. Clinton believes that the international community has made progress but it has not been enough progress.

After reading this article, it makes me outraged to read of this horrendous treatment being experienced by women in the world. Having grown up in the United States, I have never had to experience being treated differently because I am a woman, and I know that there are many opportunities that are open to me that would not be open to women in other countries. I am able to attend college and I will be able to have a great job and I can represent myself in court if I wanted to. I really feel as though the international community needs to step up and put an end to this treatment of women, however I dont think the United States should go about this alone because it is not our job to be the police of the world. I really hope that someday all women in the world will be free to wear the clothes they want, be with the people they want and have all the freedoms that I currently have.

The Daily Kos Blog

The Daily Kos is a blog on which different members are able to post articles and responses to articles, mostly having to do with politics. Right now on the front page there are two very interesting and funny posts: the first having to do with Joe Lieberman's recent comments on our status in the war in Iraq and the second being a response to an advisory warning in Annapolis, MD about a possible terror attack since the Middle East peace conference is being held there in the near future. Overall, I found this blog to be extremely entertaining and easily accessible. Most of the articles are interesting and make the reader want to read the rest of the blog.

The first article that I found extremely interesting was called Some Say and was posted by the member BarbinMD. It talks about the recent comments that Joe Lieberman made about the war in Iraq, saying that the United States Troops are now winning the war and that Democrats wont admit it, so they are risking compromising our national security and are risking losing the 2008 election. The member who posted this then brought up the statistic that only 31 soldiers have died this month and that this fact would support Lieberman's claim, however there were months during the last four years when the amount of soldiers who died had decreased but the war was still nowhere near being won. This post was very funny and it kept me wanting more on the topic.

The second post that I really enjoyed was called Give Me Barbie or Give Me Death! posted by the member Susan G. The federal authorities issued an advisory, informing the residents of Annapolis, Maryland that a terrorist attack is possible since the Middle East peace conference will be occuring there in the next week, however there is no credible information that an actual attack will occur. Basically, the member says, the federal government is making the residents of Maryland fearful even though there are no credible threats. Then the member quotes another article about the holiday shopping season, saying that stores want the "euphoria" of Black Friday to continue through the holiday season all the way through Christmas (though this is not realistic). The member who wrote this then comically asks what this means for those Maryland residents who have been frightened by terrorist threats to stay in their homes, but who still have that euphoric desire to shop. The conclusion that she comes to is that they could shop on the internet. I found this article to be extremely entertaining and was a great read.

Overall, I liked this blog and I thought most of the posts that were on the page were entertaining. They were political, while being funny.

All The President's Men: Great Story Line, Great Acting, Disappointing Ending

In class a couple of weeks ago we watched the movie All The President's Men starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman about the Watergate scandal which tainted Nixon's presidency and caused him to resign. Although the story behind this movie is a great one about the investigation of the scandal by two Washington Post journalists, Woodward and Bernstein, the movie doesn't live up to my expectations. The beginning of the movie was extremely informative about what actually occurred in the Watergate building in Washington DC and what happened to the robbers after they were caught, but it moved rather slowly. The middle of the movie picked up the pace alittle and became much more interesting as the journalists really began to investigate the scandal and uncover the truth about what happened on that day. Since the middle had picked up, I expected the end to be amazing, bringing down the President and hearing the Nixon tapes, however it was just a wire from some press service being shown as if it was being typed on the screen. I was hoping there would be some action; however, I guess I have just been programmed by action movies with big, exciting endings and that is not what All The President's Men ended with.

Back when this movie was made, everyone who was watching it knew how the story ended and had experienced the excitement surrounding the downfall of the presidency, so the movie at that point did not need a big ending. However, this movie has not been able to withstand the test of time. Most people who are 20 or younger do not know anything about Watergate except for a very broad summary of what had happened, so this movie is great at informing its audience about the actual crime and about the investigation into the scandal. The movie also does a great job at showing the audience how a newspaper is run and what journalists must go through in order to get a story published. If I had to grade this movie, I would give it a C, even though it had great acting, it was missing the action that audiences in the 21st century crave.

The "Trade Down" Holiday Season

On the front page of the New York Times website was a great article about Black Friday and retail during the current economic instability that is being faced by many Americans through out the country. The article was entitled "Retail Desperation on Display in Early Hours" and was written by Michael Barbaro. The article discusses the problem being faced by many stores since shoppers are looking only for the best deals and are willing to shop at cheaper stores than what they are accustomed to. Many of these shoppers have no choice but to shop at cheaper stores due to the uncertain economy and the rising prices of many necessities including gas and mortages. Shoppers begin planning out a course of action for the morning of Black Friday many days in advance, gathering coupons and plotting out exactly what they are getting and where in the store they need to go in order to get those items. Stores are now being forced to give out more coupons and make the sales on popular items even more dramatic than in previous years. Even though the amount of money spent on Black Sunday is supposed to increase from the amount spent in 2006, the rest of the holiday season is going to be a bust and stores will not be attracting as many shoppers as they usually do during the season.

My favorite part of this article is basically making fun of higher end stores such as Saks Fifth Ave and Neiman Marcus. The following is what Barbaro had to say about Black Friday at Saks. "At Saks Fifth Avenue's flagship store in Manhattan on Friday, fur-wearing customers swarmed around their version of door-buster deals: handbags from Marc Jacob's for $1,400 and from Zac Posen for $500." This adds a bit of comedy to the article, but one really cant compare a handbag being on sale for $1,400 to popular items being on sale at Kohl's or Macy's. Stores are going to do everything they can during the upcoming holiday season but it all might be in vain since many shoppers are not going to have the extra money to spend on presents that they might have had in past years.

A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila: A Good Example For Girls?

Recently I was watching the last few episodes of the MTV show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, and I have to admit that I think it is the trashiest show I have ever seen on the television. The concept behind the show is that Tila Tequila ( a "myspace celebrity") is a bisexual so MTV set her up with 16 guys and 16 girls, and then watched the drama unfold with multiple fights and plenty of alcohol, to see whether Tila would choose a guy or a girl in the end. As I was watching the show, I realized how horrible this is for young girls to see because it gives off the impression that excessive drinking and fighting are okay and can occur without consequences. Also, as Tila and most of the lesbians walk around in clothes that are barely there, young girls might try to copy their examples. I know that I would not want my little sister to be watching this show.

At the end of the episode that aired on November 12th, two of the girls got into a fight (they had other altrications during the episode that aired on November 5th). When Brandi was given the last key, Vanessa went after her as she went to get the key (Vanessa was being thrown off). Vanessa grabbed Brandi's hair and the two ended up on the floor, and the producers and other cast members had to pull them apart. This was the second physical fight that had occured on the show as two of the guys ended up in a fight a few weeks before. This kind of behavior sets a bad example for the teenage girls who watch the show. If a thirteen year old girl is watching this show she might believe that it is okay to fight with other girls and that there wont be any consequences since neither of the girls on the show got in trouble; Vanessa got removed from the house due to the fact that she had been thrown off of the show. Also, the extreme alcohol use sets a bad example not just for girls, but for all teenagers. The entire show is based on drinking, and the title even is a play on words about alcohol (Tila's last name is Tequila and the show is called A Shot At Love; a play on a shot of tequila). Teenagers might believe that it is fine to be drinking alcohol from 10 o'clock in the morning until midnight or later. This is not a good example to be showing to teenagers, especially teenage girls who feel a constant need to fit in. I pity the parents whose daughter aspires to be just like Tila Tequila.

One Vote Campaign 2008

This post is about a video on YouTube which is an advertisement featuring many celebrities to help raise awareness for the One Vote campaign. This campaign is meant to get American voters out on election day and to help influence the presidential nominees to make poverty in Africa one of the major issues in the 2008 elections. Celebrities such as Bono, Matt Damon and Tom Brady speak on the video and although their words can be seen as inspiring, I doubt it will get many people out to vote.

When looking at the comments posted about the video, I noticed one comment which expresses a view that I happen to agree with. This person said that solving poverty and AIDS in Africa should not be a major issue in our presidential campaign, especially when we have alot of poverty in our own country. The writer also said that it is not the responsibility of the United States to be the world's police. I have always had this opinion, as we are constantly giving money to African countries when you can walk the streets of New York City and see plenty of poor and homeless people. Also, you can go to rural towns in middle America and notice that the people there are living in extreme poverty and the education level is extremely poor. I know the celebrities who are on this video and the people who launched this campaign mean well, but maybe they should look at the conditions in their own country before calling on Americans to make the conditions in another country one of our main political issues.

Click Here to Watch The Video

Facebook: Social Networking or Stalking?

Tonight I read an article from the Op-Ed in the New York Times entitled "The Fakebook Generation" from October 6th, 2007. In this article the author Alice Mathias, a recent graduate from Dartmouth University, discusses the popular website Facebook and whether or not that website is achieving its goal of social networking. One of the main things she points out is the privacy that is offered by the website and which aspects of that privacy are important to most people in our generation. Although the website offers its members alot of privacy options, the most popular option is that people will not see when the member is currently online. People do not want their friends knowing when they are on the website, regardless of what they are doing on the website. However, many people are not ashamed to show pictures of themselves consuming large amounts of alcohol or partaking in sexual activities. This shows how our generation functions since they are more embarrassed of people finding out they are at home than they are of people seeing pictures of them that they might later regret taking.

Another interesting topic she brings up is when she mentions a possible program that would let other people know who is looking at their page. As a college student, I know many of my friends who go online and "e-stalk" the guys who they might have crushes on, or see what their friends are doing that they were not invited too. Internet sites such as this make it much easier for people to see who is doing what and when and this can be highly addictive for many college students. However, facebook has many advantages in connecting people on a college campus who might never meet but have many of the same interests. This social networking aspect can be extremely beneficial for many college students.

Although I no longer log onto facebook, I found this article extremely interesting because the author seems to enjoy the way people use it. Without this website, how else would people be able to stalk the people they are too embarrassed to approach in real life?


Click Here to Read the Article