Graduation Anticipation

Since this will probably be my last post to this class blog, I just want to say thanks to everyone for great posts, comments, and thought provoking material. I turned in my Capstone last week and will graduate in a little over a week and am thrilled! I have enjoyed our class and wish everyone the best in their continued college life, or for those of you who are graduating, great success in your chosen career.

PBS Program

Last night as I was channel surfing I came across a PBS special called "Carrier". It's a mini series about the lives of sailors living on an aircraft carrier (Nimitz) which at the time of filming was headed for the Persian Gulf. It reminded me of our class discussion last week about reporting from the enlisted person's perspective, what they do in their down time, the stress they are under, their personal struggles, etc. It was really interesting to hear from these (mostly young) people about how, when, and why they decided to join the Navy. They were really from all backgrounds, races, etc. but many joined because they felt it was something good for their country following 9/11, others saw it as a way to escape a really negative situation at home, others just wanted to see the world, get money for college, many reasons. It is shown on our local tv station KQED (Comcast Channel 9) and I think it comes on just about every night if you are interested in taking a look.

Lions for Lambs

If you have not seen the movie "Lions for Lambs" yet, I highly recommend it. It really makes you think about some difficult positions journalists could find themselves in and how quickly a "hot story" can find its way all across the networks. It fits in well with what we saw and heard about Fox news as far as how and who determines what are the big stories and how to "sell" them to the public. Besides making you think about ethics and other important issues, it also stars Robert Redford as a caring university professor who tries to bring out the best in his students so it's got some "warm and fuzzy" elements as well as a serious side.

Identify Theft

Hopefully none of you have experienced this yet, but sadly, you probably will at some point. My bank called yesterday to find out if I was in the LA area recently and of course, I knew right away that someone had once again gotten my credit card # and was having a great time at my expense. This is now the 3rd time in 2 years that this has happened to me. This time it was on my bank ATM debit MasterCard so I had to close my checking account and open a new one which is a pain in the butt. My advice is that you should review your bank and credit card statements carefully and often so that if someone does get your card # and is able to use it, you find out quickly and can cancel the card immediately. Be sure that your cards are covered against fraud too, luckily for me I have never had to be responsible for any of the charges - the stores are usually the ones who lose out. If you are an employee at any place where cards are often used as payment, ask for ID and also find out what to do if you are suspicious - can you call a manager or something? One of my cards was used at a Wal-Mart and it was a $700 purchase and they didn't even ask for ID - I am sure that employee probably doesn't work there anymore.

Censoring in the local news

Last week in the paper there was a story about a TV ad for a theatre performance that had to be pulled because viewers complained. The play was a comedy about zombies which was happening over the weekend in Monterey. Apparently part of the ad mentioned that one audience member would leave the play "with a dead body" and people found that offensive. The theatre explained that the dead body was actually just a chicken, not a human body obviously - but the ads were pulled anyway. I believe this is the same local station who was apologizing a few months ago for some "racy" Carl's Jr ads - and as it turns out, the ads in question were never even shown on that station but somehow, people thought that is where they saw them so the station was actually apologizing for ads that they never even showed! I guess my point is that I find it hard to believe that people take time out of their busy day to call a TV station over these types of incidents yet nobody seems to be complaining about the biased news content (as we saw in the "Outfoxed" film in class).

Profound definition of Free Speech from LA Times

As I was doing some research for our group dialogue project, I came across a recent article in the LA Times which I think provides a good way of thinking about what free speech is. It reminded me of what our professor asked at the beginning of the semester, which is basically, what will WE stand up for?

"We understand that the 1st Amendment serves a dual role: It protects the private right to speak your mind, but it serves an even more important structural function, ensuring open debate about matters of public importance. You might not care about that first function if you don't plan to say anything controversial. But anyone who lives in a democracy, who is subject to its laws and affected by its policies, ought to care about the second."

If you want to read the full article (it's about privacy and wire tapping):
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-sanchez16mar16,1,5756030.story

Will the flame of the Olympic torch be put out?

Recently in the news we have seen growing protests as the Olympic torch makes it's way on a global journey. Officials are now considering ending the journey due to activists opposing China's human rights policies and the situation in Tibet. I understand that the activists want to bring attention to their cause, but in a way, it seems that this is not the proper forum. The Olympics are about the best of the best competing in their sport against the world and this is dampening what is supposed to be an event that brings the world together. What do you think?