She said what??

Ch. 4 In Their Own Words

I'm not sure what to comment about in chapter 4. The only thing I found particularly interesting was a quote about prepublication review (ppr). Kelly McBride said, "Every day, beat reporters make deals -- explicit and implicit -- with their sources about what to print, when to print it, and what to leave out. Rarely do they tell their readers about these deals. Sometimes they don't even tell their editors."

Lately I have been apathetic about anything concerning the world of journalism, however McBride's quote was able to make me ponder (or at least rub my chin in a ponderous manner). As I study ethics and the media's obligation to serve the public, I find the 'behind the scene' activities like those mentioned above to fall within the grey area of upholding the public interest. I've had discussions about if and when it is okay to do undercover work or without that you are a journalist, and I feel that ppr is just as deceptive to the public as the former is to a source. I never really knew that writers go back to the source to review what is to be printed. I suppose it is a nice gesture, however it gives the source too much power of the media. Whose interest is ppr concerning? I can understand if you want to check out some quotes to eliminate any possible libel, but to give the source the ability to disapprove of what is to be printed? ehh, I don't know how I feel about that.

Regarding the whole, on the record off the record.. that's just too much for me. It does open my eyes to having to talk to all sides of the story. I'm a pretty not so objective person, and these little hints here and there on how to straighten out my crooked journalism halo is very helpful.

The E-Media tibits was surprisingly expremely uplifting. I'm having this quasi angel devil debate over my future with journalism, and seeing that their are other thigns to write about than hard political news is awesome. The RSS feed about environmental issues is just awesome, and seeing how people responded to the feed is even cooler. By making those environmental issues accessible to more audiences makes this whole thing seem like its worth it. My only gripe is that with the feed you can censor what information you receive. It is a little naive to think that you can go through life reading and hearing about only the good things you want to hear about.

The blog for the timetable was really interesting, I only wish it was in english. I'm not sure what magical journalism knowledge I gained from the blog, but the timetable itself was impressive. So must information is packed into that flash feature, its so modern and unconventional typically I would dismiss it as being a form of journalism. As I become a discouraged jounralism student, these modern multimedia possibilites are shining just enough light of hope.

Hillary Health Care: The Reprise

Hillary Clinton pushes so hard she would make a great drug dealer. Evidently Hillary is to make another universial health care proposal this monday. I read a figure that read something like 50 million Americans are uninsured. I agree something needs to be down about that number because it seems rather unamerican to me. I don't really remember Hillary's first health care push in the early '90s, all I know is that it didn't go through and that it was pretty complex. My friend from home told me about this kid she knows that can cough up blood on demand, but he can't get anything done about it because he isnt insured. That is what I think of when I think about the health insurance. I don't know how great univerisal health care would be in the US of A. Where there is univerisal health care isn't it true that you are placed on waiting lists for months at a time and seeing a doctor becomes near impossible? I agree with the Democrats that something needs to be done to the system. I think the big drug companies and giant insurance companies who are profitting off of sick people should be the ones interrogated. Hillary should be coming up with a clear and concise plan for Iraq before focusing on destorying the American health care system.