February 2009 Archives

As much as I want to ignore ignorant people, I can't.

When I first saw the now notorious cartoon from the New York Post the racial connotations were clear. Did Obama write the bill? No. However, would most people immediately make that connection when they read the caption? Of course! 

Let's not play dumb

I absolutely refuse to believe that no one at the New York Post saw the connection between the cartoon and the horrible historical racist depictions of African Americans as monkeys. 

The first apology issued by the New York Post regarding the cartoon was an absolute joke. No apology is better than a fake apology. Even people that gave the cartoonist, Sean Delones, the benefit of the doubt were angered by the half-apology because it dismisses the idea that blacks could be offended by the cartoon. It even calls those that were offended "opportunists." 

Are we really that dumb? Are we really that ignorant? Seriously. This has nothing to do with party lines. This is about a group of people hurt by the depiction of a black man as a monkey, whether it was intentional or not. It is not about being liberal or conservative, it is about knowing the historical context. The apology is obviously geared toward a race that they think is overly offended too often, but is that even an excuse to print it?

The New York Post has every right in the world to print the cartoon. Free speech is not thrown out the window here. They can print it, no questions asked. However, even if they are given the full benefit of the doubt I am still left with a lot of questions. So, they didn't mean it? They didn't know it? But, most importantly they didn't care?

Free speech is still free speech, but that doesn't mean that you aren't held accountable when people are offended. 

We as journalists are taught to be aware and sensitive when it comes to stereotyping and racial issues. Why do you think we have to sit through diversity training every year? Do I need to be told that racism is bad? Of course not, but journalists need to be aware that even though you do not think something is offensive, others might interpret differently. 

Hey, offend people if you want, but don't play dumb. You knew it was coming. 

I would like to start off this entry with a few mementos of days gone by.

I figure an offensive cartoon warrants an offensive title.

When I first saw the New York Post's cartoon my reaction was, "well this will end poorly..."
I wonder why Sean Delonas, the cartoonist, or Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, didn't see it coming?

Allan told CNN, "[The cartoon] is a clear parody of a current news event." Delonas' cartoon made reference to the February 16 attack by a "pet" chimpanzee. Police shot and killed the chimp after it viciously mauled his owner, and her friend.

Al Sharpton, the National Association of Black Journalists and others didn't see it that way. Critics argue the cartoon appears to compare President Obama to a chimpanzee--a racist commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package.

And sure, Obama may not have been the one writing the bill, or directly attempting to push it through congress--that was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's job. But media outlets referred to it as "Obama's stimulus plan." So, I don't think it's any stretch of the imagination for readers to view the cartoon as:

a.)    Attacking Obama for the stimulus plan
b.)    Making reference to Obama as a chimp
c.)    Thereby making reference to African Americans as chimps

To make matters worse, the Post's halfhearted apology was worse than none at all. Stick to your guns, defend Delonas, and say it was in not intended to be racist. Or come out and say it was tasteless and apologize to everyone whom it offended.

Don't apologize and then add a caveat, like the Post did in its ANONYMOUS February 20th apology.

  

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the Post, finally got it right a few days later...

"We don't need The New York Post to resurrect images of Jim Crow to deride the new administration and put black folks in our place."

- John Legend

 

By now, I hope you've seen the cartoon that The New York Post ran last Wednesday. Not because I think it's humorous. Comparing the author of the federal stimulus bill to a crazed chimpanzee shot by police after attacking a woman in Connecticut is flat out ignorant. Our country's history of racism and violence is too painful to continue this nonsense.

How did this get past an editor? One might think it's funny to compare a deranged monkey to the author of the stimulus plan. But for me, this cartoon invokes more painful themes in American history.

John Legend asks some thought provoking questions in his letter to the editor of The New York Post:

"Did it occur to you that this suggestion would imply a connection between President Barack Obama and the deranged chimpanzee? Did it occur to you that our president has been receiving death threats since early in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery?"

My feelings exactly! Racism is expressed in discourse, pictures, actions, indifference and denial. Look at this cartoon and discuss the judgment of the editors at The New York Post. In my opinion this cartoon should not be taken lightly. 

Last week the New York Post published this highly controversial cartoon. It was meant to connect two recent events: the passage of the economic stimulus bill and an attack on an elderly woman by a chimpanzee. But many have perceived it as a racist attack on President Obama. 

Post Chairman Rupert Murdoch has since issued an apology, saying the cartoon had no racial connotations, and was only meant to "mock a badly written piece of legislation."

It is impossible to know what intentions cartoonist Sean Delonas had when creating it, but one has to wonder what the NY Post editors were thinking when they decided to publish such a provocative cartoon. At worst, it is a disgraceful example of racial bigotry. At best, it is a case of an extreme lack of editorial foresight.

Even if they think that the stimulus bill is 'so bad a monkey could have written it,' the Post editors had to have known that people would see it and think of old racial stereotypes of African Americans as apes. Just last year, there was controversy when someone created a t-shirt equating Obama to Curious George. Editors at the Post had to have seen this coming. 

But maybe this is what they wanted; I'm sure their Web site has been getting lit up with people looking for the cartoon, and as the old saying goes, no publicity is bad publicity.

When I first saw The New York Post cartoon I had mixed feelings.  I saw right away that the cartoon was offensive.  I agree that it is inappropriate and desensitized to people's feelings and race but I was astonished by the uproar and drama that people let this cartoon create.  If people were offended by the cartoon why create so much publicity about it?  At least that's my personal opinion. 

 

The controversial cartoon in The New York Post was created by Sean Delonas a longtime cartoonist.  Delonas claimed that if the cartoon was portraying anyone it would be Majority Leader Harry Reid or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  The New York Post is owned by NEWSCORP, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch who we all know does not apologize for anything.  In fact, during the 2008 presidential campaign The New York Post ran a story claiming that Mrs. Obama had stayed in Waldorf-Astoria, a five star hotel and rang up an outrageous bill on room service.  Later, it was found that Mrs. Obama did not stay in the particular hotel but also that she was not even in the same city.  Murdoch's corporation was quick to blame bad sources. 

 

The original non-apology by the New York Post's editor, Col Allen came before Murdoch's apology.  The original apology is inconsiderate because it does nothing to note that it was not intended to be racist but that the newspaper can see why people were offended.  The first non-apology takes a shot at the Rev. Al Sharpton when it claims that people are using this cartoon for a means of payback.  Sharpton is a well-known activist and he is constantly searching for media attention.  Eventually, Murdoch made a public apology for the cartoon, which New York's Governor David A. Paterson, an African American man who is also blind graciously accepted.  If a prominent African American in politics can accept the apology why can't the rest of society?

 

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post brought up the question of diversity within The New York Post's staff with Keith Olbermann.  Robinson claimed that no African American in this country would let this cartoon be published in a newspaper that he or she worked for.  Robinson points out that this is a great lesson as to why diversity in the workforce is so important.  I agree with Robinson that diversity is extremely important but is there really no diversity at The New York Post?

 

I agree that the cartoon is appalling and offensive.  It clearly depicts the author of the legislation for the stimulus bill as a monkey.  Since the legislation for the stimulus bill is President Obama's work it is clearly him that is characterized as the monkey.  This brings up a very touchy issue that still exists in our country, racism.  Throughout history African Americans have been referred to as monkeys in a racist manner. The cartoon insinuated that President Obama should be shot for his legislation, which is absurd.  It is outrageous to insinuate that anyone should be shot and killed especially the people leading our country no matter what your political beliefs are.  However, President Obama would not be the first president referred to as a monkey.  Throughout George W. Bush's presidency he was often referred to as a monkey as well.  However, I do recognize that there is a difference in calling Bush a monkey versus calling President Obama a monkey.  Either way it is despicable that anybody and especially the media would refer to any of our nation's leaders as monkeys.  I would like to see the name-callers try to lead an entire nation through such a troublesome period of time and see how they like being referred to as monkeys. 

 

The actions of those who have referred to Bush and President Obama as monkeys have acted unpatriotic and bad-mannered.  In regards to this cartoon, apologies have been made and reputations have been damaged.  Why is this not enough for the media and society?  Is this really the time to be raising such an uproar about a cartoon in a newspaper?  I understand everyone needed time to vent and retaliate but its time to move on.  I am sick of hearing about a controversial cartoon when people could be spending more time talking about ways to fix our economy.

If the New York Post committed any offense when it published this cartoon, it was chiefly the crime of not being funny, clever or satirical at all.

Frankly, I think the cartoon that was recently published in the New York Post was in extremely poor taste.  Though the Post denied that the cartoon (which likens President Barack Obama to a chimp) was meant to be racist, it is hard to image the cartoon was created without any racial undertones.

Initially, I was concerned that Post editors and staff thought the cartoon was appropriate to publish.  However, now I believe that it was a few top editors who allowed the cartoon to run, for many Post employees and editors are unhappy and angry about it.

Though I'm disgusted about the racist nature of the cartoon, that isn't the only aspect of it I'm bothered about.  The cartoon parodies the chimp mauling of a woman in Connecticut a few weeks ago.  The woman, named Charla Nash, was attacked by her friend's pet chimp.  Nash's injuries were so horrifying that some staff members who treated her have sought counseling.  Furthermore, the chimp, which was shot dead, was loved by the community and by its owner as a pet.  No doubt, this was a traumatic experience for everyone involved.

That Sean Delonas, author of the cartoon, thought it was appropriate to parody such a recent and disturbing event shocks me.  It is a miracle Nash is still alive, but her condition is still critical.  If the attack had killed her, would Delonas still have produced the cartoon?  Probably not, out of respect for Nash, her family, her friends and the community.  Delonas should have thought about all the interpretations of his cartoon before submitting it for publication.

Last week the New York Post published a cartoon that I'm sure they thought to be clever and good at tying current events together.

My concern with last week's editorial cartoon featured in the New York Post stems less from the paper's decision to run it. If nothing else, it stirred the pot and got some people talking about race, as Clarence Page put it in the Chicago Tribune.

No, my concern stems from the Post's apology -- or lack thereof -- two days after the cartoon ran.

Here is a link to The Post's "apology," entitled "That Cartoon."

Maybe this is too simplistic, but I remember being told as a child something along the lines of: "When you make a mistake, fess up."

The NY Post did no such thing, apologizing not for its decision to run the cartoon, but to those who may have been offended by the image. In fact, the Post actually took the opportunity to go on the attack.

"It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period," The Post wrote. The paper went on to add that it would not apologize to "some in the media and in the public life who have had differences with the Post in the past" and "see the incident as an opportunity for payback."

But as Page put it:

"The Post's apology sounded half-hearted, as if it were forced from a schoolyard bully by a bigger bully."

The cartoon and the subsequent lack of a serious apology left many people, including leaders of the black community, outraged.

Spike Lee, for example, has called for celebrities to ban together and boycott the Post. Rev. Al Sharpton joined Lee, as did TV judge Greg Mathis.

Of course, this isn't the first time Obama has had to deal with a satirical cartoon on the front of a major news publication. Yes, these types of cartoons fuel discussion -- discussions about race and about news judgement. Unfortunately, what's at the heart of these decisions is a less noble cause -- selling more covers.

So while the questions now surround this latest controversy, another question should be: Where will the next satirical cartoon come from?

The recent controversy in regards to an editorial cartoon is proving what people already know, though don't want to admit.

Everyone is racist.

Let's begin with the cartoon itself. It depicts two police officers standing over a dead monkey. The officers clearly shot the monkey, and are conversing with one another saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

On initial reaction, I took it to mean the bill was poorly written. Poorly written as in a monkey could, and in this case did, write it.

I can also see why people could claim the cartoon is racist. Those who claim not to recognize the historical connection of blacks and monkeys are perhaps part of the continuing problem. If you don't know the history, and can't think critically about it when evaluating something a wide-ranging audience will see, something needs to change.

As far as the likeness of the monkey to President Obama, that's a stretch. Obama was not responsible for writing the stimulus plan. According to the New York Times, it was a number of people, none of whom were Obama.

Before people begin throwing accusations, the proper information should be collected. Whoever first equated the monkey with Obama has some obvious racist tendencies.

But every group has been discriminated against in some way. Perhaps some don't have the history or extensive ongoing coverage of others, but it's still there.

Native Americans, slavery, Pearl Harbor, 9/11...it seems to be the unfortunate nature of human interaction. Some people have to feel better than others. Some go about it in the wrong way. There is little we can do to completely rid the world of ignorant people. Pointing the finger at people and calling them racist is hypocritical. Everyone is guilty of a racist thought at some time in their lives.

Everyone is racist.

I love the show What Not To Wear. I love it for the makeovers, the shopping, the clothing advice and for Stacy and Clinton's cynical attitudes and saucy realism. The hosts pick an average American woman who struggles with dressing nicely or appropriately and taking care of herself and they give her a $5,000 shopping spree in New York and a complete hair and makeup makeover.

What I don't love is the fact that the women who go on the show are encouraged to purchase outrageously high-priced designer clothing that they could otherwise never afford. On today's episode, a middle-aged single woman with five kids, one of which was less than a year old, spent more than $900 on three items. She said she felt sick to her stomach about spending such an obscene amount of money. Stacy and Clinton instantly tried to allay her concerns by saying she deserved to spend money on herself.

I agree that the woman needed to focus on herself more, but that doesn't mean buying three $300 shirts is the answer to her problems.
What happens when she returns to her life and her five kids, the makeup wears off and she has been taught to believe that only Gucci and Prada can satisfy her fashion needs.

While I believe that dressing for your body type increases self confidence and even productivity, life is simply NOT about dressing nice.   A cute $20 shirt from Target is a bigger accomplishment than a $300 shirt from Dolce & Gabanna, no matter how cute it may be.
The last thing Americans need right now is encouragement and justification for living beyond their means.

"It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill," The New York Post wrote about its controversial Feb. 18 cartoon referencing a chimpanzee in Connecticut that was shot and killed. "Period."

Normally my news shifts are pretty confined to my assigned duties on the Web and in the KUJH TV newsroom. However, last Friday, however, my news shift was anything but that. 

Most people who know me fairly well at the Kansan know that I have one journalistic love that comes before the Web -- copy editing. I had a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship last summer at The Indianapolis Star and will complete a second editing internship this summer at The Columbus Dispatch. I edited the Kansan last semester and edit the opinion page and special sections as needed this semester.

I came to editing by accident. Throughout high school, I was a reporter through and through. A triple major and a year in England kept me from reporting for the Kansan, and also kept me from getting the clips necessary to get a reporting internship at a paper. I took the Dow Jones exam in October 2007 for the purpose of getting an internship -- a good one. I wasn't even in Journalism 419 yet, but I took the practice exams and got the gig at the Star.

When I received my internship, I quickly found out that most people have no clue what a copy editor does. Most of my friends and family think of it as fancy proofreading. I can't remember how many times people I know praised "the sports writers" at newspapers for clever headlines, when the praise should've been directed at the copy desk.

I can't write enough about what attracts me to editing or why I love it, but I can share some experiences. Today, I judged copy editing for KSPA regionals, flipping through a story that earnest high school journalists inked up for their contest entries. A few gems stood out -- removing an inflammatory quote, catching a tricky spelling error, knowing quote attribution. Most were a disappointment. Some students left a completely inappropriate quote in the story, and all but maybe three missed that World War II was fought in the 1940s, not the 1950s. Eek.

I have hopes that many of these high school students will stick with editing, especially the clearly talented ones. God knows we need all the good ones we can get, and I'm thankful that programs like Dow Jones encourage young journalists to see other careers in journalism besides reporting. 

To close, I'll leave you with two articles that express my unease with the industry better than I can. The first, from last June, is an elegy for copy editing as we know it. The second, published on the American Copy Editors Society site, admonishes those in the industry who'd outsource editing to places like India.

Happy editing. 

When I woke up Monday morning, my boyfriend told me about a news story he had just read about a woman named Charla Nash being mauled by a chimp.  My first reaction (after being horrified) was that the woman was a trainer at a zoo, or something like that.  What else would make sense?  But it turned out that the chimp, Travis, was actually a pet of Nash's friend. 

Why would anybody have a pet chimpanzee?

Chimps aren't pets.  They are wild animals and should be kept that way.  In adulthood, chimps weigh 200 pounds and are stronger than humans, especially the 70-year-old woman who owned Travis.  Though Travis was a trained chimp with human-like behaviors, such animals can instantly become violent.

My dad, my sister and I have a lot of fun together because for the most part, we have the same sense of humor.

With the increased need for productivity in today's business environment, how many hours will we eventually be required to work?

The trend seems to be moving in the ultimate direction of 24 hours each day.

With that in mind, it seems there would be no rest for the weary, and certainly no sleep.

I say this as I reflect on the past four years of my life, during which my sleep cycle has experienced every kind of twist and turn known to humankind and pretzels. As time has gone on though, I've also realized that we adapt to getting less and less sleep. I know the recommended amount is  around eight hours, but in all honesty, I know very few people who adhere to that on a regular basis.

I'm happy with five or more.

Looking forward, I don't see how the habits I've formed while in college will change once I enter the work force. The phrase I always remind myself of is news doesn't sleep. If things happen at all hours, which they do, someone will need to be awake to cover them. Sleep deprivation seems to be inevitable in the media business. While some people can manage to be productive while tired, it's not the norm. 

So if news never sleeps, does that mean eventually we won't either?

Satellite radio is struggling to stay afloat amid the faltering economy.

Siriusly.

The merged corporation Sirius XM is battling to keep itself out of financial bankruptcy. A New York Times article Tuesday revealed the company had agreed to a deal with Liberty Media securing $530 million.

I realize the company stock is worth some decent money, but what is the future of satellite radio. Apart from its sports programming, which is seemingly the only reason anyone subscribes, there is nothing special about satellite radio. It plays music, sure. Today it seems like everything plays music: Cell phones, computers, iPods, etc.

No one really needs satellite radio.

The digital radio trend began only a few short years ago, something like 2001. In the eight years since, it has struggled with competitive and legal issues and merged to make more money. But just like so many corporations of the times, it might not be enough.

Would anyone miss satellite radio? I doubt it.

Thursday afternoon I took a photo of a 5-year-old eating cake.  Normally I steer clear of these cliché photos, but this little guy was eating Darwin cake. 

Haley  is right. Internships are disappearing. I'm spending most of my free time looking for internships and applying for whatever I can. Flash is incredible and I want to work with it more so I can get better at it.

My brother Walker owns WORK, an art gallery in New York City. Today is I Heart Art, a collaborative show with The Wassaic Project. My mom and I both have work in the show. I have a photograph and my mom has a felt bag she made.



A few hours ago I got a text message from my brother Kansas saying that my photo was sold. I'm super excited because I want to eventually move to New York to live near my brothers, sister and niece. This gives me hope that maybe If I work really hard I can make it.

Everyday, you are bombarded with 5,000 advertisements.  Even if you don't think ads affect you, it is difficult to imagine that an image you are exposed to 5,000 times per day has no influence at all.  Sure, ads sell items, but they also have underlying messages, and these messages are probably not want we want our society to be based on.

A little pill.
A soothing cream.
A needle filled with fluid.

Steroids have dominated the field of sports media for far too long. The newest entry in a lengthy list of things people care too much about is New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez. The pinstripe player recently admitted to using a "banned substance" about five or so years ago. At the time he used whatever it was, there were no penalties for it.

Now there are, and A-Rod's interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons has run almost every day since it first aired.

I don't care, and neither should the millions of people who watch baseball. I know I'm not the only one who thinks the sport is one of the most boring in the physical activity spectrum. The players rarely have to move (especially the outfield), and the teams play 162 games in one season.

What other sport could have that many games and not lose nearly all its players to injury?
Hockey -- no
Football -- no
Basketball -- no
Rugby -- no
Soccer -- no
Tennis -- All right, they can get pretty close

The point is, baseball is one of the least physically demanding sports in the world. Games also have no time limit.

Baseball is boring.

So why wouldn't you want something to spice up the game? Why wouldn't you want Bonds juicing so he can crank little white balls out of the stadium and into the drink? It's more fun to watch. Nobody gets excited about a ground-ball single. Watching someone get thrown out doesn't get anyone's blood pumping. It happens countless times in every single game.

Steroids makes the game interesting. It gives people something to talk about. If it weren't for the drugs, baseball would be taking a back seat to nearly every other sport right now.

So as far as I'm concerned, if you're a professional baseball player, keep trying to make your sport interesting during the overplayed regular season. But please, do it quietly.

Not unlike the "25 things about me" Facebook phenomenon, the J694 blog entry topic on how we've all spent our day has caught on, and I'm using that topic in my blog entry for today. So, without further ado, here is my (journalism-filled) Thursday.

1. Luckily, my first Thursday class (this one, in fact) begins at 9:30, allowing me to sleep off the alcohol-fueled partying of the night before. By alcohol-fueled partying, I really mean night editing The Kansan until 12:30 a.m., then coming home and passing out.

2. In the online reporting class, I blush profusely as Kansan.com is praised while the LJ World and the Missourian are trashed in the weekly critique. I spent a week of slave labor at the Missourian last summer and have no love for it whatsoever.

3. After class ends, I meet with my group to go over our diabolical Web scheme, which I'm hoping will eventually entail espionage and cocktails. We make a game plan, the details of which I won't share here.

4. I have enough time to drop off my heavy items in the Box (i.e. the office I share with three other managing editors aka girls) and run upstairs to my magazine design class. This is a class I'm enjoying more as it goes on. The final product is an actual magazine prototype that we can use in interviews and submit in competition. My magazine is called Expedition, and it's a travel magazine for students loosely inspired by Budget Travel.

5. Magazine class ends, and it's off to the daily critique. I can't believe I missed the kicker error, the brief text error, the design mess-ups and the Associate Press byline style. Mentally berating myself, I pick up my books and head upstairs to Ethics.

6. I have to give a presentation in ethics about professional codes I've researched. I chose McGraw-Hill and Microsoft. Microsoft's code of ethics says nothing about global domination or evil; I'm suspicious.

7. When class finally ends, I head to the Underground to get some breadsticks so I don't pass out from low blood sugar. I e-mail my mother so she knows I'm still alive, and begin doing some busy work, like sending out that day's Web critique and getting my Cracked fix. Today's list is "If Valentine's Day Cards Told the Truth."

8. 4 p.m. meeting time. I listen as the campus and sports desks lay out their pages, secretly wondering if/how often the stacks will change before I leave for the night. I fill in the Web budget and tack it on the copy board.

9. We order in pizza before the Thursday reporting budget meetings. Mmm pizza.

10. It's budget meeting time. I take notes on each story and speak briefly with the Web staff about possible ideas. Occasionally I laugh at a glib comment made by McGeeney. When the meeting ends, I go back to the office, type out a few e-mails, hope people get back to me, and head out the door.

11. My roommate mentioned that her boyfriend would be spending the night, and I immediately notice evidence that he's there -- the damn toilet seat is up.

It was on my way to class this morning that I was reminded of how much I love living in Lawrence.

Jobs aren't the only thing disappearing. Internships are becoming more scarce as companies trim their budgets and eliminate unnecessary spending. I learned this firsthand last week.

About a month ago I learned that I had received a Dow Jones internship in Frederick, Maryland at a local daily newspaper. Just last week, though, I received a call from Dow Jones informing me that the newspaper had dropped out of the program because of insufficient funds to pay a summer intern. Perfect. I had already found and secured the perfect living situation and had planned my summer out in my head.

I was relocated to Trevose, Pennsylvania, to work for a mid-sized company that creates and develops marketing products. I took a pay cut of $50 a week. I'm happy about my new situation, but am nonetheless worried that this sort of event might become a more common occurrence.

Everyone is aware that jobs are in short supply, especially for the more highly paid and overqualified demographic of 40-50-year-olds in the industry. But are college students aware that their internships (which already pay almost nothing) may become either unpaid or, worse, obsolete?
 
I fear not. I can only hope that the economy will improve, advertisers will buy ads, writers will find jobs and paychecks will increase in amount. Oh, and college students will receive paid internships.

With the economy in a recession, graduating from college is a scary realization.  I am graduating in May and currently have no lead on a job.  So instead of looking forward to graduation day, I am dreading it.  I have spent numerous hours searching for jobs and had little luck so far.  I would prefer to get a job in Washington D.C. because of its market size and culture.  I have the assumption that because of its market size it might be easier to get a job in D.C., especially with the new president and all the buzz around his presidency.  However, living in a big city, like D.C. is more expensive than a smaller market like Kansas City.  So I can't move out there until I have a job because it is so expensive compared to what I am used to.  As I notice few journalism jobs in television, my fears are beginning to heighten.  My ideal job would be a television reporter but that is looking more like a dream at this time.  Maybe I will be forced to step outside the journalism industry and look for jobs in other industries until I find a job in television.

 

On top of the stress of looking for a job I received a phone call from my health care provider.  They informed me that they are going to terminate my coverage after my graduation.  So if I don't find a job after graduation I will have no health care coverage and may be forced to move home with my parents.  Now that's a scary thought too.  I can't imagine having to live under my parent's roof again.  Don't get me wrong, I love my parents more than anything, but it would just be so hard after not living with them for four years.

 

I know that there are thousands of other soon-to-be college graduates out there in the same place.  I sympathize with them because it couldn't be a worse time to be graduating and searching for a job.  It is frightening how many qualified college graduates are applying for jobs and it is likely that a large percentage won't find jobs right out of school.  I am nervous because although I have experience with KUJH-TV and the Kansan.com it might not be enough to get a job.  It does help that I had a summer internship at Comcast SportsNet in Washington D.C. but there are no job openings there.  The only thing I can hope for is that the connections I made while there will help me find a full-time job. 

 

Meme. If this word is not part of your lexicon, it should be.

A Meme is a bundle of cultural ideas, beliefs and values packaged in a way that makes them easy to transmit from one person to another. The word was coined by one of my favorite authors, Richard Dawkins, to provide an evolutionary analog for the dissemination of ideas and values.

You can think of memes as a game of telephone. You start a message and as it spreads, it changes. Catch-phrases, fashion, and popular culture are all transmitted in a similar fashion--from one person to another--and as they spread, they change or "evolve."

Memes have become a common way to explain the "viral" spread of content on the Internet. Creating Internet memes is big business, but not everything posted on the internet catches on.

But what value to society is such content? And what values are contained in a picture of a cat with a poorly written caption?

It could be that the ability to find, create and share such images displays a shared understanding of Web culture. To use a worn-out term, "Web 2.0 culture."

Packaged within these amusing pictures are shared understandings of the Internet (interwebs?). And the evolution of a language used to convey these shared understandings and experiences. Thus emerges LOLspeak, also known as Engrish, an annoyingly saccharine-sweet pidgin language composed of common keyboard misspellings, acronyms, abbreviations and grammatical flatulence.

Engrish in a nutshell:

1) Mis-decline verbs, especially misuse the verb "to be"
2) Misuse gerunds
3) Overuse prepositional phrases
4) Blatant rearrangement of syntax
5) Incorrect plurals and past-tense verbs
6) "noun" your adjectives. (For instance, the adjective "blue" can become the noun "blueness")
7) Improper pronouns
8 ) Drop the articles ("a", "and", "the") in favor of adding "-age" to the end of a noun
9) Use "younger" words ("kitty" versus "cat", "fuzzy" versus "furry", etc.)
10) Use the word "with" inappropriately. 

Language serves the dual purpose of uniting and dividing. If you understand the language, you are part of a community. If not, consider yourself an outsider.

But, be sure to ask yourself: "Is being in the out-group a bad thing when it comes to writing like an adolescent girl in a chat room?"

 

After learning about the Chris Brown, Rihanna incident in the Kansan a few days ago and after reading more about it online, I came across an interesting comment on a blog comparing Brown to OJ Simpson. The comment, posted on Extra TV's blog site, read "hate breeds hate Chris Brown is the next OJ Simpson." 

Sidenote: check out your favorite celebrity news Web site for more information and updates. I'm not in the business of covering celebrity news. I'll leave that up to the pros.

While the comparison could seriously use some more consideration, I think we all can agree both incidents have shed light on the country's often overlooked domestic violence problem, especially amongst young adults and teens.  

Like the New York Times columnist Charles Blow  said today in his column, "Love Shouldn't Hurt."

In his column, "Love Shouldn't Hurt," Blow cited some alarming statistics about teens dating violence and other facts and figures about the frequency in which it occurs. The most alarming being that among teens ages 13 - 14, almost 20 percent have been hurt by an angry partner. 

On the heels of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Week, it's important to continue to emphasize how wrong domestic violence is and create awareness about it in schools and on campuses everywhere.

Even though I don't agree Brown is the next OJ and I think everyone should wait for all the facts to come out before we condemn or side with anyone, two things are certain: domestic violence anywhere is never acceptable and it's a growing problem amongst teens. 

Last weekend I discovered the coolest url trick that will make you salivate.  If you prefix any url with this, http://bacolicio.us/ a large piece of bacon will appear on your web site. This url transformed my resume, cover letter and writing samples into visual masterpieces. 

Some days shimmer and shine and today has just been one of those days: a shimmering day full of silly music and good people. I was already
walking around, complementing myself on what a productive and fun day I was
having. It is a perfect day to blog about and so, d'apres Tyler, I am going to
blog about my day!

 

As a random side note, this list is going to be really boring to everyone. It is in the style of The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin--ie, I mention all of the
productive things that I did and then do a little name-dropping of people you
probably don't know.

1. It began with an early morning jog around town. In my opinion, this is the
   very best way to start a day. The weather was ridiculously warm and when
   little drops began to fall from the sky, they felt mighty fine.
2. I made a few important phone calls, showered, ate some raisins, and soon it was
   time to go to class.
3. On my drive over, it began to rain torrentially.  The gates of heaven opened. I dashed into the building.
4. Very productive film class. I was able to sound extremely productive (after
   making the appointment I made half an hour before). I WAS feeling really
   good, however, because I finally settled on a theme for my film. All
   seemed fun and possible.
5. The sun was sending down bright and shimmering rays as I drove from Oldfather
   Studios to park my car at KU Admissions (a drastic weather shift). I heard
   a tidbit about star-crossed lovers on the radio that I really enjoyed--it
   was very Valentine-y and at the same time, tragic. Then, I switched from
   NPR to my guilty pleasure-- 95.7 (At this site you can listen to the music live).  Just as I had hoped, a motivating
   gangster song came on and it made me happy.
6. Saw my friend Sara. A bizarre but lovely meeting. 
7. Dropped my stuff in Nunemaker and ran into my friend Katie. We had a quick weekend
   catch-up, a quick relationship catch-up and a few laughs.
   
   
   Here is Nunemaker Center.
   
   
8. This might have been my favorite day moment. I walked out of the building into
   brilliant sun and gusty breezes. And just then, my Ipod sang the first
   line of Happy Boys and Girls, a ridiculous Aqua song from the 1990's. It
   was such an amazing moment that I doubled back and recreated the moment
   for Katie. 


9. I saw my friend Lily--another pleasant meeting.
10.  My new passion is medieval French. In my class, we discussed Les Lais de Marie de France. Those stories are
    so fascinating. I got really excited by the teacher's suggestions for
    things to watch. Here is one: TF1.fr, the French news channel. Another was
    a YouTube video of La Belle et La Bete.


11.  I entered back into the sunny wonder of outside and walked over to Carruth O'Leary, listening to Britney
    Spear's Circus and more Aqua.
12.  Over there, I had a great talk with Jeff Severin, the Director of Sustainability on the KU campus. He read my
    article about the recent LJ World Poll (where stupid Lawrencians voted no
    to the creation of a position of Director of Sustainability in the city.)
    We also made plans for KU's green to blue week. I am coordinating a forum
    between the Mayor's Task Force to address Climate Change and KU students.
13.  I went and talked to Katie B, my editor, about my column.
14.  I ran into my Info booth friend Jack. It was good to chat with him and he was just who I wanted to
    see--even though I did learn that he was a Republican.
15. I got a call from my friend David. Not only did he agree to judge little kids in
    Kansas National History Day with me, but he suggested finding more people
    to act as judges. Plus, it was good to hear from him.
16.  I talked to Patty Noland and got some answers about an internship I am doing this summer. For example, I
    can enroll in the internship for credit and take care of a journlism
    elective.  I worked on my
    resume and then called the folks at the Chicago Center about when I'll
    move in to my Hyde Park Apartment. (Yeah, I know!)
17.  Then, with that information, I was able to book my flights to England for this May! I found great times for
    the flights and great prices! And I choose my seats--PERFECT.                                                                                            !
19.  Then, on this unexpectedly gorgeous, blustery day, I went to a farm with my class.
20.  The day ended with a quiet shift at work, the reading of The Learning Tree, by Gordon Parks, and backrubs with
    my room mate. 

On the cusp of graduation, I find myself looking about anxiously like a cornered animal, looking for a clear path to escape the approaching menace that is the real world.

Oh don't worry, this isn't another "woe is me" tirade from a 20-something who's waking up to the thought of a life without beer-pong.

No, I'm a 30-something entrepreneur who went back to school to finish a degree in something I'm confident will be a fruitful and enjoyable career. I'm ready to graduate. I'm ready to take life by the horns again, this time armed with a diploma and a mission. I'm just having a few jitters at the prospect of giving up life as I know it, the safety net of friends and family - moving away from a town that's comfortable, affordable and enjoyable. It's home.

It's enough to make one think about settling in, buying a house here in Lawrence while the market is soft. I could make this place I've grown so comfortable in my home base for a freelance career. In the meantime, I could also focus on a few of the start-up ideas that have been simmering in the back of my head.

Or, diploma in hand, I could throw caution to the wind and dash headlong into an industry that's hemorrhaging jobs and cutting salaries right and left.

Now you see my dilemma.

To compound the issue, I'm only one of the thousands of young journalists graduating this year, looking to enter a really scary market. It's enough to make you want to curl up in the fetal position and wait it out.

And then, in the midst of searching for job openings, I ran across a story I had to check out.

At 37, the Chairman, Product Architect and CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk is a bit of a hero of mine. Seriously, this guy makes me feel like a total underachiever, wondering what I've done with my life.

With billions in the bank from the sale of PayPal, which he co-founded during the dot-com explosion, this guy has the money and the smarts to do just about anything he sets out to. So when I discovered that his next big venture was to start a commercial space exploration company, I simply shrugged and said, "of course, why not? After all, when everything this world has to offer is within your reach, what's next but to colonize Mars?

After hearing about Musk's latest and most ambitious project yet, I remembered that nothing worth doing in life is easy. The world is smaller than we think and big ideas can translate to big lives. With that thought, the anxiety began to abate. Then I read this article, which shared the best advice Musk had ever been given: "Don't panic."

It wasn't long before excitement and ambition had once again taken anxiety's place. While I may not be launching car companies or rockets to international space stations, I've got an amazing life ahead of me and only five months to get ready for it. There are some big decision to make, and I'm done panicking.

It's time to dig in.

When President Obama initiated action to grant several states permission to require improved automobile emission standards two weeks ago, it wasn't long before auto companies started complaining about the standards being too strict.

I guess I can see where they are coming from. I mean, they've already been working to improve fuel economy on their products for so long, it's probably starting to get exhausting.

Automotive companies are approaching the situation with the wrong mindset. Instead of seeing an opportunity to revamp their lineup of cars and trucks to be more environmentally friendly, and ultimately make them more competitive in the long run, auto execs yet again approached the situation like this:

How in the world did Americans ever get anything done before the internet was around? Being only 21 years old, I tend to forget that the internet hasn't been around since the beginning of time. We got the internet at my house in sixth grade, and I was one of the last kids on the block to get it. That was 1998. Before that, I would go to my friend's house and we'd peruse video game message boards for exactly 30 minutes, because America Online charged for service by the hour. In the past 11 years, I've come to be so used to having the internet get  things done for me that the time before internet seems like the stone age. 

I can name dozens of things that can be done using the internet that would have been a major pain without the help of a world wide web. I can book a hotel room for a vacation. Without the internet, how would I know who to call? I supposed I'd have to call a travel agent and get the number from him for a nominal fee, which is simply absurd to think about. If I don't understand Jean-Jacques Rousseau (which I don't) I can read a summary of what he wrote without having to go to the store and look for one of those silly Cliff's Notes books. I can look at movie listings without having to listen to a ten minute long spiel of the movies, only to miss the one I wanted to hear. Remember that? People actually had to call an automated number to hear what movies were playing that day. This was even considered a convenience, as before that people had to drive through the movie theater to see when their flick played.

Paying 30 bucks a month for internet service is a cost I don't even consider each month. The money saved in actual costs and convenience is absolutely staggering when one considers all the services people do for themselves using the internet. So how much would internet costs have to shoot up for me to cancel service? Tons. Think triple digits. I'd pay more for the internet then I'd pay for ESPN. 

Without the internet, I'd spend more time studying, preparing for various life tasks, and less time sitting in a comfy chair, relaxing in front of a screen. Thanks Al Gore. Without the internet, I'd be lost. 

Today has been a very productive day and it's only 12:30.

So, this is a blog about heroes. No, not those kinds of heroes. I'm talking about the boyhood idol kind. The ones that inexplicably develop seemingly from nowhere.

I've never been one to believe in the mystical powers of fate. I don't want to accept the notion that we don't control our own destiny, that there could possibly be a fixed natural order to the universe. But as the years continue to pass, I can't come up with a better explanation as to why things turned out the way they did more than 16 years ago.

If fate truly does exist, then the definitive serendipitous moment of my childhood hinges on one bike ride -- a 20-minute jaunt in the spring of 1992 up three hills, around street traffic and through the backwoods to "Be A Sport," the local baseball card shop. There, I purchased a pack of 1992 Topps Stadium Club baseball cards. Because they looked glossy.

Before pedaling out of the store's parking lot, I devoured the plastic wrapping, and the karmic forces at work that day had supplied something special. Card No. 225. (This baseball card is from 1993 -- one year later -- but you get the idea) A snapshot from pitcher Mike Mussina's rookie season. Gray Baltimore Orioles road uniform, long-sleeve black shirt protruding from underneath, right foot planted into the pitching rubber, left foot yet to touch the mound as he delivers a pitch, a mixture of intensity and command on his face.

There are moments in life that defy logic or explanation. For me, this was one of them. On a spring afternoon in 1992, at age 7, a boyhood idol materialized.

Sixteen years later, he wrapped up his Major League pitching career with his first 20-win season. He finished his career 270-153. If he should be inducted to the Hall of Fame some day, I'd like to be there in Cooperstown, N.Y. Maybe I'll let him know I still have his baseball card.

When I found out Michael Phelps was caught smoking from a bong my reaction was simple and to the point: "So what. A 22 year old smoked pot."

Across the country, people are questioning Nadya Suleman's intentions after giving birth to octuplets on January 26 through in vitro fertilization.   The octuplets give Ms. Suleman 14 children under the age of seven. 

 

From the newspaper articles I have read, it seems Ms. Suleman overdid herself.  I respect that she and her octuplets have made history but I cannot commend her decision.  Ms. Suleman, a single mother, already has six children ranging from the age of two to seven and seems to have no current job.  This leads me to wonder whether or not Ms. Suleman is capable of physically and financially, raising 14 children on her own. 

 

I am afraid that Ms. Suleman will throw her children into the lime light of the media, with the ulterior motive to make money off of the history making births.  She has already had numerous offers from media outlets for financial compensation.  I don't think it is right for Ms. Suleman to expose her newborn octuplets to the media for a pretty penny.  If she exposes her newborns it should be to show doctors, fertility specialists and other medical professionals her miracle of eight healthy babies. 

 

I also question the ethics of having so many embryos implanted.  First of all, Ms. Suleman's ethics.  She had the chance for selective reduction but refused to do so and even again when they were fetuses.  Ms. Suleman defied the chance to decrease the health risks for herself and for the embryos that were implanted.  Secondly, the fertility doctor's ethics to implant so many embryos is shameful.  A woman on welfare that already has six children does not need eight more.  Further, wouldn't it be deemed too risky to implant so many embryos in a woman in Ms. Suleman's state of being?  Ms. Suleman and the doctors involved were both radically unethical.  I am no doctor, but it makes me wonder if the fame and glory of octuplets got in the way of both parties sound ethical judgment.

 

Many questions circle around in my head but a very important one is: did Ms. Suleman ever consider the amount of money it would cost not only to raise the children but to just give birth to them through a Caesarean section and then the remaining hospital bills?  The people of California and America will be paying for Ms. Suleman's children.  Doctors will have to watch the octuplets for health complications, both physically and mentally.  The hospital bills will run between $1.5 to $3 million.  If the studies about the cost of raising children are correct, raising one child to adulthood costs $2.5 million. What if the octuplets turn out to have serious health problems and are in and out of hospitals for the rest of their lives?  If the octuplets do happen to have health problems, how will Ms. Suleman afford the medical bills?  How can Ms. Suleman live with herself knowing the risk of giving birth to octuplets is astronomical?  Both Ms. Suleman and her doctors should be ashamed.

By now, most people have seen the photograph of 23-year-old swimming megastar Michael Phelps smoking a bong. His personal activities have crossed over into his professional life, and Phelps is definitely feeling the consequences of his actions.  USA Swimming suspended him for three months, and the Kellogg Co. revoked his sponsorship contract. 

I wonder how many pictures are on the Internet of people in their early 20s doing the same thing? A simple Google search brings up quite a few. How many of these people are being punished for their actions? Probably not many, if any at all. 

The photograph should be a non-issue.  To what extreme will athletes be punished for doing something that our society has labeled as wrong or for other minor offenses?  Unpaid parking ticket?  You're suspended.  Three unpaid parking tickets?  You lose your medal.  It sounds silly, but where will the line be drawn? 

However, we live in a society where we expect athletes, even young ones, to be flawless.  Why do we look up to these athletes as role models?  Yes, they work hard to achieve their goals.  Phelps, specifically, is a record-breaking athlete with 14 Olympic gold medals.  But, perhaps parents should remind their children that all people make mistakes, even the athletes kids aspire to become. 

            The important thing is that Phelps admitted to his lapse in judgment.  He even said his punishment was "fair."  Perhaps a lesson can be learned from the ordeal: Taking responsibility for your actions and accepting the consequences is the mature and most effective way to move past tough situations.

When the financial industry needed a bailout, the government seemed to take only a matter of weeks to solve it, so what's the hold up here? Why is the Senate taking so long to pass the economic stimulus package? If there's a problem, fix it. If Senators want to see something taken out of the bill they should come to an agreement and move on. Just as long as they act now. 

While I understand it's not that simple, I still think the Senate, with all its experience, should be able to vote today on a real solution that will help most, if not all Americans.

With thousands of jobs being cut everyday and the unemployment rate expected to skyrocket to more than 7.5 percent nationwide in the next few months, according to the New York Times, there's no time to waste in bolstering the American people's checkbooks and their confidence in the economy.

This week talks about how Senators - both Democrat and Republican - have swirled about the news, with special attention paid to the partisan bickering over the cost of the bill (estimated now at more than $800 billion) and how its funds will be allocated, that is how the money will be spent.

Some Republican and Democratic Senators claim they won't support the bill because as it stands there are too many "pet projects," as Mr. Obama said in a recent press conference, meaning there are too many allocations provided in the bill that won't directly stimulate the economy. This includes several million for education and Planned Parenthood programs.

While I'll agree that some of these projects could be more hard hitting, money-in-your-pocket-now provisions to instantly stimulate the economy, they should look beyond their doubts and see the potential to help their constituents, long-term and short-term.

I recommend that the Senate look at working together to come up with solutions that will put this country on the right track to becoming economically stable, starting by trimming the bill down to those things that would hit Americans pockets tomorrow as well as some that would continue to do so farther down the road.

While it's hard to think that the country's economic woes could either be prolonged to alleviated by today's vote in the Senate, the reality is that that's the case.

As President Obama stated in a press conference, as heard on NPR, if the Senate does not "act quickly we could face [grave] economic disaster." 

For obvious reasons, my, uh, links in this story will be pretty limited to a 10000words.net article explaining what our industry can learn from the porn world.

The porn industry has long solved the ultimate online dilemma for publications -- how do we make money doing this? Through advertising and subscription services, apparently. The article points out that porn sites went mobile a long time ago (insert your own joke there), whereas only a small number of newspapers have. The Kansan is one of them, by the way.

The industry has also pioneered video downloading, among other things. It's just interesting to me that this industry is so clearly ahead of the game in so many ways, and news sites are doing their best to play catch-up.

I must admit, as sad as it is, my laptop has started to collect dust.

Everyday when I wake up, I sit in bed while I check my e-mail, look at the weather forecast and read the new headlines of the day- all sans computer.

I use, rather, a few of the 15,000 plus apps, or applications, offered on my iPhone.

Now, I'm fully aware that there are other phones that are quite capable of the previously mentioned tasks, but let's say I was in the Magnificent Mile area of Chicago, Ill. and wanted to quickly find a moderately priced coffee place. How could I best do that?

Not so fast, Blackberry users.

"I could pay my way through college with this"
Everyone from companies to Web sites are jumping on the iPhone app train. And really, why not? It's a great way for a company to get its name out and not to mention, to earn some serious bucks.

Think about it: let's say a software company makes a solitaire game (one of my favorite apps). Well, if the game sold for $1.99 and there were at least 1,000 downloads per day, the game would earn around $60,000 a month. Now, I'm sure Apple would charge some sort of rate, but that still is a hefty amount of money.

Pangea Software, Inc., has created two of the best-selling apps for the iPhone and have done so well that starting in March, they will strictly be making software for the iPhone, according to KXAN.com out of Austin.

"Hey, lemme see your phone for a sec"
I can't really help but smirk when my friends ask to see my phone. It's not a pompous or arrogant thing, but rather that I know they have an e-mail and Internet capable phone and would rather use mine to play games.

I guess it's not their fault that their cell phone network providers don't offer the iPhone. But in the battle of Blackberry versus iPhone, let's face it, the iPhone has 15,000 more things to offer: its apps. It will be interesting to see what the Blackberry might offer in the future to its users as a response to the iPhone and iPod touch apps, but for now, I'll just watch Blackberry users turn a shade of green as I play an unlimited amount of games or drink fake beer from my phone.

Limitations of Science
The first thing you learn in middle school science is that science can't prove anything. Or at least that should have been the first thing you learned. Yes, friends, that includes evolution, creationism and all of the above. Science can only disprove that which is thought to be true. You learn that in order for scientific experiments and surveys to be valid, you must have a good sample size. The target group of respondents you survey must be a good sample of the larger population.

"Listen to me! I'm liberal!"
Max Blumenthal, journalist for The Daily Beast, an online Web site of media-related stories and blogs, must have been absent the day his middle school science teacher explained this. I'm joking of course, but only kind of.
Blumenthal wrote a blog based on a poll that said Rush Limbaugh was the least popular political figure of all the figures the firm polled, beating out Rev. Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright. Oh, yes. And one more thing. The firm that conducted the poll was a Democratic research firm, Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner. Blumenthal makes mention of that small fact only briefly to avoid appearing obviously deceptive.

Selective truth?
Blumenthal goes on to criticize Limbaugh for hoping Obama's plans would fail. Now, I am not an avid supporter of Rush Limbaugh, nor do I agree with every word from his mouth, but it seems to me that any person in his right mind would hope the policies of his opposition would fail to be implemented or uphold. Does Blumenthal presume that any democrat would hope conservative policies or ideas succeed? I think not. It would be ridiculous to expect Limbaugh or any true conservative to wish that nationalized health care or a number of Obama's other aspirations come to be. It would be equally absurd to demand a liberal be supportive of Bush's tax cuts. See what I mean?
Besides that, anyone who's willing to base their beliefs and convictions on a democratically biased poll taken from a biased sample size is asking for trouble. If a poll was to truly be valid, it should be double-blind, so that neither the sample nor the surveyor had vested results in its outcome.

The machine keeps on...
Blumenthal's irrational rant just goes to show that, while democrats claim to be "open-minded," they are, by and large, the most close-minded of all. Angry little men like Blumenthal scrounge and scrape for a shred of evidence that the other side is wrong. Men like him jump to conclusions about what everyone else is at the drop of a hat.
When it comes down to it, both the media and the education system are liberal-run machines. So why should I be surprised that people like Blumenthal are the ones running their mouths behind a megaphone?