Archive for November, 2009

Who Needs Newspapers?

Friday, November 27th, 2009

I’ve been experimenting with several writing/reporting projects, the most recent is requiring my news ethics and responsibility class to write op eds about their communities and the sources that they use to know what’s going on in their communities as well as staying on top of important local, city, state, national and international issues.

It’s been an interesting learning experience for me, and will be influencing my writing/reporting classes in the future. The project, Who Needs Newspapers?, can be found in the Newspapers Dying? No Big Deal to These Students.

A Phishing Episode: D.C. Teachers F.C.U.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

The real D.C. Teachers Federal Credit Union indicates that it has been scammed and is being scammed, like the message below:

Notification From D.C. Teachers F.C.U.
Dear Customer,

At D.C. Teachers Federal Credit Union, the highest responsability to our customers is the safekeeping of confidential information you have entrusted to us and using it in a responsable manner. A fundamental element of safeguarding your confidential information is to provide protection against unauthorized access or use of this information. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with the federal guidelines to guard your nonpublic personal information against unauthorized access.

At this time we need you to confirm your e-mail address with our existing database. As soon as our database will be updated we need to make few important announcements to our customers so please update your contact information with no delay.

Update Your D.C. Teachers Federal Credit Union Online Account

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Sarah What’s-Her-Name

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Just finished watching the Sarah What’s-Her-Name segment of CNN’s Reliable Sources, an excellent show for a genre purporting to broadcast insightful commentary and analysis and news about news. Sometimes, however, the difficulties of producing a regular schedule of quality programming for this genre is evident – slow news week, bad news week – and banality can rule at times.

Nothing insightful this date, November 22. Nothing new, nothing gained.

Lots missed?

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Chronicle of Higher Ed: UWIRE Not Wired

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Previous WORD Blogs:

1) First WORD Blog post about the death of UWIRE.
2) UWIRE General Manager Tom Orr criticizes WORD Blog post.
3) Chastised for alleged mistakes in a post, WORD Blog does the mea culpa.

Now: November 3, Chronicle of Higher Education story about UWIRE. One paragraph excerpted:

“UWIRE, a popular service that aggregated articles from student newspapers across the country, promoting student journalism both within higher education and to the outside world, has disappeared. Visits to the Web site in October returned a “problem loading page” message. Student newspapers that relied on the service to republish articles from other newspapers haven’t heard a word. Student editors who were paid to scour campus papers to find content for the site received an abrupt e-mail message on October 4 telling them the site was being “temporarily suspended” but offering no explanation as to why. They still haven’t received payment for their work in September, some said.”
Full story here.

UWIRE ran out of $$$. So, why all the earlier secrecy and subsequent growling when this humble site was trying to find out what had happened?

Revisiting the 2009 UFS Faculty Survey Review: Re-Visit I

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I whisked through questions to complete the survey even as the questions were raising more questions. Like this one, Question 5f: Level of Respect Shown to Faculty by College President. Should there have been a similar question about department chairs?

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Thursday, November 12, 2009, Weird: Part I

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Fall, 2009, MEDP 299.47: One of the Best Feature Writing Classes with Talent in Recent Memory.

But …

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FAIR Media Advisory: Lou Dobbs Quits CNN

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

FAIR:

TV host Lou Dobbs abruptly quit his CNN program yesterday, bringing a sudden end to a television program most notable for its remarkably one-sided presentation of immigration issues. Full FAIR Article.

Dobbs’ nativistic preaching and preening in front of the camera was more than “remarkably one-sided.” He engaged, loathingly, in news demagoguery and got away with it for way tooooooo long. Roberto Lovato, one of the co-founders of Presente.org, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”

Basta Dobbs

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

By Jonathan Mena
Senior Editor/Producer

Pro immigration groups in the U.S. exulted in delight at the knowledge that Lou Dobbs stepped down yesterday.

Dobbs, who has denigrated Latinos and immigrants in his news show, has been accused of consistently spreading false information as facts about issues concerning immigration. On Tuesday he said issues like immigration have been, “defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than rigorous empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion.” His resignation comes at a time when talks of immigration reform have all but been absent in the White House.

Without a major platform like CNN, Dobbs next move will be closely watched to see where he lands. Groups like BastaDobbs.com have sprung to stop what they call “anti-immigrant extremism.”  The Latino community is the fastest growing demographic group and will soon become a constituency to be reckoned with. Dobbs resignation was just a small battle victory.

With healthcare reform, war and the economy on the top of Obama’s to do lis,t Latinos from all across the U.S. will need to unite to see that our concerns are heard and resolved.

Faculty Experience Survey – Uh Oh!

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

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An U.S. Supreme Court Justice – with Great Acquiescence from a Manhattan High School Administration – Impales Integrity of Manhattan Student Newspaper

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, according to a New York Times story, spoke at the Dalton private school in Manhattan in late October, and either a member of his staff acting independently or the Justice himself requested that the Daltonian, the school newspaper, allow Kennedy to review its planned story about his visit before it is published.

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