This New York Times June 18 special project on homicides in New York City provides good resource material for aspiring journalists interested in writing about, well, murder and crime. And I will most likely try to incorporate into the reading list of one of my advanced news writing classes. Story and the multimedia can be found here. And that recommendation allows me, in good conscious, to segue to this recollection: That period in my journalistic life when murder was on my mind.
There is so much hugging at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., that students have broken down the hugs by type:
— There is the basic friend hug, probably the most popular, and the bear hug, of course. But now there is also the bear claw, when a boy embraces a girl awkwardly with his elbows poking out.
—There is the hug that starts with a high-five, then moves into a fist bump, followed by a slap on the back and an embrace.
One can guess that youths’ nervous systems are picking up the pitter-patter of day-to-day life effected by the bleakness threatening their dreams, and they want a reassurance that is difficult to describe. However, this kind of NYT anecdotal lifestyle piece overlooks the reality of the hugbug, so to speak: It cuts across generations. Asking for a hug is becoming as common place as people bumming for cigarettes or asking strangers for a light.
Jessica Lawson, you can read one of her masterpieces here, has been accepted for a fall internship at NY1. And Hannah Levine, who interns at L magazine and is the Arts and Entertainment Editor for the Envoy, an independent, student news operation at Hunter, and also writes for pomponline.com and blogs at hannahmiet.blogspot has been offered a job in advertising.
From Center for Community Economic Development: On June 16, 2009 The Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative and  The Media Consortium hosted a webinar for members of the media on closing the racial wealth gap. Experts of color discussed how Native American, Black, and Latino communities have been affected by predatory lending and foreclosures, and urged journalists to investigate the racial angle of the economic crisis to raise awareness of the issues and encourage policy changes that will close the racial wealth gap.
Okay, so, I participated in the webinar and am working on a report of sorts and hope to publish soon, if not later  today then in the coming days.
Regarding America’s racial landscape, I believe there are risks at all levels of social interactions, thus, I would like to add the following for consideration of could-have-been headlines (or could-have-been sub-headlines) regarding Staple’s article: Walking While Black, Bicycling While Black, Working While Black, and, of course, two that hold significance for me and all my students, Learning While Black and Teaching While Black.
Levine – editor for the Hunter Envoy, writer for pompline.com, blogger at hannahmiet.blogspot.com, former writer for the WORD this past semester – is interning this summer at L Magazine. Here is her first review there, Sexy (and Sexist?) 90s New York.
… by white colleagues who mistake them for criminals. That danger was tragically underscored in New York City last month, when Omar Edwards, a young African-American officer who was chasing a suspect, was shot to death by another police officer. The New York Police Department, and police departments across the country, must do everything possible to prevent such tragedies.
The New York New York Police Department says such “friendly fire†killings are rare, and it could not provide accurate statistics on how often they happen. But a provisional list provided by the department of fatalities caused by mistaken identity offers some sense the problem. Of the five officers mistakenly killed by colleagues since the 1970s, three were black and one was Hispanic.
– New York Times Editorial, June 11
Read more here. Regarding the Times’ editorial headline, The Danger of Friendly Fire, what if the friendlies have minds poisoned? Can they really be regarded as friendlies?
For what it’s worth, my words about the shooting of Omar Edwards.
I couldn’t resist Egan’s Outpost passage, I thought it was candid about certain brands of Americana …
“We kill innocent Americans often enough through our legal system, kill them because of shoddy police work or racial prejudice.”
Sarah Palin Vs David Letterman
June 17th, 2009As of this date and time, 1:12 p.m., Google listed “about 4,529 news results for Sarah Palin David Letterman.”
My 10 cents:
1) Yawn.
2)Â Somewhere down the road she and her cronies will blame Obama.
Tags: David Letterman, news analysis, Sarah Palin, sensational news
Posted in Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion | Comments Closed