The Mayor of New York City becomes visibly and publicly upset because he can’t manipulate the news media? This is an excellent real-world teaching anecdote for my J-news writing classes.
Since May 30, Saturday, because of a bike accident, I’ve been to two emergency rooms, the first via ambulance in Jersey City, and the second in Manhattan via PATH and taxi, and have made office visits to two Manhattan doctors, one to my personal physician who referred me to a podiatrist, who told me I really needed to see an orthopedic specialist. He told me to rush to NYU’s orthopedics emergency room where a NYU orthopedics ER doc told me what I suspected when I was in the Jersey City Medical Center but couldn’t get anyone there to take serious my concerns: My Achilles tendon was mangled, to what degree she couldn’t determine because the NYUÂ MRI folks had left at 7 p.m.
WORDwriter Eunji Jang is in Atlanta. The WORD editor ain’t there cause of a bicycle accident. If Jang isn’t overwhelmed by a lot of work – she’s working on project drawing on her fluency in Korean plus manning a table with pamphlets about Hunter as well as pursuing her own projects – she might deliver some updates or news about the expo.
Was Officer Andrew Duton acting like a racist? Trash that question. Better ones are: Does he live in a racist society? Was his fatal mistake the result of his growing up and living in a racist society? What was his mindset at the moment he squeezed off several shots? Would he have shot a white man, woman or child under similar circumstances?
Who the hell is capable of answering such questions considering the epistemological challenges, regardless of the torrent of news reporting as well as commentary manipulated to look like news reporting?
No one.
Google, this date, listed 1,184 links to news stories about Omar Edwards’s slaying. Yet, every sane New Yorker, however, knows the answer to this one: When was the last time a black NYPD officer mistakenly shot a white police officer under similar circumstances?
This is a quickie alert because I’m trying to wrap up my semester and have been waylaid with last minute stuff. More later about NAM and its June 4-5 convention. Needless to say, NAM – thanks to Jonathan Mena, Kisha Allison, Jacqueline Fernandez and Eunji Jang – really admires Hunter students and does a lot to support them.
On with the quickie:
OUTSTANDING PRINT, WEB AND BROADCAST REPORTING
ATLANTA – New America Media  the nation’s largest association of ethnic media outlets, today announced winners of its National Ethnic Media Awards honoring exceptional contributions to journalism by members of the ethnic media.
Email sent to my Feature Writing students after the Thursday, April 30 class: Andrea Leon convinced me that I missed the big picture and that she has a story that no journalist, pro or student (in recent memory), has regarding Sharpton. So, I would really appreciate it if everyone in class would send her three or four sentences regarding their likes and dislikes about Sharpton. Try to be specific about why you like or don’t like or respect or disrespect about him.
Please let her know if you can use your name or not in this special she’s working on.
For pedagogical reasons, I will offer a brief recap and opinion at the beginning of class because the tiff illustrates some journalistic matters that can’t be taught via book/class and have to be learned via real-world experience.
When I worked for the the Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, New York and the Washington Star in Washington, D.C. (before it was crushed by the Washington Post), and later the New York Post, I always felt the rush, as if the dopamine was coursing full speed when I waded into a crowd to ask questions of strangers who had no real reason to answer me.
While my department dillydallies over its future, I’m exploring new ways to teach. That means a lot of field testing. The latest: Visiting the MET Sunday, May 24. Armed with a Panasonic Luminix DMC-LX3 point-n’-shoot. For now, I want to keep things simple: Pictures of MET visitors taking pictures.
Because I was so wrapped up in trying to get my students credentials for the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver in August, and getting them prepped once they were notified by New America Media that three were going, and trying later for a WORD presence at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis (my trying was not as serious nor as successful as my efforts for the DNC in Denver) and then the Presidential Inaugural in D.C. (which they accomplished by themselves), I had slacked off a lot.
