AKA Feature Writing
In many ways, this was a typical D:F/M advanced news writing class. The students were talented, all could write. Yet … !
PUSHBACK, MEDP 299.47, Fall, 2009 – Part I
February 5th, 2010More About Former WORD Editor/Producer Fighting the Power in Morocco
February 3rd, 2010Aida Alami’s Huffington Post piece was discussed on the home page of the Columbia University journalism school. A J-school contact said she was passing the article/information on to CJR.
Morocco’s Leading Independent Magazine Is Shut Down – Former WORD Editor/Producer Writes in Huffington Post Article
February 2nd, 2010“Last week, something extremely shocking happened: the Moroccan authorities took control of our newsroom and offices while we were working on that week’s edition. They sealed the place and changed the locks. The next day, my editor informed us that the magazine had been pretty much sentenced to death and executed by the government. The reason it was closed: judicial liquidation but it is, in reality, a political decision to shut down this icon of the free press in Morocco.” — Article by Aida Alami, Freelance Writer Living in Morrocco.
Read the rest of her article here.
PUSHBACK – Resistance Is Futile But Anticipated
January 19th, 2010This is an introduction of sorts to a six-part series. A few years ago, I invited the New York Time’s first Ombudsman to my journalism ethics/responsibility class. That position, now occupied by Clark Hoyt, is primarily known now as the New York Times Public Editor. I’m speculating that the presence of a Public Editor is more preferable to Ombudsman which sounds akin to a lawman enforcing the law in a lawless community (at least, that’s how I imagine the NYT natives perceive the position when it was announced in the wake of the Jason Blair scandal and other journalistic ignominies which didn’t get as much attention but contributed to marring the public image of the Times).
Get Ready to Run for Cover!
January 18th, 2010By Edward Kent
Monday, January 18, 08:17:51 EST 2010
To: OurStupidEconomy <OurStupidEconomy@yahoogroups.com>
If the Democrats lose the capacity to block Republican filibusters tomorrow, we had all better run for cover from the excesses we can expect from our banks, drug companies, and other corporate interests that already control too much of our lives. I was startled to learn the other day that one bank has initiated $100 penalties for overdrafts.
Bring Back Aristide to Lead Haiti?
January 18th, 2010By Ed Kent
Monday, January 18, 18 07:41:36 EST 2010
To: PeaceEfforts <PeaceEfforts@yahoogroups.com>
Haiti manifestly has no leadership now. President René Préval disappeared for the first two days after the earthquake and seems to be doing little if anything other than talking to Americans now. Perhaps it is time to bring back Jean-Bertrand Aristide from South Africa where he was shipped in 2004 after a questionable removal from the Haitian presidency? Reports on him range from viewing him as an effective reformer to a human rights violator.
MLK
January 18th, 2010By Ed Kent
Sunday, January 17 14:59:10 EST 2010
To: Ending Poverty <EndingPoverty@yahoogroups.com>
This is the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. I finally heard someone on TV mention his name a few hours ago – Obama giving a speech/sermon at a church in the Capitol. What most people forget is that King’s popularity was declining towards the end of his life as he moved on from desegregation to concerns about poverty and wealth.
[Kent is a retired Brooklyn College philosophy professor who is very opinionated but his “stuff” has always been well corroborated and his reach is broad.]
Hunter College: #2 “Best Value” Public College
January 14th, 2010Sent to Hunter Faculty Via Email from President Jennifer Raab:
I am delighted to announce that Hunter has been named the #2 “Best Value” public college in the country for 2010, according to The Princeton Review and USA Today. This is the second year in a row that Hunter has ranked among the top 10.
Commute
January 11th, 2010
I like being so diverse, my ethnicity so diverse that it could overwhelm an U.S. Census taker because the blood flowing through my veins makes me so unique, and people don’t know what language I can or can’t speak, as well as guessing where I come from or “ I really like this “ who I am.
Natalia M. Clavijo
The commuting experience of students taking an advanced writing class I occasionally teach — MEDP 299.47, fated to morph real soon to a full-fledge course number sans a decimal point — is finally a functioning assignment.
Naomi Klein: Capitalists Poise to Rip Off Haiti
January 20th, 2010Tags: Democracy Now, Haiti, Haitian crisis
Posted in I Didn't See This on the Evening News (A Work in Progress), Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion | Comments Closed