Facebook lends a hand to a lazy journalist

By: Kathryn Lisk

"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you," states Facebook's official log-in page. It is used on college campuses across the country to keep students informed in each other's lives. Students post pictures for their friends to see, write on each other's pages, and send emails to stay up to date on what's going on in their social circle that is constantly growing.

 And as of August 26th, Facebook is used by over 100 million members worldwide. Wow.

I use Facebook daily to keep up with friends from home and to stay in close connection with my friends here, at Simpson. But I never thought of Facebook as an interview source for journalists.

Khristopher Brooks, a journalist in Lincoln, Nebraska says that using Facebook to get in touch with students at the University of Nebraska campus saves him hours of interviewing so he can spend more time reworking his articles before his deadline. He simply searches for a Nebraska student with the right major, interest, and age from his Facebook account, and then tries to set up an interview with them from there.

As a student and a Facebook user, I am certain I wouldn't accept a friend request from some journalist I'd never met who is contacting me over a personal, social cite. I simply wouldn't want this stranger to have access to all of my photos and information.

 If a journalist doesn't even have the time to find a student to interview in person on campus, he either is not the type of reporter I'm comfortable talking one on one with, or he's incredibly lazy and not worth my time.

I draw the line there. But for the students who have accepted Brooks' request, best of luck.

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COMM 220, Media BUSINESS

By: Kelsey Knutson

Last week in class we talked about the media as a business, run by businessmen and journalists with certain bias' and agendas. (Then we talked about media and the good and bad effects they have on society.) With this thought I couldn't help but wander to the recent issue of Governor Palin's pregnant teenage daughter, and how the media is exploiting her.

I think it's wrong for the media to make a victim out of the seventeen year old girl who isn't running for a public office; her mother is. I think the media needs to inform the country on who this new face in politics is - not who her daughter is. Sarah Palin's daughter has nothing to do with this presidential election and journalist are smearing this girl's name and face for no reason other than the fact that her mom is the running mate of John McCain. Do we as a society and voters really care about this pregnant teen? Should it effect the way we vote? I say "No," and I don't agree with the media not leaving the issue alone. 

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Bridge to nowhere

By: Callie McBroom

The Republican Vice-President Nominee, Sarah Palin gave the most important speech of her life at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night. Here, she claimed that she "told Congress 'Thanks, but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere". This statement has since been challenged. On Thursday, Media Matters for America, a progressive research and information center on US media, reports that the media is ignoring this comment.

I happen to disagree. In fact, I would argue that the exact opposite happened. Immediately after her speech, Brian Williams for NBC suggested that her statement might not be completely true. After further researching to see if this was the case, I was astonished to find that everyone was talking about it, including the newspapers included in the article!


Media Matters is a news source that considers it's mission to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the media. I find it ironic that it has put out misinformation. Media Matters is trying to point out an inconsistency in Palin's story while it is itself creating an inconsistent story in the process.


Maybe Sarah Palin's positions were exaggerated in her speech. I'm not arguing that they weren't. This, sadly, has become normal for political speeches. People need to evaluate statements like these for themselves, and it is usually helpful to use news sources as a reference. Just make sure the news source knows what they're talking about!

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The media have been bad boys (and girls)

By: Brian Steffen

Over at Politico today, Roger Simon responds to those who say the news media have been unfair to Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, in the days since her selection by John McCain.

Meanwhile at the New York Observer, Leon Neyfakh says there's really nothing new about politicians blaming the media for their bad images. Republicans make more of it than do Democrats, though some Democrats insist they get the back of the hand more often than do Republicans. and if you're among those who buy into the liberal media bias theory just keep in mind that Bill Clinton believed he had worse press than any president in history. 

When does critical/probing become unfair?

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