I'm a Crackberry!

By: Sarah Harl

While spending part of my summer in Washington DC, and all of my down time from my summer camp job running around Manhatten's Upper East side, meshing into the world of Gossip Girl, I realized that if you didn't have a Blackberry or and iphone, you esentially had nothing.

Media outlets are recognizing this too. Major media outlets are looking for creative ways to take news on the go.

Writing is now more concise and direct then ever before, the headlines meant to stand out amid all the other things one can do on a cell phone these days.

Just as the media adapted to radio, television, and the internet, and blogs, journalists will conquer this new form of news gathering perhaps one day making it an artform, or something we learn about in class.

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Journalists aressted outside Republican National Convention

By: Erin Floro

On September 5, 2008 at the Republican National Convention many reporters were arrested while trying to photograph the anti-war protestors. The St. Paul police told everyone to leave and no one did, even the reprters. This was in violation of the law, but they were just doing their job! The police didn't care who was who, everyone was getting sent to jail.

Nathan Weber, a photojurnalist was shooting pictures Monday and police threw him to the ground, beat him, and then arrested him. This is absurd, police could tell who was a journalist and who wasn't. Police used grenades, smoke, pepperspray, and tear gas on both reporters and protestors. A journalist stated "It's not hard to see who's media and who's not, even if you have two cameras, a tool belt, and a credential handing around your neck, it's pretty clear who's media and who's a protester." They confiscated many of the journalists equipment and personal belongings. I feel this was completely unnecessary

Reporters had dealt with covering the stories of the debates before, no one was as strict as in Minnesota, they had no tolerance for anyone there. Some of the major reporters there were photojournalists from the University of Kentucky and their student advsor, Associated Press journalist Matt Rourke, Twin Cities journalist, and many more. Sometimes journalists will do whatever it takes to get a story.

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Small town papers

By Sarah Keller

Last May term I had the opportunity to shadow at the Overland Park Sun. I am sure you have never heard of it, that is because it is a small local newspaper from my home town in Kansas.

From my shadowing experience I was able to get a hands on experience with the reporters and hear what they had to say behind the scenes. One of the things the reporters told me was that they were trying to utilize the internet more, since that is what people are reading off of now. Unfortunatly if you go on to the Overland Park Sun's website, there is not a whole lot to look at. It is really boring, the best thing I have to say about their website is that they have a few pictures, and publish some of their articles online. If they really want readers to appriciate their website they should make it look better, and get more interactive with it. I could not even find the authors of the articles name anywhere in site.

Another thing that I was able to pick up from the reporters was that they felt as though no one took them seriously. They told me that their biggest competetion was The Kansas City Star, and if you know anything about the Kansas City star, you would know that you would not want to be up against them. The reporters from the Sun told me that they had to write far more articles than the reporters from The Star because they had less staff. They believed that The Star had far more time to make their articles sound better than the Sun. Unfortunatly the fact of the matter is that the public does not care how much time you have to write something, they care how it sounds. The public does not want to take the time to read an article that is poorly written.

When I looked at an article from The Suns website, about one of the high schools in my districts dance team I was bored. I wanted to hear something that would draw me in, but I could not seem to get interested. Even though I was against this dance team at several dance competitions in high shchool I still could not seem to care. The lead was poorly written, and there was nothing interesting in the story, and then on the same page with out any title they started a new article, it was confusing and not well prepared.

So though I loved the people at The Sun I do believe that they need to get caught up with the times, became more computer Savvy, and spend more time writing well sounding articles.

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One man makes a team

By: Jessica Hamell

Reporters treat Tom Brady like a god. How will they react now that he is injured? The reporters first reacted by bashing the Pats They say that all hope is lost to return to the Super Bowl this year because their star QB is out of the season. Quarterbacks aren’t the only part to a team as long as the Patriots find an average replacement QB they should so just fine.

NFL.com says that Brady’s injury will shift the power in the AFC. Opponents expecting the New England Patriots to fall apart as a result of Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury would be wise to remember the last time the team had to turn to its backup quarterback.

The Denver Post says “Opponents expecting the New England Patriots to fall apart as a result of Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury would be wise to remember the last time the team had to turn to its backup quarterback.”

One person really doesn’t make a team. If the Patriots think that they can come out and still be successful without Brady and have confidence in the new QB then their season might end up just fine.

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And the State steps in...

By: Jessica Hartgers

Iowan foster mother, Desiree Bosch, reportedly loses custody of her own son recently. A judge ruled the 12 year old boy's home to be un-fit for him to be living in, yet she is still able to house foster children whom are not blood related. The judge's reasoning for taking the boy from the home was because the son was experiencing extreme stress and mental health issues.

From the beginning of the story it seems to look as if the journalists were taking the side of the mother. At the start of the article it mainly talks about the mother's point of view; foster mother who keeps her house open for any struggling friend or child. However, as the story goes on more and more details arise. You soon find out that the son was abused physically and sexually by his live in roommates, this abuse caused numerous problems for the child.

This story bothers me because the foster mother should be a mother first, and think of her own child's well-being before she chooses to open her house up to foster children that she makes money off of from the government.

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Find the arts

By Kellie Green

The Arts is something many of us, who are attending Simpson (a liberal arts school), know a lot about. The Arts is an area that many people focus on and enjoy. People daily go see plays, watch movies, go to a museum, write poetry, etc. Then why is it that The Arts section in newspapers seems to be hidden or completely not existing.

In going through The Des Moines Register in just a glance I can't even find the section focused on The Arts. At times there is a little section but nothing as big as the sports section or other popular selections. When reading The New York Times they at least have an Arts section but it is usually way in the back and hard to find.

The Arts section should not be hidden. It affects people everyday. Going through The Arts section today, on the New York Times website, I found out about the closing of Rent, a Broadway show that has been going on since 1996. When I went to find this out, on the web, I had to search for The Arts section because it was hidden off to the side.

The Arts may not be something that everyone is crazy about but it shouldn't be taken as something not important. The Arts should be compared to sections like sports. Both of these areas may not be for everyone but I am sure there are many people out there that spend their time focused on these areas.

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Respect and deference

By: Brian Steffen

After my rant in class yesterday about why Republicans seem to feel that they get the shaft from the press more than Democrats think they get (although they think they get it plenty), we find a John McCain aide explaining the same idea when he expounds the campaign's philosophy on how it will permit Sarah Palin to interact with the media.

"Why would we want to want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?" campaign manager Rick Davis asked the Washington Post yesterday. "Until we feel like the news media is going to treat with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment." (Emphasis mine.)

The respect-and-deference card is a great one to play if your goal is to energize your base by stoking resentment against the press as one of those snotty "elitist" groups. It's a tried-and-true campaign strategy. And the sad thing is that it works.

What's the veep hopeful's take on oil independence? If you're a journalist, don't ask too probing of a question, because it shows your bias. 

How about Iraq? Don't be so unpatriotic as to question what the candidate has called a "task from God." 

How about her membership in a church that considers her efforts to expand Alaska pipeline to be an expression of God's will? You must really hate ordinary people to ask questions of such temerity.

Winston Churchill put it best a long while ago: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." When journalists are told to sit down and be quiet and let the pros take over — and a large swath of the voting public agrees — then we're in trouble.

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