A hope to reduce medical errors

By: Erin Floro

Medicare will stop paying for medical errors this Wednesday. Even if it is the doctors fault, you will be billed. Medicare is the largest insurer in the country and their decision has made other insurers follow the same guideline.

These insurers will not pay for as many as 28 "never events." They are called that because they are never supposed to happen. If a patient gets an infection after surgery, or gets bed sores, or needs a second operation because the first one wasn't done properly, Medicare will not pay for the treatment.

This affects alot of people, there are over 12.5 million people annually that are covered by Medicare.

Medicare is reducing payments to hospitals with high readmission rates and they grant bonuses to doctors that report quality measures. Nurses have been trained and are more careful with medications and to prevent falls from happening.

Hospitals strongly enforced washing hands, that even cut as many people from getting sick again. Some changes have been technological, like an electric prescribing machine which reduced medication mistakes.Hospitals are complying with the rule to report medical errors. Doctors and nurses are focusing on avoiding accidents. By Medicare doing this, they want to encourage hospitals to eventually have zero medical errors.

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A hope to reduce medical errors

By: Erin Floro

Medicare will stop paying for medical errors this Wednesday. Even if it is the doctors fault, you will be billed. Medicare is the largest insurer in the country and their decision has made other insurers follow the same guideline.

These insurers will not pay for as many as 28 "never events." They are called that because they are never supposed to happen. If a patient gets an infection after surgery, or gets bed sores, or needs a second operation because the first one wasn't done properly, Medicare will not pay for the treatment.

This affects alot of people, there are over 12.5 million people annually that are covered by Medicare.

Medicare is reducing payments to hospitals with high readmission rates and they grant bonuses to doctors that report quality measures. Nurses have been trained and are more careful with medications and to prevent falls from happening. Hospitals strongly enforced washing hands, that even cut as many people from getting sick again. Some changes have been technological, like an electric prescribing machine which reduced medication mistakes.

Hospitals are complying with the rule to report medical errors. Doctors and nurses are focusing on avoiding accidents. By Medicare doing this, they want to encourage hospitals to eventually have zero medical errors.

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Credibility of journalists

By: Jessica Hamell

I couldn’t find something that interested me more then what I wrote on in my last blog. Journalists and reporters are already criticized for not being reliable. It doesn’t help that there are countless web sites that run fake news stories that are just to catch people attentions, but so many people can let them go as just rumors or fiction.

I found a poll at GeoCities.com which was talking about reporters that stated "44% said they are 'often inaccurate.' "

People often believe what they read or see until someone proves to them that it is wrong.

I found an article telling about how television news station had been fooled by a video they found on YouTube. They aired it on an expose talking about tendencies at a local high school.

The video even looked fake enough that there were comments posted on it saying it was fake but the television station disregarded those comments and still aired it.


Reporters as well as readers should do a little more investigating if they don’t think the news is credible. If people would just put a little more time into getting the news maybe the credibility of journalists would go up.

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Something left out

On Friday, September 26, Brandon Routh, the actor who played Superman in the new Superman movie, attended Simpson College. He was here supporting Obama. I was a lucky student who got to hear his speech.

Something that I noticed while in attendance to Routh speech was all the photographers that were there. There were three or four photographers that were taking photos of Brandon Routh. As I was deciding what to write for this blog I came across one of those photos on Google News.

The photo was of Routh giving his speech in Simpson College's Brenton Student Center. However, the article underneath the photo had nothing to do with Routh's visit to Simpson.

The article focused on the early voting process. The article doesn't even mention Simpson College or really any purpose for having the photo of Brandon Routh. So why did they put the photo with this article?

I know that, at Brandon Routh's speech, he did talk about the early voting process and talked about how students should take advantage of it. The article mentions this idea but not that it was being discussed with college students. It doesn't even mention Brandon Routh.

When writing an article how does the publisher decide what photos, if any will go with it. It just made me question how the process works.

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Stock Market Crisis explained

by, Sarah Keller

In class we have briefly discussed how some newspapers are making it fairly easy to follow the Wall Street crises happening in America, particularly the New York Times. Newspapers are becoming more reader friendly on how to follow everything that is going on with the stock market issues, for those of us who other wise would be dazed and confused.

Newspapers such as the New York Times are doing a good job with explaining how the crisis will pertain to you and how you may be affected by what is going on and what to do about it. One such article was by Tara Sigel Bernard, a recent college graduate who is worried about paying off her student loans.

USA TODAY jumped on board to help readers understand the importance of what is going on in the world today as well, by giving daily reports and keeping us updated on the latest news. USA even wrote an opinion column about the $700 bailout, making it easier for readers to see where other people stand on the issue and to gain more insight on the issues at hand.

If readers still do not understand what is happening they can simply look at comic strips such as Brian Duffy’s from The Des Moines register to see his thoughts on the crisis at hand very plainly stated through illustration.

I would just like to congratulate and thank most top notch newspapers for keeping America updated on the crisis that our country is falling into and for making it understandable for me, a naive college student who in the past saw no use in following the stock markets, to grasp what is happening to our country.

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Just beat it

By: Gabe Gilson

Before this summer, I had no clue whatsoever what a beat writer was. After watching countless hours of ESPN, surprisingly, you seem to learn a thing or two about real life as well as sports.

Beat writers do not only talk sports from day to day but also news, traffic, government and other things as well according to the Harrower text. Writers assigned to the sports beat often cover a single team. This would make for a fun season.

The Chicago Tribune has a particular writer that every day writes about the Cubs. This is his or her job. Steve Rhodes who today writes for his own online publication, The Beachwood Reporter, used to have this dream job. Every day, Rhodes would go to the game, talk to the players, and write what he saw.

How cool would this be? Every day you are going to the ballpark, watching the game, talking to the stars of the team and writing 500 words on a pitcher with a bum elbow, or about the 14 inning marathon game. On top of all this, you get paid! What a deal.

It is not like I am about to jump ship now and become a beat writer. It is more this being a great option for a career that was unfamiliar to me before a few months ago. The only thing is, as a fan of the team one would be covering, staying objective would be difficult.

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Keep on inspiring

By: Kayla Miller

Today, I was reading the Des Moines Register online, and a very inspiring story caught my eye.

An Indianola man has been working with his third-degree burns since he was 18 years old. He also lost the love of his life in his early 40s and lost movement in his left side from a stroke. But even so, he is known as a very optimistic man. Journalist Daniel Finney described him as a "kind of guy who could have an empty, cracked glass in the middle of a desert and believe beyond all doubt that his cup will soon runneth over." Just to know this, makes me want to read to the end. Readers are saying, "Feed me more news."

This man's life is inspirational to readers. The thing is, the article was sixty paragraphs long, and I read it to the very end because I wanted to, not because I had to. I very rarely read lengthy news stories. But this one was inspiring to me, it changed the way I felt when I read article.

Journalists know this. They put it in a way that we will love. They know that personal life stories bring in the readers, and especially since it is so close to the home, like this Indianola man. He made news happen, and was glad to share it in a positive way. And the journalists wrote it that way...

"Half-full. Always, half-full."

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Tough times call for tough answers from reporters

By: Sara Crouse

Increasing concerns with the American economy has changed the average news viewer. Today’s viewers have become more skeptical of current news stories. Sometimes reporting a story isn’t quite enough for viewers.

Many viewers are turning to opinionated news sources such as Mr. Cramer from the TV program “Mad Money” for an insider’s tip on the economy. Reporters now have to put their own twist on a story.

Opinion news provides many viewers with a chance to further explore their own beliefs, which is relevant in a time of turmoil for the markets. Viewing a contrasting opinion in news engages the mind and leads to active discussion amongst its viewers. Discussion of the current bailout plan is a hot commodity these days. No longer are the stock market graphs, at the end of the nightly news, what people want to view. We already know it doesn’t look pretty.

The nightly news, although it serves a generic purpose, seems to be lacking in its relevancy to viewers. Neutrality in the nightly news just isn’t enough for worried watchers. People want facts and they want more than just the basics to help reassure them through difficult times.

There has been a significant trend in reporters turning to the details on many current issues with the economy. The New York Times reports,

“Mr. Cramer found himself having to explain arcane financial concepts like credit-default swaps to an audience that was double its usual size and spooked by the market’s moves.”

Whether we agree with Mr. Cramer or not, its a blessing to hear someone has a plan.

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Hate speech going too far

By: Shauna Agan

While doing research for another class, I learned about a court case involving the Westboro Baptist Church. This church is famously known for protesting certain events and relaying the message that God hates homosexuals and because of homosexuals the world is cursed.

Because of the First Amendment rights in the U.S. Constitution, media is allowed to speak out and express their opinion openly. The Internet has been a convenient source for media to relay their message to the public.

This is why sights such as that of the Westboro Baptist Church titled godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com are legal in the U.S. On the reverse side, there are also sights out there such as godhatesfredphelps.com where people on the opposite end express their feelings about Fred Phelps, the leader of this church group.

There are also many other Internet Web sites promoting hate towards individuals, organizations, or items of interest. With the Millenial Age group of people, more and more Internet sights are being made for this reason.

Should these sights be allowed?

These groups and individuals have the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, so under the U.S. Constitution they are definitely allowed to express their opinions. However, where does the line get drawn so the Internet is not just a means to promote hatred towards different groups?

The Internet is a great source of media. However, soon it is going to be used only as a means to legally discriminate against people rather than for news and information to be received.

I believe that the Internet should be regulated more so Web sites such as these are monitored and used as news rather than a way to promote hatred.

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A final 'New York' Sun set

By: Quinn Albrecht

The New York Sun is set to publish its final paper on Tuesday September 30. The paper was started in October 2001

The paper was established with two goals in mind. One was to offer its readers a different prospective than the New York Times, and to make a profit. 

With a lot of economic woes in the past day or two, it is understandable that somethings like this might happen, but who would have guess they would happen so soon.

This sudden shut down of a huge paper just adds stress to a market that is already seeing signs of trouble.

Quite a few people are loosing their jobs, some have even turned down jobs at larger papers to stay with the Sun.

It is sad to see a up and coming outlets for the news fail like this, especially in a time when we need the news more than ever.

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Editing strikes back

By: Adrian Aitken

A couple of weeks ago Barack Obama appeared on the O'Reilly Show for an interview about the candidate's issues and the upcoming election. Unfortunately as ABC News was covering the television spot, the newsgroup edited the footage just right to make Obama's statements on the Iraq War different from reality.

Again controversy surfaces as another news group commits the same offence. MSNBC's news anchor Andrea Mitchell reported on the recent interview between Bill Clinton and Tom Brokaw.

During this interview Brokaw wanted to know if Clinton would endorse Obama the same as he had previously done with John McCain. Clinton replied with a fairly long statement, but when the clip was re-aired on MSNBC Clinton's answer seemed to be hollow and unenthusiastic.

The cropped footage was aired during two different news programs on MSNBC and has shown that the media has few boundries. In my last blog on this subject I said that a hidden agenda must be present in some of these shows. I was willing to accept that from Fox News and CNN, but now it would seem no where is safe for an unbiased, non-party viewer except for maybe CSPAN. If the news is to be trusted I believe more objective reporters ought to be on the air than these which speculate and spin.

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Punctuation!

By; Sarah Keller

There was an article in USA TODAY by Craig Wilson on punctuation day about… punctuation! This article made me laugh because the author discussed how bad he was with punctuation, particularly commas, semi colons, and exclamation marks, that was what his whole article consisted of.

I have to admit that the reason I found this article so funny was because I can completely relate with him and his difficulties to use proper punctuation marks. The main reason I normally get points taken off of papers is because of the editing, other wise known as correct uses of punctuation.

It brought some relief to me to know that there is at least one professional journalist out there who is as terrible with punctuation as I am. We both know what it feels like to get torn apart by editors for not using correct punctuation, and we both feel as though we were absent the day in school when the teachers taught us how to properly use commas. So I just want to say thank you Wilson for making it so I am not the only journalist in the world who feels incompetent with their punctuation marks.

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Tabloid Journalism

By: Taylor Browning

After talking tabloids in class today I was curious as to how much actual 'news' was written in them. They seem to have the less than professional journalism stereotype compaired to large newspapers but some of their stories were a lot more serious than I thought they would be.

The National Enquirer's home page listed the obvious 'I Made Brit Sex Tape' and ' Doped Heather DUI Bust' headlines were listed big and bold, but with some searching I found some actual news.

They discretely listed thumbnails about Palin's alleged affair years ago, as well as an article about Ted Kennedy's trip to the hospital. Although they aren't the tabloid's highlights, I was intrigued to see that the Enquirer covered these stories.

I previously have viewed tabloids containing only scandals and crimes by stars but now after actually looking past the cover stories and looking at the Web sites, my perception of them has changed and I now give them more credit on their journalism than before.

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I'm glad the advertisers aren't with it.

By: Katie Anthony

Over the past year, the amount of videos watched online has gone up an alarming 31 percent according to research done by The Washington Post.

You'd think that with the increasing popularity with online videos that advertisers would be jumping on the bandwagon to adapt to these videos. Yet, it doesn't seem like they're ready to dive into the world of online videos, television shows, and movies.

Good, it makes our lives a lot nicer.

While I understand the need for advertisements to keep stations up and running because of the money the advertisers put into their ads, it's so much nicer to be able to watch something online (whether it be a movie or catching up on a television show) knowing that I won't have to be interrupted every 15 minutes for a commercial break.

So, please advertisement companies, don't change your habits of the way you deliver of your ads, you're definitely making my life a lot nicer.

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Just A Laugh?

By: Kelsey Knutson

According to Fox news, Tina Fey took the stage at SNL again portraying McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. This time it was a sit-down interview with "Katie Couric" (Poehler) on the CBS news. 

The SNL skit made jabs against Palin and her "lack of knowledge" on many policies in Washington D.C. One part of the skit had Couric (Peohler) asking Palin (Fey) what she wants to do when it comes to spreading democracy abroad, Palin (Fey) replied, "Katie, I want to use one of my life lines...I want to phone a friend."

Saturday Night Live may just be comical show that many young people watch every Saturday night, but does it actually influence young voters?

This question has been raised and is being debated across the country. Many people are wondering if this election is at the hands of stand-up comics and sharp humor. And are the jokes biased?

I think that shows like SNL do effect some voters and how they look at candidates. If you make fun of people on t.v. some people may just simply assume that they deserved to be made fun of, and in turn assume they are stupid. 

However, I don't think this applies to the majority of people that will be voting this November. I feel that many of the young people that will be voting in this election are well informed and have already formed their opinions from what they've learned and read and not from what they've seen on SNL or other comedians. 

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Political bloggers becoming staple in American politics

by: Pat Tierney

With the presidential elections just around the corner, there is no doubt that this race is one for the history books. Along with all the “firsts” that have come with this election, the prominence of blogging in the political circles in quickly becoming historic as well.

Democrats and Republicans alike are turning to the web to voice their opinions and draw support. During this election cycle political bloggers are generating interest on their blogs for candidates, raising funds for their political party and “getting out the vote.”

Bloggers are not just waiting to see presidential debates on television but rather logging onto blogs and starting new debates daily. This is giving people an opportunity to openly discuss the current issues almost in real time.

During the first presidential debate on Friday night, many websites opened up blogs that would run live during the debate. This allowed viewers to blog in real time about the issues the candidates were discussing.

As the race continues the impact that the political bloggers will become clearer. For now however, these dedicated bloggers will continue to hit the web, in search of support and promotion and maybe even a little debate.

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Sorry, you can't have an opinion about that...at least not here

By Liz Tjaden

We have talked a lot about how blogging has become a great source for information, communication and news. They can give a voice to people who normally wouldn’t be able to be heard. Opinions can be raised and disagreements can be played out. However, rarely do we hear much about students being punished or chastised for what they write. Alana Taylor never thought that would happen to her until her blog got national attention.

On Sept. 5, Taylor wrote a blog about her thoughts on a journalism class she is taking at NYU called Reporting Gen Y. It is a course about journalism and how it affects Generation Y, those born roughly between 1982 and 1994. The blog that she wrote, posted on MediaShift, was Taylor’s personal opinion about classes, professors, and fellow classmates at NYU.

Her blog covers three main points: her disappointments of NYU and their “traditional” journalistic views, the lack of bloggers around her and how important she thinks it is to get beyond print and focus on digital new media.

While she has every right to publish what she wants to, this didn’t make many people happy in the Big Apple including her classmates and professor. Taylor wrote about things her professor said in class and talked about other students and their lack of blogging.

These events have sparked a lot of controversy and questions about freedom of speech rights compared to privacy rights.

If Taylor isn’t making any libelous or untruthful statements about the actions of her class does posting it make it right?

Sure it does! College is a time for self expression. It seems like Taylor is light years beyond her fellow classmates in terms of technology and digital media and now she is being chastised for it?

It could be argued that Taylor had right to say those things about her professor and department. There are things a professor says in class that don’t need to be repeated. Especially to the whole world.

Great, it’s glad to hear that we are going to start silencing those with opinions that we don’t agree with now. Hasn’t anyone sat back and thought maybe she has a point? Obviously, she feels like there are problems within her school that are not being addressed. The question is, if her blog should be the place do that.

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Soaring Gas Prices... No problem

By: Katie Schaefer

Everyone these days are struggling with the soaring prices of gas. The National Research Council is trying to develop a way to get around this problem though.

They have developed a way for people to not use gas, but hydrogen instead. They have had this idea for a while now, but they haven't really acted on it. There is a lot of difficult pieces to put together to make the hydrogen cars, so researchers are having problems with it.

A problem that comes along with the hydrogen cars is that there is no place to fill the cars up with hydrogen. Every car runs on petroleum so we only have petroleum pumps around. It is going to cost a lot of money to put in new hydrogen pumps.

The question is is the new hydrogen cars really worth it. I think they are, and I think a lot of good will come from them.

One thing is that the gas cars we have now produce one-third of the carbon dioxide we have in the air. With hydrogen cars they only produce water and it would get rid of a lot of the carbon dioxide in the air.

The bad thing is that we would have to spend a lot of money putting in pipelines below the ground. A lot of money that our government doesn't have.

All in all the hydrogen cars are going to be a place. They are going to be expensive at first, but when the researchers figure out how to mass produce the cars then they will get a lot cheaper.

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Determining news from sleaze

By: Hannah Pickett

It is a journalist's job and duty to report facts and unveil information, secrets, and bits of information no one else has done. But, when does the search for the fresh new spin teeter on the fine line between reporting relevant facts and reporting National Enquirer trash?

Just this week, an Alaskan man released what is believed to be 100% genuine video footage of Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin's participation in the 1984 Miss Alaskan beauty pageant swimsuit competition.

Once the video was out, it hit broadcasts like Entertainment Tonight, as well as CNN. My question is this: Sure, this is a trashy interesting bit of information worthy of the print and broadcast tabloids, but does it deserve time on reputable newscasts like the Today show or CNN? Where is the line drawn between tacky, irrelevant, gossip-style information seeking and good journalism?

How is 'good' journalism defined? This video footage would have been more suiting and acceptable to report of an actress, pop singer, or well-known reporter, rather than the first woman vice presidential candidate.

Was there an agenda behind the timing of this specific 'release of video' with the election just around the corner? Was this a liberal attempt at further attempting to point out that Palin may not be the model of conservative views?

Journalistic ethics are an issue in everyday reporting. Deciding news from sleaze is obviously arbitrary to the reader and reporter, but definitely raises some flags in situations like this one.

Who cares if the VP candidate was a beauty pageant contestant? Will this honestly affect her desired position in the White House? Those are the questions a reporter must struggle with in determining news from Hollywood, in this case, presidential race, sleaze.

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The latest news-delivery technologies

By: Brian Steffen

We're just starting to get used to getting our news from computer screens via the Web or maybe our cellphones or BlackBerrys. But it seems that those technologies are going to be so yesterday — perhaps even as soon as, well, tomorrow.

What are the newest technologies? Poynter's Ellyn Angelotti is back from the Online News Association convention in Washington with a heads up on the 10 newest technologies for news delivery. Some of them are going to blow your mind. At least they did mine.

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