Wiki Leaks Pandemic

For those of you who don't know, WikiLeaks.Org is an international non-profit media organization that posts documents and information that are mainly unavailable to the public. Most of the documents pertain to different international government related issues. Well Wiki Leaks has recently been pissing some people off. Some of the publishings of WikiLeaks have been the characteristic of international world leaders. They publish their strengths, weaknesses, and some personal information. According to the CNN article here, one of the 'victims' is Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Wiki Leaks described the King as a "wry and forthright interlocutor" after explaining his want for chips to be planted into detainees, Saudi horses and falcons. Another posting described Libyan Moammar Gadhafi as being "almost obsessively dependent on a small core of trusted personnel." WikiLeaks then mentions one particular personel member, "a voluptuous blonde", and goes on to mention the personal, intimate relationship between the two. 

So how should we feel about WikiLeaks? As another media outlet that gives information that we may not be able to find on other websites or on our television sets, I do believe that we should applaud WikiLeaks for giving information about different leaders and international issues. However, should we fear WikiLeaks as well? What if one of the leaders chastised by the site doesn't particularly favor the article written about him? All in all, WikiLeaks.org is bittersweet. Just hope that it doesn't get us into any trouble.

Palin, and so on and so forth

The Full Article

We would all be lying if we couldn't agree to the fact that Sarah Palin is using her presence on the television to receive viewer support for the Tea Party. Some may disagree with the fact that she is also using her television show to campaign for the 2012 presidential elections. Jim Acosta with CNN wrote an article asking just that question: "Sarah Palin Alaska: Running for president on reality TV?" Acosta writes, "The program, showcasing the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate as a rugged outdoorswoman, spotlights Palin's megawatt persona -- just in time for the 2012 campaign." The article is basically common sense. Thanks, CNN, for calling her out.

The Results are In! (Kinda)

So it is the day after the midterm elections. When I woke up this morning, I wanted to see the results of the elections nation-wide. Being that I didn't have time to turn on the TV before work, I was forced to scan the web. Looking at a few sites, the search reminded me of the extra credit project we had in class comparing the sites of the Democrats and Republicans. Instead of comparing those two, I was forced to compare the focus on the election results from both FoxNews.com and CNN.com. 

Looking at CNN.com, the results are at the very top of the page... all you have to do is click. It took me less than a second to realize where to go for the results. They also have additional information linking this election to other historical elections and even how many African Americans hold seats in the Senate (0).

When I went to FoxNews.com, it  took me a few seconds to find the results of the midterm elections. Unlike CNN, the very first page was a lot of political commentary. The results of the elections were not the main focus of the page. The link to get to the results was smaller than everything else. 

Being that the elections are extremely important in times like these, I would expect every single news outlet to focus on the results. Oh well.

Everybody has ADS!

With the elections coming up soon (for those who haven't voted early), I figured I'd post a few interesting campaign ads from around the nation. I hate attack ads, but there's a few that I can see as convincing, below the belt and downright creative. Take a look, what do you guys think?

Oh O'Donnell...

Anderson Cooper calls out GOP candidate for Senate, Christine O'Donnell. Within the multiple clips played by AC360, O'Donnell is recorded explaining her extensive knowledge of all things related to the Constitution, and multiple promises of basing all of her decisions on the constitutionality of each matter. However, she is recorded Tuesday night during an interview having little knowledge of the principles of separation of church and state within the constitution, and the 14th and 17th amendments. This doesn't look so well seeing as if she is currently running for Senate, right? Call them out, reporters. Someone has to.

Battle of the Blogs: AC360 v. the Atlantic

Both blogs of the Atlantic and AC360 have tackled the same topic. However, it is obvious that it has been done very differently. Last week, the Atlantic posted the following:

"Why is This GOP House Candidate Dressed Like a Nazi?

Joshua Green of the Atlantic

An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments. 

Iott, whose district lies in Northwest Ohio, was involved with a group that calls itself Wiking, whose members are devoted to re-enacting the exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II. Iott's participation in the Wiking group is not mentioned on his campaign's website, and his name and photographs were removed from the Wiking website."

The blog, which you can read in its entirety here, goes on to highlight negative criticisms from a historian and politician after inserting a brief account of what the candidate had to say about the re-enactments and how they were taken out of context. Now this is a way to put bad tastes in citizens' mouths when it comes to Iott. 

 "Evening Buzz: Nazi Re-Enactment Controversy

Maureen Miller of AC360

 

"Tonight on 360°, hear from the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress who is taking heat for his former hobby - being a World War II re-enactor, on the German side, pretending to be a member of Adolf Hitler's elite killing unit, the SS.

Rich Iott says his hobby is being taken out of context. Swastikas were banned from their attire. The tea party favorite in Ohio wants to point out he's a re-enactor for all types of battles, including those from World War I and the U.S. Civil War.

Meanwhile, the Tea Party favorite in Nevada's U.S. Senate race is under fire for comments she made about Islam.

Last month, Sharron Angle was asked at a rally to give her feedback on a television report on how Muslims want to "take over the United States."

Angle responded: "We're talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe it isn't a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it."

"My thoughts are these, first of all, Dearborn, Michigan and Frankford, Texas, are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And, I don't know how that happened in the United States," she said. "It seems there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States."

Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly took issue with Angle's comments. You'll hear from him tonight.

Plus, the latest on the mission to rescue 33 miners in Chile. They've been trapped for more than two months, but some could be freed in about 24 hours. Gary Tuchman has a live report from the site.

Join us for these stories and much more starting at 10 p.m. ET on CNN. See you then."

Although I may be biased because of the crush that I have on Anderson Cooper, I do believe that the stories that him and his team cover are done in the most productive of ways. Above is a news briefing the AC360 team posted on their blog. Although they're covering topics that may make or break the reputations of the two politicians, AC360 fails to show a specific bias about the topics; they just inform their followers that the issues will be covered through interviews in the next segment of the show. Now this is a fresh breath of constructive journalism in a polluted media base. It shows no nonsense, and a fair stance on the issues. I thought I would post this comment made by Cooper a few years ago. What would it be like if all journalists thought this way?

"The whole thing about being a reporter is that you're supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you’re in, and I don’t want to do anything that threatens that."

-Anderson Cooper

Government Apologizes for Giving Guatemalans STDs . . . 60 Years Later

 

60+ years later? Wow! Why is this coming up all of a sudden? Did all previous administrations know about this, or did the media just get the 'all clear' to post this story? This makes me wonder of any other atrocities that the government has been keeping under wraps. As for the media, do you guys think that there are some stories that media outlets know about, but are forbidden to tell the people? Tell me what you think.

Tea Kettle Movement: 'Because all its doing is letting off steam'

Columnist Thomas Freidman writes:

The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam. 

That is not to say that the energy behind it is not authentic (it clearly is) or that it won’t be electorally impactful (it clearly might be). But affecting elections and affecting America’s future are two different things. Based on all I’ve heard from this movement, it feels to me like it’s all steam and no engine. It has no plan to restore America to greatness. 

The Tea Kettle movement can’t have a positive impact on the country because it has both misdiagnosed America’s main problem and hasn’t even offered a credible solution for the problem it has identified. How can you take a movement seriously that says it wants to cut government spending by billions of dollars but won’t identify the specific defense programs, Social Security, Medicare or other services it’s ready to cut — let alone explain how this will make us more competitive and grow the economy? 

And how can you take seriously a movement that sat largely silent while the Bush administration launched two wars and a new entitlement, Medicare prescription drugs — while cutting taxes — but is now, suddenly, mad as hell about the deficit and won’t take it anymore from President Obama? Say what? Where were you folks for eight years? 

The issues that upset the Tea Kettle movement — debt and bloated government — are actually symptoms of our real problem, not causes. They are symptoms of a country in a state of incremental decline and losing its competitive edge, because our politics has become just another form of sports entertainment, our Congress a forum for legalized bribery and our main lawmaking institutions divided by toxic partisanship to the point of paralysis . . .

(continued) Any Tea Party that says the simple answer is just shrinking government and slashing taxes might be able to tip the midterm elections in its direction. But it can’t tip America in the right direction. There is a Tea Party for that, but it’s still waiting for a leader." 

So what do you guys think about the Tea Party? Are they a force to be reckoned with when it comes to real issues and change, or is this just a temporary 'bitch fest'?

Who shall judge the soldiers?

[War correspondent Michael Ware worked for CNN from 2006 until April of this year, during which time he became known for covering the hellscape of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with brutal honesty and a keen analytical sense that often cut against the standard talking points. He's since been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and today the Brisbane Times is reporting on an event that might have contributed to that -- an alleged 2007 war crime that CNN refused to air. Kate Dennehy, who reports that Ware is "set to reveal" the details, describes the incident: Mr Ware tells of the alleged incident he says he witnessed and filmed in 2007 when working for US news giant CNN, but claims the network decided the footage was too graphic to go to air.  He alleges that a teenager in a remote Iraqi village run by the militant Islamist group, al-Qaeda was carrying a weapon to protect himself. "(The boy) approached the house we were in and the (US) soldiers who were watching our backs, one of them put a bullet right in the back of his head. Unfortunately it didn't kill him," he tells Australian Story. "We all spent the next 20 minutes listening to his tortured breath as he died. "Ware goes on to describe his mental state during that time, in which he realized that he was "more concerned with the composition" of his photo than he was with intervening in some way. "I indeed had been indifferent as the soldiers around me whose indifference I was attempting to capture," Ware says.]

The Full Story

My question is: Who shall judge the soldiers? You'll probably say I'm sounding anti-American, but can you answer the question? Is it just not 'kosher' to report incidences of war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers? When there are American casualties, news outlets leap on those stories. I guess they do this to encourage pride in all of us, right? Their efforts are shown across the board, but when the tables are turned and the US soldiers are doing the injustices, we won't hear about it unless the Huff covers the story? The stations duck and dodge the coverage of this unless there is no possible way for it to be ignored (i.e. 2003 Abu Ghraib prison torture pictures). Am I the only one that believes the soldiers should be held accountable for their actions? Not only because of those at home they are representing, but at least for their fellow soldiers that we applaud for being the heroes defending our country. Am I the only one that believes stories like these should be told as well? Call me anti-American, but I just want all of the stories to be covered. Its your choice if you want to be a naive American.

 

(Abu-Ghraib)

(marine throws puppy off a cliff. check youtube for the clip)

BS News: Bringing you the latest in nonsense!

I think that we can all agree that the news that is the most convenient for us to obtain, is that of which we go by. If you live in the metro-Atlanta area, you're more likely to pick up an Atlanta Journal Constitution, right? But why do they give us the type of news that they give? Why is it that issues that the fine folks of Atlanta need to know about miss the front page? Since when did the most recent Chuck-E Cheese toy recall or an ATM robbery take precedence over the doings of the government, or global catastrophes? To me it seems like the news tries to withhold the important information as much as they can. At least that's what it looks like, Atlanta. The AJC does you guys dirty. Are you gonna take that from them?

                             

as opposed to 

US, How Dumb Can You Be?

Off theme, but:

Following over-exaggerated 'coverage' of the Mosque story, and that of the Qu'ran burnings, I have one thing to say: America, How Dumb Can You Be?
Many Americans' excuse as to why the construction of a Mosque should be forbidden in the city of Manhattan is that it dishonors the victims of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.
It is ironic that in the years following the attacks, the United States has spent years, money, and lives to promote 'Peace in the Middle East', but in turn condones religious intolerance on their own home terf. Talk about Hypocrisy! When President Obama spoke on the Mosque controversy, and condemned this type of religious intolerance, he was bashed by the masses, and called a 'Muslim Lover'. Now how the hell does this make sense, America? We can cry that a mosque being built in Manhattan is inconsiderate to us, but if that ignorance continues and actions such as Qu'ran burnings take place, who can say that 9/11 won't happen again? Who's to say it won't happen on a larger scale?
We have to look at what caused the attacks in the first place, right? Instead of pointing fingers, we need to realize that we were attacked because radicals were Pissed at our country. We can deny it all we want, but only the biggest Idiot would say that they did it for no apparent reason. And contrary to popular belief, every follower of Islam isn't a damn terrorist. Since some of us are dumb, let me put what's going on now in the simplest of forms:

Religious Intolerance + Radical Groups= Absolute Terrorism

Is that what we want? As of right now, it seems like that's what we're going for, America. So go ahead and burn Qu'Rans. Discriminate against those of Islamic faith. Tell them that they can't build a place of worship. Burn their mosques. Enjoy discriminating while you can! Just get ready to put on your 3D glasses and enjoy the show, because fire will be lit under our ass once more. This time, it might actually affect you! :)

No More Lohan.

 

Although he does seem agitated, this is what I'd rather hear.

I decided to post this video because of the debate that we were having about whether or not the media is doing the democratic system any justice. Obviously, not all anchors report trash news. Although he is somewhat calling his own news station out because of the story they wanted him to report, this is the type of thing that doesn't make me want to completely turn my back on the media.

Too tacky for TV.

This is an older clip. But I thought I'd share.

Mass Media and the People: A love/hate relationship.

So we just finished up a debate on whether or not the media effectively served the needs of the American Democratic political system. And the answer is: Kinda.


Nowadays, the majority of Americans are hooked on something I like to call "Trash TV". Under the umbrella of "trash TV" are those 'who's the father' talk shows, reality shows, horrible soap operas, and not-so-funny sitcoms that take up time slots throughout the day. Prior to or following these shows are news broadcasts. It is highly convenient for Jane Doe to catch the 4 o'clock news after 'General Hospital'. Stations such as ABC, FOX and CBS are aware that the time setup is this way to draw in more viewers. It is safe to say that our society is influenced by what they read and what they see on television, as it is their most convenient source to what is going on in the world. These stations aren't ignorant to the fact that they influence many of the peoples' decisions. Now if it is said in the news that a politician changed the way he voted on the topic of gay marriage in the present from the way he voted 8 years ago, it is insinuated that he is a 'flip-flopper' and a horrible person. However, the news stations that millions of people tune into might not cover the fact that the specific politician had a son that recently announced that he was homosexual. A nation with Christian origins may turn their nose up to a presidential candidate if the news show they tune into after Oprah announces that the candidate's parents are of the Islamic faith. Stations with a specific partisan bias do announce their stories this way. Conservative stations made sure to emphasize that President Obama's middle name was Hussein, just as liberal stations make sure to harp on scandals of conservative politicians.
Scandals are of American interest. We love to be bad, and apparently love to follow 'bad' people. We're all over Britney Spears's hoo hoo slip, the drugs Lindsay Lohan snorts, and Roy Ashburn's sexual preference. Our news stations make sure that we're aware when scandals occur, but forget to make sure that we know about Pakistan's floods, and when voting occurs.


To not fully bash the media, there is definitely ways that we all benefit as American citizens from our resources. We are able to point and click to any piece of information about anything to do with politics. We have access to what our politicians are up to, what's being voted on, and what's going on in other countries. While news stations sometimes give us trash news and biased stories, we become aware of issues that may directly or indirectly affect us.


Overall, mass media gives us what we need... most of the time.

Yo! The DEA wants you!

So according to the lovely folks at Fox news, the Atlanta office of the Drug Enforcement Administration has been looking to hire 9 fluent ebonics speakers since May of this year. For those of you that are not aware, the word 'ebonics', according to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, is defined as 'black english'. Urban dictionary defines 'ebonics' as 'A version of english made up of a variety of slang words. Stands for ebony and phonics. Widely spoken among the african american culture'.

Side note: Why is the urban dictionary definition more credible than that from Merriam Webster? Check the pages yourself, I didn't believe it at first either.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ebonics
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ebonics definition 6.

Contrary to the definitions of the word 'ebonics', Fox reported that the DEA claimed the position, in fact, isn't influenced by race. They even made a point to cover the fact that caucasian rapper, Eminem, is one of the Best speakers of the exotic language of ebonics.

Now what exactly was the reason that Fox decided to cover this tidbit of 'news'? Leave it to Fox to make the DEA look bad, right? Although the source made sure that Eminem was mentioned to ease the mind of those that may be offended, they forgot the rest of the story. Why is the DEA hiring a team of slang spitters? Is it to decipher the speech of the guy who's phone is being tapped? Are there going to be undercover ebonicans stationed at street corners to translate the "language"? Guess we won't know 'til one of our homies gets the job.

But thanks, Fox, for letting me know that the Drug Enforcement Administration is not a racist.

Bienvenidos!

Hey guys! I'm looking forward to learning more about mass media and politics with you all. Let the discussions begin : )