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Nice. Sounds like a good gig. How many reporters/writers do you have? Ever been to Pella? Relatives of mine had their hand in that town's beginnings. Yes, I'm a quarter Dutch.
 
What do you think about the alleged "Liberal media bias" the right wingers keep harping about? Or, I guess, any kind of general media bias (the left wingers would say it's a right-wing bias..."Just look at how easy the Bush Administration's had it," etc., etc.). Have you ever gotten the feeling that there's a certain biased (i.e. unbalanced) agenda at your newspaper?
 
We have eight reporters on staff, not counting sports.

I just visited Pella recently for the first time in many years not too long ago. It's a very beautiful city.

I've very familiar with all the predominately-Dutch communities in northwest Iowa such as Orange City because I used to work at a newspaper in that area. It was fun trying to spell all those Dutch names. :wink:
 
Judah — I would agree that print media, in general (unless you're FOX) has more of a liberal view to it. I know good newspapers though tend to still fight to have things more balanced. We try to be balanced too, however I'm sure it appears as if we lean more towards the conservative side because we live in an uberconservative community and we reflect that. We have both liberals and conservatives in the newsroom, whatever that tells you.
 
Bono's shades, it must be nice having eight reporters. Like I said earlier, we have three. We get to do a lot of other things as well. I had a photo in the paper yesterday.

If you're ever stuck with a Dutch name again, just put a "van" in front of it or add an extra "a". :wink:
 
just for the the record, the richmond times disgrace (ok...dispatch) is full of right-wing tripe.

will you promise to be kind to me if i'm ever caught (heaven forbid) having an affair with an attractive politician? :wink:
 
Thanks for the questions guys. I'm off to go to a meeting with my wife — she's getting baptized Wednesday! It's a very special moment for her (and me.)

Please keep the questions coming. It's been fun.

God bless all.

coemgen
 
Yes U2dem, there are right-wing rags out there. I'll see what I can do about that.

If you're ever caught having an affair with an attractive politician I'll go easy on you in the paper, but I'll have to tell your mother because YOU'RE STILL IN FREAKING HIGH SCHOOL. (I still can't believe it. You're wise beyond your years.)
 
At the paper I work for we always prided ourselves that we got as many complaints about our supposed left-wing bias as our supposed right-wing bias, which to us meant we were doing a pretty good job of being balanced. :wink: Then we got an editor who liked to have the TV in his office tuned to Fox News. We didn't exactly turn into the print equivalent of Fox News, but things started to happen that a lot of us felt uneasy about, such as the fact that our paper ran not just one, but TWO editorials endorsing Bush for president last fall. :eyebrow: Well, that editor has since moved on to another paper, and now we are back to normal. Thank goodness. I was beginning to wonder if I could continue to work there and still live with myself.
 
U2democrat said:
i'm on the school paper....so if anyone has any questions for a high school reporter that's me :wink:

Are you considering journalism as a career? I had the idea you wanted to go into politics.

Also, is your school good about letting the reporters write about controversial topics? You hear all kinds of stories about school administrations censoring student newspapers.
 
I'll second Bono's shades' comment about school newspapers. I covered schools here for four years and I ran into some of that censorship in our four high schools. What do you run into U2dem? What stuff appears in your paper?
 
Bono's shades said:


Are you considering journalism as a career? I had the idea you wanted to go into politics.

Also, is your school good about letting the reporters write about controversial topics? You hear all kinds of stories about school administrations censoring student newspapers.

I'm considering journalism as a fall back to politics.

Oh yeah we're good about controversial topics...just check out my Op/Ed on gay marriage thread!
 
What are you hoping to do with politics U2dem? (Why is this slowly turning into the "ask the U2dem" thread? People must think I'm boring as hell. Ask some controversial questions people!)
 
If you were to own your own newspaper or magazine what would you put in it and what would you keep out?

How do you feel about all the celebrity coverage in the media? Do you feel it is a waste or that the public is genuinely interested in celebrities?
 
Nice question Pearl. I've most recently thought about doing something involving Christian activism (and I don't mean just politically really — certanly not "Right-wing activism", more like the stuff Christ actually called us to do.)

I think all the celebrity coverage is retarded. They're just people like the rest of us. They fart, smell funny and do dumb things too. I'm not saying there aren't celebrities doing stuff worthy of media coverage, but the line between tabloid gossipy stuff and actual news is a bit blurry at the moment, I think.

Shows like Inside Edition and Xtra or whatever it is make me sick. It's a bunch of pointless crap really.

What do you think?
 
coemgen said:
What are you hoping to do with politics U2dem?

I'm hoping to one day manage campaigns (congressional and one day presidential) and hopefully i'll win that presidential campaign, then be an advisor to the president. After that I'll probably run for the senate.
 
coemgen said:
What do you run into U2dem? What stuff appears in your paper?

There's little to no censorship in my paper. Our teacher/advisor and principal are very supportive and do not want to limit us (except for cussing...we can't do that :wink: )
 
I can't stand it either. I'm in the news business too and it is nauseating that so much time is spent on celebrities, when there are so many more important things going on in the world. The funny thing is, at work, everyone - even the higher-ups - complain about it, and no one is sure why we bother reporting on celebrities. I also find it degrading since reporting talent is being wasted on something not worth reporting.

I think celebrity news should stay with shows like Extra and Access Hollywood. That's where they belong, not on regular news programs
 
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Do you think it's weird when people don't want to talk to you? Not if they've done anything wrong or something..yesterday I avoided a newspaper and TV reporter, I just get too nervous about that. It was just at a fun event, nothing criminal or anything. They never asked, I just politely moved away and let others talk.

Plus I looked like crap and I didn't want some people to know where I was :wink:
 
Mrs.Springsteen— In the five years I've been here, I've had very few people who say are too shy to talk (young children excluded, of course.) I understand though. I'm not the newshound-type who tries to pressure people into giving me information they're not comfortable giving up. I have had a lot of people who are surprised I want to do a story on whatever it is they're doing and I might have to do a little convincing that it's a good story, but that's about it.

People are way more willing to open up to me than I would've ever expected, and I've done stories on family members who have just died, numerous illnesses and diseases and other very personal stuff. It's very humbling to be able to enter into someone's life during what's often the one of the greatest moments in their life or one of their darkest, saddest times, and then they trust me to tell the world about it in an accurate, fair way. That's humbling.

By the way, is that Johnny Damon? He looks like crap. Another ex-Royals player who left and became an even better player. (which is fine with me, I'm a White Sox fan.)
 
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You've got some big plans there U2dem — good luck! :wink: I had no freaking idea what I wanted to do when I was in high school. I still don't really know what to do when I grow up though.:|
 
I have a question, I'm often assigned a small article on an announcement of some sort (i.e. the debate team making it to the national competition) and I usually have trouble stretching them out to a good length. Any advice?
 
I have that problem a lot too U2dem. If you can, include more quotes. That's always good — especially from additional sources. In the example of the debate team making it to a national competition, maybe you could focus on an individual who did well in the last event and show how they contributed to the team's success. You could also talk about the team's track record up to this point and then ask its members what they did different this time around to be successful if they weren't before or whatever. You also should ask what they're doing to prepare for the next event. How does a team prepare for nationals? What's their weak spot going into the event? Their strengths? Stuff like that. Does that help?
 
I started out as a journalism major. Was troubled by some of the ethics of it--such a fine line between people's inherent curiosity (morbid curiosity, even) and privacy. I remember reading a story mentioning a reporter screaming at a person who did not want to be interviewed, "Didn't you ever hear about freedom of the press?" I had to laugh. The reporter didn't have a clue. Freedom of the press doesn't mean you have to cooperate with the press. Do you find all the sensationalism surrounding a story and then the lack of any substantive follow-up troubling? Have you had ethical questions?
 
Yeah, the reporter you mentioned wasn't very professional. I always put people's privacy first. I'm never out to take advantage of someone just to get a better story. That's dumb. TV people do that. Of course, I can't stand most TV reporters for a lot of reasons.

I do cringe at sensationalism and hype. Although there's a lot of it out there, I think people, in general, are smarter than we may give them credit for and can see through most of it.

As far as my own ethical questions, no big ones come to mind, but I know I've had them. I'll post them later.

Thanks for the questions. I second-guessed my decision to go into journalism for those same reasons you mentioned, but thank God I've found it easy to be different.
 
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