SIX

I saw a quote at the end of this chapter and I thought I would write about it. Oh, the blog that says SIX below this one shouldn't be there. Sorry. :) Anyways, the quote was: "A reporter's right to protect his or her sources is central to the concept of freedom of the press, and freedom of the press is central to a democracy."

This quote goes back to the idea that we talked about early this quarter in 201 that says that a journalist's job is to tell the truth so the people can be free and self-governing. If reporter's didn't have the right to protect their sources, some important sources probably would not want to talk to any journalist. That would lessen the information in the story and would make it difficult for citizens to read that story and make up their own minds. If there's a big important chunk of the story missing because the sources would not be gurenteed protection, the story won't help people be free and self-governing.

Without freedom of the press, we would no longer be a democracy in this country. The citizens in the United States can choose how they life their lives and without good realiable news, the decisions on how to live their lives will actually become increasingly hard.

SIX

Chapter 5!!!

This chapter focuses on the White House "spinning" or "managing" the news when it is written. Honestly, I hate when anyone tampers with the content of the news. Even if they are trying to save their own reputation because a story that was written about them talks about how they've been embezzeling money or something, it's their own fault for doing what they did and if the journalists were smart enough to figure out what he was doing before anyone else, you better leave the news alone!

This is another reason I would not want to work in the White House. The news there would constantly be changed. Even editors that don't want their writers to write anything bad about the President probably change their writers stories on a daily basis. I could not handle that. I already have a hard time dealing with it when editors change something on one of my stories that I thought was a really good paragraph, sentence, example, etc. I always feel like it's my work and no one should tamper with it.

I don't understand how people in the White House can "manage" the news when journalists have the first amendment behind them. I would like to think that all Presidents would repsect that amendment that some of our founding fathers came up with, but sadly they don't. However, I honestly think that any President found tampering with the news that is written should be impeahced. Then the world would be a better place.

Thomas chapter 4

In this chapter, Helen Thomas talks a lot about the different kinds of press secretaries. She says that there are those who basically do whatever the President and the government wants them to do so the real news doesn't really get reported, and then they are those who go against their officials and report the cold hard truth.

For me, I know that I would definetely have to be the press secretary who reported the whole truth and left nothing out. Not that I would ever want to work in the White House, because I really wouldn't, but if I did, I would report on everything and anything, no matter how uncomfortable it made the President or the other officials I worked with. However, I think being a press secretary would be extremely hard. You might make some kind of friendship with some of the people you have to cover and then you would hesitate to write anything negative about them. Also, there is always a risk of losing your job because you reported on something in a way that the White House officials didn't like. It's kind of a tough situation to be in. For me, I prefer to work for the New York Times. :)

joanna's the best journalist in the world!!

So, in this chapter the old lady kind of seemed like she was bragging a lot. :) Ha ha. I'm sorry, but it was just like one thing after another, "I got to do this, I got to talk to this guy, blah, blah, blah." However, she did have some good points about how certain aspects of journalism have changed. If a journalist tried to go out one morning for a stroll with the president like they did in the old days, they would most likely get shot. I also agree with her that newsroom are different now. Not to say that the old newsroom weren't professional, but they seem to have been more fun and family like (from what I've seen on tv and movies). Honestly, I don't know how that lady, what's her name...Helen Thomas...enjoyed her job at all. Wouldn't it get really boring to stay at the White House like all the time and only write about stuff happening there?? I would think she would want to get out in the world sometime and write about something other than who the president was sleeping with. It's true that some of the best scandals have come out of the White House and from the President, but there are other scandals way more interesting than the presidents scandals all over the world. I don't want to be a journalist who sticks to one area or on specific topic. In fact, I don't want to have a beat at all. I want to write about the most interesting things that are going on. Whether it be news, features, even sports, as long as it's interesting, I'll write it! Ok, I need to go write my opinion piece for class tomorrow. :)

Thomas ch 2

In chaper two of the Thomas novel, Thomas talks a lot about the different scandals that have taken place in the journalism world. She talks about Jason Blair and other reporters who were not loyal to the journalistic standard of telling the truth. It seems like almost every journalist that has been famous has done something unethical in their careers. I think she even mentioned Geraldo Riveria or however you say his name. That's crazy. I never would've thought of him doing anything wrong.

I don't even see why anyone would want to be a journalist if all their going to do is be untruthful. If telling the truth is supposed to be a journalist's main characteristic that they are supposed to have pride in, then why do so many of these journalists lie? I know that I would never make up stories or people in the stories or the facts in my stories. That's just insane.

Thomas chapter 1

In chapter one of the Thomas novel, a lot of stuff that she writes completely relates back to what we've been talking about in class. First of all, Thomas talks a lot about reporters who lied and fabricated stories and so on. In class, we've been talking about how a journalists first obligation is to the truth. It's true that journalism has changed for the worst like Thomas said. More reporters have lied, made up stories, made up people, made up qoutes, etc. than ever before.

Also in class, we talked about the reporters keeping their independence from the ones they report on. In the Thomas novel, she also talks about instances where reporters were like team members with people of authority, like policemen, while writing a story when they should've kept their independence from them. She also talks about reporters being paid by people in the government to report or not report on certain things. That is definetely not keeping independence.

It's really sad that journalism has become this way. When I become a journalist, I want people to be able to look up to me and respect me because they know that I'm telling the truth and will always report only the truth.