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. :)