During the interviews of Eng Yang and Kao Kalia Yang, the interviewer seemed to be down the middle in the beginning, but towards the middle and the end it seems that he chose a side and even sounds as if he is trying to convince them that they were wrong and that they should believe the scientist. The interviewer should have stated facts from both sides and also questioned both sides, but he seemed to push them much more than the other guests. He also said that Eng Yang and Kao Kalia Yang were trying to control the conversation topic but as a listener it sound more likely that they want the whole story heard of what her uncle and his people suffered through and eventually she realized that it was not going to happen. The show is called ” The Fact of The Matter”,  too bad the interviewer only listened to one side of the story.

Both articles raise issues of sensitivity. Whether it’s Serena Williams or Taye Diggs, people will judge you if you don’t fit the norms. The Serena article was poorly timed as she was competing for the Wimbledon title at the time, which is probably why the story received any attention. It just seems odd to write an article about body image if I’m guessing most people watching her play is for the sport. On Taye Diggs, when the writer wrote, “If you start to salivate when you hear the phrase ‘‘black men with jobs,’’ then Diggs is your guy.”  I only thought how on earth did that get published and how tone death this writer must be. I think the writer could have made the point of him being a employed actor without trying to stereotype him.

Local and foreign journalists faced dangers while working in Syria. In the beginning the reporters were accepted by the people fighting Assad, but when they saw that they were not going to get help they decided to turn on journalists and they were kidnapped. The dangers of the journalists are that they need the support of the local population or else they cannot get the information they need in order to report. The news media does have a duty to report what is happening but to a certain point. If things become too dangerous then there is no upside to send reporters in the war zone. The only means would be then to rely on the government for information and for the solution of the civil war.

Watching the debate my opinion is that there is a difference in how news organizations cover politics. One being that everything is connected to tv ratings. Another observation that I noticed was that candidates were being asked questions of each other to get them to argue instead of asking the candidates direct questions on their policies. They were trying to create a show instead of asking the candidates serious questions.

The NYT article on nail salons criticism is both justified and unjustified. The former NYT’s writer who has had 12 years experience with two day spas as a part owner, wrote that the article painted a broad brush on the industry and that his reflection as an owner did not reflect the story. However, keep in mind that Bernstein could be biased because he is a business owner and would now have to face more scrutiny by the city. Although his experience as a day spa owner may not have been what was experienced in the article, it is not to say that the problems that the NYT brings up are not true. The story quoted both owners and workers so the story is true.  Michael Luo who edited the story rebutted Bernstein by showing a couple of ads that offered $10 a day, which backed up the NYT article. In the end, the NYT did make a mistake by characterizing it as an industry problem, but that is not to say that it is not a large problem in the industry, which seems to be true. In the end the NYT was right to be criticized, but not all the criticism was right on the other side.

There is a difference in the way the Upton Sinclair and Eric Schlosser covered food safety. Both gave detailed descriptions of the brutal nature of the work conditions. Sinclair focused more on the food safety aspect. He described how workers would have different processes to destroy the smell of bad meat in order to sell it. Schlosser though focused on the working conditions of the workers. He described how dangerous the work is and common it is to get injured on the job. He also wrote about the cleanup workers who were contractors, some of  who have lost fingers, had little work protections even when injured. I think both excerpts represent a certain time when certain issues were more important. For example food safety in 1906 when Sinclair wrote his book. Today we have food inspectors and regulations where what was described by Sinclair would not happen today. On the other hand Schlosser focuses on the workers which today are still fighting for worker protections even today.

The New York Times and the Hillary Clinton email story. What went wrong?

The problem for editors and reporters of the New York Times with the Clinton story is that they had to rely on anonymous sources in order to break news. There are only so many ways to confirm a story and sometimes anonymous sources are correct and sometimes they are not. However, the mistakes in the story are small, and we have seen since the writing of the article that if you took the information we know today of the e-mails, the initial description in the first story could be correct. The truth is that there is no way to be 100% certain that every word from your sources will be true, but as a reporter you have to make the decision to go with your sources and sometimes you will be right and sometimes you will be wrong.

News organizations should only publish classified information that affects the rights of Americans. The problem with Snowden is that he leaked the info to Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Wikileaks. Neither of the three mentioned have the interest of the US and its security. Wikileaks has in the past has posted leaked documents without blacking out names and addresses of individuals cooperating with the US. Glenn Greenwald has previously stated his views that the US is the oppressor in the middle east because of our use of Drones. He should be asked what is the other alternative? Ground Troops? I’m sure he opposes that too.

Laura Poitras, based on the article clearly had a certain point of view about the Iraq war before going over to cover it. Secondly, you have to question her ethics when in her own words she said that she relied on the “generosity of American soldiers, who gave her the key to a trailer where she could sleep”, and then she proceeded to stay with a doctor and filmed an ambush from his rooftop. She also wanted to go to “Guantanamo, as the second part of a trilogy about American power after 9/11.” The question to raise is did she really want to cover the war or did she want to criticize American power.

Lastly, the problem with Snowden is that while he leaked information that  Americans did not know of,  he also leaked out information about the IP addresses of computers in China that our government had access to. Also, while he was in Hong Kong he gave some files to a Hong Kong reporter, what happened to those files? Before he was allowed to stay in Russia, do you really think that the Russians did not take a look at his computer before allowing him to stay. In the end Snowden did not leak info to the “media”, he leaked to to reporters who had the same agenda as he did and also who that did not like the security measures of the US. Snowden is a naive man who believes that none of this information is needed, but the real irony is that he’s currently in Russia, a country who’s reading every single word he writes or searches for on the internet.

There are many conflicts in covering the Bill Cosby story, from the reporters doing the interviews to the news organizations as a whole. One of the issues with the Cosby story is that no media organization wants to take the risk of bringing up the issue of his past that was currently no longer being spoken of. Cosby had many projects in the works and it seems that issue was in the past. The other issue is that as a reporter it’s your job to state the facts and to stay neutral. It was only after a video went viral on social media that the issue took off and it was only then that dozens of women came out to accuse Cosby. The media did recently cover it much better than it did in the past, but there is always room for improvement.

1. Local News – An aide for Governor Andrew Cuomo is currently in the hospital after being shot at the  West Indian American Day Parade. This news story is important because every year you hear about violence during the parade and it seems that nothing is done about it. The story has been getting coverage, but there should be more questions answered about security measures for the future if the parade were to be held again.

http://bronx.news12.com/news/governor-s-aide-fights-for-life-after-shooting-1.10817304#autoplay=true

2. National News – A Kentucky clerk has made national headlines by denying marriage licenses to same sex couples due to her religious beliefs. This news story is important because it could set a precedent for future cases. It also adds fuel to a polarizing issue due to the political campaigns. I believe this story is being covered effectively since it’s plain and simple that the clerk must follow the law.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/08/opinions/jones-kim-davis-no-martin-luther-king/index.html

3. International – Russia is sending reinforcements to Assad.  As the civil war rages on,  the Assad Regime is  on the defense  as is has recently lost a lot of land to opposition groups. Now, Putin has reportedly sent thousands of troops along with supplies to the regime. This is important news because the turmoil in the middle east has created a refugee crisis and with Russia backing Assad, they are also in part to blame. This story has not been covered as effectively primarily because of the recent migrant crisis in Europe.