Woodward dismisses CNN’s lawsuit against the White House; Fox sides with CNN
Bob Woodward, half of the Washington Post team whose coverage of the Watergate scandal brought down the Nixon presidency, told an audience at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Florida that media figures are letting their emotions affect their reporting. NBC journalist Dylan Byers quoted Woodward as saying, “In the news media there has been…
Journalist Nellie Bly Began her Around the World in 72 Days Tour Nov 14, 1989
From Wikipedia: In 1888 Bly suggested to her editor at the New York World that she take a trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional Around the World in Eighty Days into fact for the first time. A year later, at 9:40 a.m. on November 14, 1889, and with two days’ notice,[19] she boarded the Augusta Victoria, a steamer of…
Today’s Computer Displays Distort Pixel Art Designed for 1980s CRTs
As a kid, I remember studying my CRT displays with a microscope. Each pixel that I could control with BASIC on my TRS-80 or Atari 800 or Commodore-64 was made up of tiny arrays of red, blue, and green dots that I could not control directly. There was one display mode of the Atari 800…
CNN sues President Trump and top White House aides for barring Jim Acosta
CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House’s suspension of Acosta’s press pass, known as a Secret Service “hard pass,” last week. The suit alleges that…
Yep, it’s time to read student papers on Flannery O’Connor.
Don’t Want to Fall for Fake News? Don’t Be Lazy
Fake news is not a problem caused by those dishonorable people whose political values differ from yours. Misinformation researchers have proposed two competing hypotheses for why people fall for fake news on social media. The popular assumption—supported by research on apathy over climate change and the denial of its existence—is that people are blinded by partisanship,…
I let her tend the rabbits.
Great production of a very moving story. The production did a good job dealing honestly with the misogyny in the script. When Curley’s wife came in wearing a red dress, Carolyn muttered, “This isn’t going to end well.”
My Student Calls Out a Mental Health Stigma in a Biased Headline — But Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Blame “The Media”
This morning a journalism student told me a friend in a different class was complaining that “the media” was stigmatizing mental illness in its coverage of yesterday’s mass shooting in California. My student told me she remembered I had mentioned that reporters often don’t write the headlines under which their stories are published, but she…
A study in breaking news headlines.
For the UK Guardian, the news is the words the White House used while accusing Acosta of an action caught on video. For Fox, Sanders was accused of sharing an allegedly “‘doctored’” video of a neutrally-identified “interaction.” For the Washington Post, the White House “shares doctored video” — no accusation, no scare quotes. Read…
Writing Tips for Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking Matters Personal Essays vs. Academic Writing Summary vs. Original Ideas Filler: “There Are Many Reasons to Avoid the Filler Phrase ‘There Are’” Bloom’s Taxonomy: Hierarchy of Critical Thinking Skills
Perspective | After Hannity’s travesty, Fox News redeems itself (just a tad) with a bold election night decision
Fox News was the first major outlet to predict the House would flip to blue, in a show of professional confidence that drew praise from journalists. The decision desk’s call made me think that somewhere — under all its appalling propaganda and conspiracy peddling — a beating heart of news is still pumping away, however…
Just finished a good literature class discussion on this powerful play.
Would love to teach it to healthcare students someday.
My college writing students are out making short videos responding to a prompt.
While my students are out of the room making a video, I’m quickly marking the homework that was due today. When we reconvene we’ll discuss both assignments, and then it’s on to the next task.
Trump’s war on the media is driving students to journalism
Twenty-one-year-old political science student Kieran McMurchy says he’s shocked at how quickly Trump supporters have “lost faith in pillars of free speech like the Washington Post and the New York Times.” A few months ago, he was planning to go to law school. Now, he says he’s fired up to be a journalist. “It’s definitely concerning the way…
Today’s annoying adventures of adulting: fixing the bathroom ceiling fan.
Not fun, but done.
The girl on Halloween 2018. (The boy and I were watching the 1931 Frankenstein at the library.)
Updated Media Bias Chart — Left/Center/Right, Facts/Analysis/Partisan/Propaganda (Ad Fontes)
Update — Media Bias Chart 10.0 All human endeavors are biased. Vanessa Otero’s chart, which places various news organizations on a 2D chart with a left/centrist/right X axis, and a quality/garbage vertical axis, is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that seeking out and relying on quality reporting from “the other side” is an important…
I had a blue checked shirt in my hand this morning, but she nailed the khaki pants.
My “Writing About Literature” Students Are Sampling Text Adventure Games
I’m having my students play Adam Cadre’s text-only, command-line interactive fiction game “9:05.” Over heard, from a student playing the early part of the game with a peer: “Did we just kill someone? We did something bad!”