My ambitions as a journalist

I remember watching interviews on TV and admiring an anchor’s ability to bring out the personality and values of their interviewees. I also remember loving reports that uncovered injustices or crimes: the product of investigative journalism. I liked the idea of being a part of that.      As I learn more about journalism through my courses, I am realizing that there is much more to it. I am embarrassed to admit that I use to think that all news channels were objective and that I didn’t realize the ideological filter they use. I dislike channels like Fox News and think of their journalists as puppets. I think they offer irresponsible journalism that does not posses integrity. To me journalism is a medium of information powered by human intellect and passion. Everyone can give news, but only people who have love for journalism can do it responsibly and with just the right words to have the desired effect on the audience.      My goals in journalism are very specific, for I know I want to work with Spanish speaking networks and practice my profession in Spanish. I want to start from the bottom, as a reporter. I believe this dignifies a person and makes one value every one who contributes in news broadcasting. I love the idea of researching and uncovering facts to provide them to the public, whether it be to benefit a community, a city or the entire nation. This is why I would love to do some investigative reporting in my career.      I also ambition to host a news program. I would like to have the privilege of reaching thousands of people and share with them analysis of the issues of the time. Some issues require more from journalists than a mere mention of facts. An example of this is the issue with the Mosque near ground zero. Most news channels dedicated themselves to mention the turmoil around this controversy and that just created more hostility. This issue required journalists to educate the public in the most objective way possible about Islam and their practice of Sharia law. I envision a change in journalism that would provide more space for educating the public and I envision myself working under this system.     I think journalism will undergo significant changes, given the technological advances of today and the rapid expansion of the internet. I am excited to see what the future holds for this profession. Hopefully journalists take advantage of the internet to provide more variety in journalism. And hopefully people learn to appreciate objective journalism and learn to separate it from entertainment. Not that journalism has to be boring, but its focus shouldn’t be on entertaining the viewer, but on disseminating important information.      These are some of my goals in journalism and although I know this is a competitive profession, I believe I have what it takes to reach them.

Not the beginning of the end

 Important ideas came out during our last class meeting; including the one that says months are years in politics.  For this reason it is hard to imagine anything that happens today as being absolutely defining of Obama’s presidency.  The only thing that could do it would be if the president lost all support from his party and is not able to get anything done from here on.  But this is an extreme theory because chances are that if Obama goes down, the whole Democratic Party would go down.  I think people wouldn’t trust a party who seems disorganized and disunified.

The media has been portraying Obama as weak and as lacking leadership because his own party is mad at him.  Even Rachel Maddow, in this segment, acknowledged his party is mad at him “because they want a president who can win.  However I don’t think this compromise with Republicans will determine how they will continue to portray him in the next year.  The deal was a risky move for him because of the probability of enraging his party and liberals in general.  However, with a split Congress, it is likely that the time to take such risk would come anyway.  By doing it now, Obama was able to indebt Republicans to him, while allowing him enough time to get out of this hole.   Now Obama will be able to put the blame on Republicans if they keep gridlocking policies in Congress because he will be able to say “you see, I’m willing to compromise and enrage my own party for the sake of the people, Republicans are not.” 

Although Obama has being portrayed as weak in these last few weeks, I think he has enough time to recover.  This clip analyzes Obama’s promises, those kept, broken, or postponed.  The fact that he was able to pass the Healthcare reform is a big deal.  Recently the Dream Act was able to pass in Congress for the first time as well.  If the Dream Act manages to pass in the Senate Obama will score huge points with his Latino followers.  I think overall he has been able to maintain that base and that he has enough time to make the right moves to persuade the independents or undecided.  When 2012 comes and Obama is campaigning again, his political ads will refresh people’s memory and illustrate the president more fairly.   

Jon Stewart: Loud and Clear

There had been an ongoing disagreement in Washington on what to do about the taxes that would go up for everyone in January.  Democrats wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts, but only for families making up to $250,000 per year.  Republicans wanted to extend them for the wealthy as well.  President Obama and the Democratic Party also wanted to extend unemployment benefits.  So that both parties would get their way, a “deal” had to be made.  The result was extended unemployment benefits and extended Bush tax cuts for all.

I watched an episode from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that talked about the compromise between Democrats and Republicans.   Despite not being considered a “serious” news provider, I found the show informative and analytic.  It uses humor to simplify politics and ideas that sometimes are hard to comprehend for the public.   For example, in this specific episode the show uses a comic metaphor to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the Bush tax cuts that have been in place for many years.  It highlights the idea that the wealth that is supposed to be generated by this tax cuts is not reaching the majority of the people.   Other news channels use statistics and specific details to convey the same ideas, but buried among so many details, the main point sometimes gets lost.  On the other hand, while Stewart might ignore many details, he makes sure the main point is loud and clear.

Another thing that I noticed from the show is that it focuses more on how the issues, and the things that are getting done about them, affect the people.  They focus less on the political turmoil in Washington, on how Democrats or Republicans could be feeling about certain things.  On the other hand, some news channels seem to pay more attention to the political dynamics than the effect some of the issues are having on people.  They seem more concerned with pointing fingers or highlighting who’s now on the spot light, Democrats or Republicans.  For example on this segment from the O’Reilly Factor the attention is centered around the political dynamics, instead of focusing on how the new deal between the Democrats and the Republicans is expected to affect Americans.