Reporting 101

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Simplicity Itself

“Here’s how it works: The president makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions. And you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell-check and go home.”

—Stephen Colbert, truthifier, 2007

• Editorial Comment: Nuthin’ to it. Nuthin’.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• JCOM Scholarships for 2012-13. Deadline: April 2
• USU hosts 4th annual regional public relations conference, by Allie Jeppson
• Aggie BluePrint: 5 things you never knew we had on campus, by Lindsay Nemelka
• The Blue Streak: What do students want from their candidates in 2012? by Matt Skabelund, Katie Carter, Parker Jeppesen, Julia Stock, Jessica Jolley, Adison Pace and Victoria Hepworth
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 22 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• Ancient history not only about cave men, archeologist tells crowd, by Josh Ruggles
• Johnny Cupcakes’ secret to success: Work now, play later, by Tmera Bradley
• Prepare kids for kindergarten by reading to them, teachers say, by Tara Alvey
• Mechanic can get out of his wheelchair, back under cars again, by Steve Kent
• Federal budget cuts threaten Nibley’s Maple View subdivision, by Jessica Wilkinson
• The Blue Streak: Zombies rise again at ‘Science Unwrapped’
• ‘Out of Iraq’ to bear witness those affected by war on conflict’s 9th anniversary
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.









HAPPY HOMECOMING! JCOM
Our new home, the $43M USU Agricultural Sciences (and Journalism) Building, is dedicated today. JCOM moving day 3/30

Giggling Snark

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The WORDmeister sez: Last week, we showed students Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney’s laudatory 2005 account of the impact of Edward R. Murrow (Click here). Perhaps through serendipity, others have thought about Murrow lately, too. Here’s one.

Fight Club, Weather & Botox—Film at 11

“The fact that news has become a product for sale is not new [Editor’s Note: Duh.], nor is the fact that media has [sic] embraced celebrity over content and corporate sponsors over substance, and mindless entertainment over education and illumination. Edward R. Murrow warned of these things in his RTNDA Convention speech in 1958. And now, 54 years later, it echoes with immediacy as though written yesterday.

“Television news is an ugly circus of innuendo, gossip and tabloid sensationalism. Whether ABC or CBS or NBC, the news is read by celebrity personalities between self-promotional appearances on late-night talk shows.

“The nightly news is anything but news. Seven minutes of shallowness,* two car chases, the latest celebrity divorce/trial/book/or murder-mystery followed by a feel-good human-interest story. Information, elucidation and perspective are sacrificed for pharmaceutical elixirs of youth and sex, insurance lizards, and the latest in-dash tracking system that monitors and synchs up with your Blackberry/iPhone with a voice that guides your every waking movement and thought. Everything you don't need and can't possibly afford but must have.

“[And] cable news is nothing more than nightly WWE cage matches between hot-air blowhards and giggling snark.”

—John Cory, writer in high dudgeon,
“The Ugly Circus,” Reader Supported News, Feb. 19, 2011

• Editorial Comment: *But Brian Williams’ evening news on NBC is now a weather show. Gaaah. Don’t get me started….

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• JCOM Scholarships for 2012-13. Deadline: April 2
• USU hosts 4th annual regional public relations conference, by Allie Jeppson
• Aggie BluePrint: 5 things you never knew we had on campus, by Lindsay Nemelka
• The Blue Streak: What do students want from their candidates in 2012?
by Matt Skabelund, Katie Carter, Parker Jeppesen, Julia Stock, Jessica Jolley, Adison Pace and Victoria Hepworth
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 22 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• Ancient history not only about cave men, archeologist tells crowd, by Josh Ruggles
• Johnny Cupcakes’ secret to success: Work now, play later, by Tmera Bradley
• Prepare kids for kindergarten by reading to them, teachers say, by Tara Alvey
• Mechanic can get out of his wheelchair, back under cars again, by Steve Kent
• Federal budget cuts threaten Nibley’s Maple View subdivision, by Jessica Wilkinson
• The Blue Streak: Zombies rise again at ‘Science Unwrapped’
• ‘Gender gap’ may be more about motherhood than sex, says sociologist
• ‘Out of Iraq’ to bear witness those affected by war on conflict’s 9th anniversary
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.









HAPPY HOMECOMING! JCOM
Our new home, the $43M USU Agricultural Sciences (and Journalism) Building, is dedicated tomorrow! Pack up all those old clips and get over there!





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Blame the Teacher

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Support for Higher Education

“The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. [For], to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves. And the better the teacher, the better the student body.”

—Warren Buffett,
business magnate

• Editorial Comment: Uh oh.




News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• JCOM Scholarships for 2012-13. Deadline: April 2
• USU hosts 4th annual regional public relations conference, by Allie Jeppson
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 22 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• Ancient history not only about cave men, archeologist tells crowd, by Josh Ruggles
• Johnny Cupcakes’ secret to success: Work now, play later, by Tmera Bradley
• Prepare kids for kindergarten by reading to them, teachers say, by Tara Alvey
• Mechanic can get out of his wheelchair, back under cars again, by Steve Kent
• Federal budget cuts threaten Nibley’s Maple View subdivision, by Jessica Wilkinson
• The Blue Streak: Zombies rise again at ‘Science Unwrapped’
• ‘Gender gap’ may be more about motherhood than sex, says sociologist
• ‘Out of Iraq’ to bear witness those affected by war on conflict’s 9th anniversary
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.






Is Las Vegas real?


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Lights and Wires in a Box

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The WORDmeister sez: Last night we bought a bunch of pizza and showed George Clooney’s 2005 tribute, Good Night, and Good Luck. As I said to the students beforehand, it is a joy to be reminded why I’m proud of journalism and journalists.

Murrow

“Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.”

“For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive.

“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”

—Edward R. Murrow, journalist and broadcaster,
speech to the International Radio-Television Society, 1958

• Editorial Comment: But, as CBS President Bill Paley tells Murrow and Friendly in Good Night, “People want to be entertained. They don’t want a civics lesson.” Aye, buckeroos. There’s the rub.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Week In Review: HNC Digest (Feb. 20, 2012)
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 15 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• Betty Beecher: Musical excellence is born from love, by Tmera Bradley
• ‘Out of Iraq’ to bear witness those affected by war on conflict’s 9th anniversary
• North Logan council OK’s 64-unit townhouse development, by Steve Kent
• Wellsville to offer emergency responder training to residents, by Jimena Herrero
• Albrecht confident in annual dance with Legislature: ‘We are so good,’ by Natasha Bodily
• Tuition will rise, USU president tells journalism students, by Chris Lee & Tmera Bradley
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.







Pacific wave patterns.


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Uppity

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More Silly Campaigns

“TV journalists are widely loathed for the uppity behavior they exhibit around political leaders, shouting rude questions and hurling David Gregory-style abuse. These bloated egos need a taste of political life themselves, so they can improve their woeful coverage of our leaders. Running for anchor will teach them what it really feels like to campaign for office, without bestowing on them any actual political power (scary thought). Even the losers will come away better, more sensitive journalists.”

—William Powers, columnist, National Journal, 2006

• Editorial Comment: Them’s as can (or think they can) run. Them’s as can’t sit on the press bus.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Week In Review: HNC Digest (Feb. 20, 2012)
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 15 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• North Logan council OK’s 64-unit townhouse development, by Steve Kent
• Wellsville to offer emergency responder training to residents, by Jimena Herrero
• Albrecht confident in annual dance with Legislature: ‘We are so good,’ by Natasha Bodily
• Tuition will rise, USU president tells journalism students, by Chris Lee & Tmera Bradley
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.







Pacific wave patterns.


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D’oh!

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500 Episodes

“Facts are useless. You can use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true.”

—Homer Simpson,
idiot-savant

“The problem in the world today is communication. Too much communication.”

—Homer Simpson, philosopher-king

“It’s just hard not to listen to TV—it’s spent so much more time raising us than you have.”

—Bart Simpson, mediated minor

“Books are useless! I only ever read one book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin . . . but what good does that do me?”

—Homer Simpson, dedicated reader

“When will I learn? The answers to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV!”

—Homer Simpson, television user

• Editorial Comment: What does it say that we’ve watched “The Simpsons” longer than any other TV show? Well, the next 500 episodes are bound to be better.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Week In Review: HNC Digest (Feb. 20, 2012)
• North Logan council OK’s 64-unit townhouse development, by Steve Kent
• Wellsville to offer emergency responder training to residents, by Jimena Herrero
• Albrecht confident in annual dance with Legislature: ‘We are so good,’ by Natasha Bodily
• Tuition will rise, USU president tells journalism students, by Chris Lee & Tmera Bradley
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 15 edition). Bookmark ATV News

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.







Is Las Vegas real?


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Presidentia

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Happy Presidents Day

“When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.”

—Abraham Lincoln (1806-1865), 16th U.S. president

“PETA is not happy that my dog likes fresh air.”

—Mitt Romney, on why he strapped his dog to the roof his car for a 12-hour roadtrip to Canada

“In my White House, we will know who wears the pantsuits.”

—Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State and 2008 presidential candidate on her husband’s role in her administration

“I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.”

—William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27th U.S. president

“[L]adies and gentlemen of the press corps, Madame First Lady, Mr. President, my name is Stephen Colbert, and tonight it is my privilege to celebrate this president, ‘cause we’re not so different, he and I. We both get it. Guys like us, we're not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We’re not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut. Right, sir? That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up.”

—Stephen Colbert, sometime presidential candidate,
White House Correspondents Dinner, 2006

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

—Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th U.S. president

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing, but newspapers.”

—Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd U.S. president

“There is a terrific disadvantage in not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.”

—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th president

• Editorial Comment: Remember, in a free society, you are what you eat.

• Pot Pourri (French: “rotten pot”): Did you miss yesterday’s miscellaneous WORDs from T.S. Eliot to Flannery O’Connor? Click here.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• North Logan council OK’s 64-unit townhouse development, by Steve Kent
• Wellsville to offer emergency responder training to residents, by Jimena Herrero
• Albrecht confident in annual dance with Legislature: ‘We are so good,’ by Natasha Bodily
• Tuition will rise, USU president tells journalism students, by Chris Lee & Tmera Bradley
• Historic railroad photos document changes in West’s landscape, by Chris Lee
• 18 beauties celebrate Valentine’s Day solo to show men how it’s done, by Mary Stocking
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• Flood damage not enough to qualify Mendon for government aid, by Josh Ruggles
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 15 edition). Bookmark ATV News

PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.








Is Las Vegas real?


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Citations

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Potpourri*

The WORDmeister writes: In honor of my meeting today with journalism deans & directors from all over. In Vegas—where else?—I offer these rotten nuggets.

“Why don’t you write books people can read?”

—Nora Joyce to her husband James, author of books people couldn’t read (1882-1941)

“Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.”

—T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), poet

“It is better to be quotable than to be honest.”

—Tom Stoppard, playwright

“Men have become the tools of their tools.”

—Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), writer and hermit

“Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research.”

—Wilson Mizner (1876-1933), playwright

“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.”

—Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), author

• Editorial Comment: Note: In the original French, potpourri = “rotten pot.” *

• Free Humiliation: Take this quiz on the 25 most misspelled (or mispelled?) words.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Tuition will rise, USU president tells journalism students, by Chris Lee & Tmera Bradley
• Historic railroad photos document changes in West’s landscape, by Chris Lee
• 18 beauties celebrate Valentine’s Day solo to show men how it’s done, by Mary Stocking
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• Flood damage not enough to qualify Mendon for government aid, by Josh Ruggles
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Windows on the past: Old yearbooks reveal USU during WWI, by Liz Wilson, Aggie BluePrint
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Bill to remove some sex offenders from registry moves to Senate, by Ashley Tolman & April Ashland, Utah Public Radio
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 15 edition). Bookmark ATV News

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

• PeezPix cards & prints
. . . Catalog here.

Pacific wave patterns


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Mouthpiece

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Sock Puppets

“In the United States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons, have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves.”

—Robert F. Kennedy Jr., author and activist,
“Fox News’ Lies Keep Them Out of Canada,” 2011

• Editorial Comment: Where are Kukla, Fran & Ollie when you need them?


News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• 81-year-old motorist injured in Main Street collision with dump truck, by Mary Stocking
• 18 beauties celebrate Valentine’s Day solo to show men how it’s done, by Mary Stocking
• River Heights to pay $14K to employee for retirement fund mistake, by Sean O’Sullivan
• DigitalCommons—USU’s online intellectual and creative treasure chest, by Kyndall Peterson
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Windows on the past: Old yearbooks reveal USU during WWI, by Liz Wilson, Aggie BluePrint
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Weekly News Roundup, Feb. 6-12, 2012
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 8 edition). Bookmark ATV News

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

• PeezPix cards & prints
. . . Catalog here.

No PhotoShop. Really—sunrise over Trinidad on Christmas Day was this pink.


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The 3-Second News Cycle

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Train Wreck

“Much of [the] journalistic process of verifying and making sense of news reports used to happen behind the scenes, inside newsrooms and TV studios and newswire offices. Increasingly, however, it is happening out in the open, where anyone can see it—and where anyone can take part in it by committing what Andy Carvin of NPR has called ‘random acts of journalism.’

“German chancellor Otto von Bismarck allegedly warned that anyone who enjoys either the law or sausages should not watch either one being made, and the same is true of the news. But we have no choice but to watch now, because it is happening all around us.

“The result of this for journalistic entities of all kinds is that the ‘news cycle’ is being accelerated, like a train whose brakes have failed. . . .”

—Matthew Ingram, senior writer,
GigaOM “Twitter and the incredible shrinking news cycle,”
Feb. 13, 2012

• Editorial Comment: The news cycle is about 3 seconds. I get that. Go to the bathroom and you miss four elections, 19 murders, Europe’s failure and nine celebrity divorces. What’s sad is when 140 characters carry more depth than a half-hour newscast.

• Free Humiliation: Take this quiz on the 25 most misspelled (or mispelled?) words.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Flood damage not enough to qualify Mendon for government aid, by Josh Ruggles
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
• Windows on the past: Old yearbooks reveal USU during WWI, by Liz Wilson, Aggie BluePrint
• Smithfield OK’s housing density increases for developers, by Jessica Wilkinson
• Charles Dickens’ famous works keyed off his own life, professor says, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Hyde Park council approves online bill payment for city’s customers, by Shannon McCleve
• Cache Valley turns out to mourn Powell boys with balloons, by April Ashland
• Log Cabin to USU Republicans: Get involved, work together for change, by Tara Alvey
• Bill to remove some sex offenders from registry moves to Senate, by Ashley Tolman & April Ashland, Utah Public Radio
• Weekly News Roundup, Feb. 6-12, 2012
• Journalism students go to ‘war’ with Army ROTC in Green Canyon, by Rhett Wilkinson
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 8 edition). Bookmark ATV News

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

• PeezPix cards & prints
. . . Catalog here.

The Wellsvilles float above Cache Valley haze.


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