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Alec Baldwin wants YOU to read newspapers

Hollywood could have a new cause-of-the-moment to support: dead tree pulp.

I was recently surprised to find an article by Alec Baldwin entitled "Why We Need the New York Times" on the Huffington Post. In it Baldwin, the oldest of the notorious showbiz brothers and star of NBC's 30 Rock, tells of his long-held habit of reading the New York Times.

I picked up the paper every day, back when many places ran out of the Times, and rather quickly, by late morning. I carried it with me everywhere, as so many other New Yorkers seemed to. In New York, someone else is usually doing the driving. In a cab or on the train, the Times and the time to read it were mine.

It's clear Baldwin has a sentimental connection to the Times, linked to his being a native New Yorker.  Baldwin doesn't just making a plug for the liberal paper, he's also taking the time to dismiss TV news.

Television news had become less relevant in my life. I was rarely near a TV at 6PM to watch the classic network broadcast. CNN was good for breaking news and convention coverage. But salacious crimes and court cases seemed to predominate more than I could bear.

"Mission accomplished"? Where have we heard that before?

As I'm sure you know by this point, dear reader, the number of states that legally allow marriage between two men or two women has doubled during the past couple of weeks, as Iowa's Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal April 3 and Vermont's legislative branch overruled its governor's veto April 8. Additionally, the D.C. council voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

(Gay marriage is now legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and ... Iowa. Cue the classic Sesame Street "one of these things is not like the other" music.)

James Kirchick, a New Republic assistant editor who happens to be gay, wrote a fascinating op-ed piece in the Post Sunday about this recent flurry of activity and its impact on the gay rights movement:

But amid all the history being made, one gay rights organization did something really historic: It announced that it would shut its doors at the end of the year, because its mission was complete. ...

"Mission accomplished" is one of the most difficult things to say when your organization depends on working toward a cause, but Love Makes a Family did it. And other gay groups may soon need to follow suit. If the gay community truly wants to achieve equality, it will have to overcome a victim mindset that is slowly becoming obsolete.

Admit it, Technology is a Little Scary

Danny Forston wrote a very good article about the future of technology titled, "Searching for the new Google-what does the future hold?" With only a few minor details left out, Forston gave his readers a peek at what technology is cable of doing.

Forston's lede is extremely eye-catching. He uses a story to get personal and illustrate what technology is already capable of accomplishing. The only thing is, I wish he would have included a more thorough explanation of the Google tool Latitude.

Since I was not familiar with Latitude, and the article was not describing it sufficiently enough, I found an article on examiner.com that describes what it is and how it works.

The article written by Forston is broken up into several sections. After introducing his article with a personal story and facts about Google, which he says "has become the standard by which all technology start-ups are measured," he introduces several different new technology games and gadgets. 

Taxing Tobacco Benefits Health

Earlier this week in the Christian Science Monitor, there was an article, Federal and State government  look to smokers for more tax revenue, which discussed the new 62-cent federal tax on tobacco products.  The CSMonitor focused on getting the information out there and the facts that went a long with the raise in taxes on tobacco.  It especially focused on those who would get taxed. 

High cigarette taxes curtail smoking and reduce the habit's societal costs. But they also take a big bite out of the earnings of America's poor, who smoke cigarettes at nearly twice the rate of the average American. That's the paradox of the new 62-cent federal tax on tobacco, a historic hike that puts the average pack of smokes at $4.80 – $3.10 of which is taxes.

The reason that low income individuals choose to smoke, I believe, is because they have more stress in their lives because of the lack of money.  Yes, I believe that this new tax will hurt people's budgets and the poor will suffer from the slam of the new taxes.  Maybe the  money that they save from not spending on tobacco products will increase their health benefits.  I was also pleased when I read the article by Patrik Jonsson of the CSMonitor, because Jonsson covered the story well.  He mentioned the health benefits that will occour because of the higher tax on tobacco among the fact that it will ultimately hurt the poor the worst. 

A focus to help Autistic Children

Science competitions determine a winner by whoever has the best invention. Competitors look to their smarts, creativity, imagination and hope for the gold ribbon or trophy. However, for some science competitors, the competitions are no longer about the trophy. These competitors participate in the contest because it may hit a deeper part of their life.

Students in a Chicago school competed to be a winning team by attempting to invent the best new device for autistic children. These students ranged from 4th to 5th grade.

"The students focused on technology to help those with autism before a full-blown outburst sets in."

This was a well written article that caught the eyes of a readers’ attention. Carlos Sadovi, a Chicago Tribune reporter, wrote “Autism invention: Chicago youths devise technology in effort to help people cope.”

Journalism students = gluttons for punishment

James Rainey's LA Times article As newspapers decline, journalism schools thrive poured figurative gasoline on a fire in me that has been waning as we have discussed the crisis that journalism has entered. Rainey's description begins with his own feelings about the journalism students around him, creating a picture in my mind of the excitement he is experiencing.

Maybe this is what it feels like to be a minister returning to the seminary, an officer back at the academy, an old ballplayer joining the rookies for another spring training.

I'm at a journalism school talking to young people and they are affirming the faith: the thrill of chasing a story, the queasy high of deadline, the satisfaction of getting it first and the enduring hope it all might matter.

Politics + journalism = Dismissal of CCSU editor

Jason Braff of NBC Connecticut wrote an interesting piece April 15 that does a great job of piquing the complexities of First Amendment rights.

In his article, Mr. Braff writes about Marissa Blaszko, an opinion editor for Central Connecticut State University's student newspaper, The Recorder, who was fired for her political involvement on campus. According to another newspaper, The Hartford Courant, being politically involved in a campus organization is a violation of the newspaper's code of ethics.

Personally, I think that Mr. Braff sets up the tone of the article with a great and compelling lede (For those of you who aren't journalists, the lede is the opening paragraph of a story), lending a little mystery to the problem at hand to make me want to read more:

When it comes to politics, there is a fine line for Central Connecticut State’s student newspaper, The Recorder. Last month their student editor found out about it the hard way.

Pena: The "Titanic band" on U.S.S New York Times

As some of my collegues have mentioned, newspapers are in the habit lately of writing their own obituaries. However The New York Times has recently published an article that casually reports their demise.  In "The Times Will Cut Sections to Lower Costs", Richard Perez Pena of The New York Times explains the tough choices that the paper is making.

In an effort to save millions of dollars in annual costs, The New York Times plans to eliminate several weekly sections and absorb some of the content in other parts of the newspaper, Bill Keller, the executive editor, said on Thursday.

Pena goes on to describe the sections cut in a very sterile way.

The affected sections include Escapes, published on Fridays, and Sunday sections that only readers in the New York metropolitan area receive: City and regional sections named for New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester and Connecticut.

Those Sunday sections will disappear, and The Times will create a new Sunday section combining some elements of them with features about New York City and the region, and features that formerly appeared in the New York report.

Not My Cup of Tea.

Everyone had their opinions on the tea bag protests. Some saw them to "represent true American spirit" while others thought they failed in their goal. My issue is not with the event, but with the coverage of it.

Last Tuesday I, personally, sent out a post card with a tea bag attachment as participation in the protests occurring all over the country. However, I did so as an independent citizen not a member of the media.

David Carr of The New York Times attacked Fox news in his piece "Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity" on Sunday, April 19.  Though I identify with Fox's political views, I agree more with Carr's criticism of their instigation of the "movement." It is not the media's place to step in and create news, which is what I believe Fox did that day, it is their job to report it.

"Fox News, after running more than 100 promos about its coverage of the event, which did a pretty effective job of marketing them at the same time, had wall-to-wall coverage on the anointed day and dispatched four of its leading hosts around the country to perform a kind of hybrid task, covering events they also seemed to be leading."

No fooling for Arnold, this man's serious about terminating the deficit

Starting Wednesday, April 1, California will be hit with a not-so-funny joke: a one percent sales tax increase. The Governator decided to increase taxes to generate an estimated $5.8 billion in the next two years to help elevate the state's $42 billion deficit. But many people are warry about how this will not only effect the economy in an already weakened state. 

AP reporter Judy Lin wrote on the tax increase in the golden state,  that was published in Wednesday's issue of the Union Tribune. She dove straight into the facts in her lede:

"Californians will start feeling the pain of the recently negotiated state budget fix on Wednesday, when a 1-cent increase in the state sales tax will force consumers to pay more for goods such as cars, furniture, laptops and toys."