One Generic News Report, Coming Up!

Here's all that you need to create a standard television news report, courtesy of Today's Big Thing:



I like the man-on-the-street interviews the best!

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Local News, Circa 1982

If only local news were this dramatic:



Based on this segment, anthropologists from the future studying 20th century America would have to say that "local news reporter" is the most exciting of professions!

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Armstrong LTE Workshop

On October 6, 2009, Ari Armstrong held a workshop for local activists interested in improving their skills at writing LTEs (letters to the editor).

His own detailed blog post can be found here at, "Activism and Writing Letters to the Editor".

I'd also like to highlight his two short videos discussing the principles and techniques of effective LTE writing:

Part 1



Part 2



Using these techniques, the activists in Front Range Objectivism have had LTEs published in our regional newspapers, including the Denver Post, Colorado Springs Gazette, Boulder Daily Camera, Fort Collins Coloradan, Pueblo Chieftain, and (before it folded), The Rocky Mountain News.

We have also had multiple LTEs published in national and major regional publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times.

Anyone who want to refine their LTE writing skills should also read the following:

"How to Write an Effective Letter to the Editor" (Ayn Rand Institute)

"12 Tips for Letter Writers" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Thank you, Ari, for organizing this workshop!

(For more information, see Ari's blog post "Activism and Writing Letters to the Editor".)

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NYT on John Allison

The August 1, 2009 New York Times has published a major article on John Allison, with extensive discussion of Allison, Yaron Brook, and Ayn Rand, entitled, "Give Him Liberty, But Not A Bailout".

Here is an excerpt:

...Speaking at a recent convention in Boston to a group of like-minded business people and students, Mr. Allison tells a story: A boy is playing in a sandbox, only to have his truck taken by another child. A fight ensues, and the boy’s mother tells him to stop being selfish and to share.

"You learned in that sandbox at some really deep level that it’s bad to be selfish," says Mr. Allison, adding that the mother has taught a horrible lesson. "To say man is bad because he is selfish is to say it's bad because he’s alive."

If Mr. Allison's speech sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it's based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, who celebrated the virtues of reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism while maintaining that altruism is a destructive force. In Ms. Rand's world, nothing is more heroic — and sexy — than a hard-working businessman free to pursue his wealth. And nothing is worse than a pesky bureaucrat trying to restrict business and redistribute wealth.

Or, as Mr. Allison explained, "put balls and chains on good people, and bad things happen."

Overall, the article is fairly positive towards Rand's ideas.

The more people who read it and then decide to read (or re-read) Atlas Shrugged, the better!

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Obama's Victory and Media Malpractice

Over at HowObamaGotElected.com, they wanted to investigate how someone like Obama sails into the White House. Their conclusion? That the news media simply refused to do their job.

On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.

It is indeed shocking to see the demonstration of just where abysmal ignorance contrasts with easy knowledge.


I wouldn't lay it at just the media's feet, though -- this sort of thing is enabled by serious cultural and epistemological degradation. The state of the news media is only a symptom. An incredibly nasty symptom.

UPDATE: A little clarification: the quote from their website was only sharing what they claim. Obviously, I have no idea what their methodology was for selecting their interviewees, nor how fair they were in their editing. What caught my attention was the contrasting pockets of knowledge and ignorance within the individual people.

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Conservative Media

I suspect that many conservatives would regard this video interview of Joe Biden as an example of what journalism ought to be:



In fact, it's nothing of the sort. It's blatant partisanship, not objectivity.

I've never thought much about the proper standards of journalism -- until I began fighting Colorado's Amendment 48. So here are my preliminary thoughts: Journalists should ask difficult questions, particularly of politicians. However, those questions should be fair -- not loaded with presumption and innuendo. So a journalist should allow a person to state his basic views, then dig deeper by asking some tough questions. The goal should be to expose the person's views for what they are -- good, bad, or ugly.

Thoughts?

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