Contemplating Media & the First Amendment
We live in a quickly advancing world. It's changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. Technology has made most of our lives so much easier, but for a big chunk of journalism, it has landed lots of people getting laid off. News companies, especially newspapers, are declining. They are declining so bad,... Continue Reading →
Like most college students in their early 20s, I have a twitter. Which of course means that I spend too much time aimlessly scrolling just barely reading anything on my feed. But I pay enough attention to notice how often articles are quoted and called out for either being incorrect or for misrepresenting facts. This... Continue Reading →
Did the death of the newspaper lead to the Trump presidency; or did the Trump presidency lead us into an age of poor, censored, and often fake journalism? Baym argues that tabloids set the stage for Trump’s presidency, as the death of the newspaper lead the public’s eyes and attention to cheap news media with... Continue Reading →
Ahhh, the fond memories of standardized testing. My fourth grade self would get up early, take a shower, eat and egg and off I went to get a mediocre score. Standardized testing is as American as baseball and is dying just the same. Reading scores have had a significant decline in half the states. Our... Continue Reading →
Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson temporarily blocked Alabama’s “near-total abortion ban”, which would have taken effect next month to make abortion a felony to perform, except under specific circumstances. Although I know that Alabama is a Republican state, the support from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall was surprising... Continue Reading →
In what appears to be an effort to undermine the validity of the presidential impeachment inquiry, Laura Ingraham, a Fox News television host, and her guest, John Yoo, a top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, accused White House national security official, Colonel Alexander Vindman, of espionage. This came after Vindman testified that he... Continue Reading →
Chapter six of the book “Freedom for the Thought We Hate” by Anthony Lewis describes to what extent journalists are protected from having to name their sources before a grand jury. Most conversation surrounding the first amendment pertains to who gets to talk about what in society. This chapter presented an interesting question about who... Continue Reading →
In Chapter 6 of “Freedom for the Thought We Hate” by Anthony Lewis, we gain insight on the issue of “press privilege,” and what exactly that means for reporters at the witness stand. One of the most important issues within this is that of defining what it really means to be part of the press.... Continue Reading →
Last Wednesday, two students at the University of Connecticut were arrested on charges of shouting racist slurs in a parking lot across a university dorm on their way home. FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, are saying these arrests are unconstitutional under the First Amendment. “However offensive the use of a racial epithet,... Continue Reading →
Image taken from an article about Newark Penn Station. Public train and bus stations often serve as temporary shelters for homeless people in America. I recall my first time visiting New Jersey’s Newark Penn Station. The big, warm station with its long, winding halls had multiple eateries and lots of wide, comfy pew-like benches to... Continue Reading →
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