Contemplating Media & the First Amendment
On October 18, a suit was filed against a North County officer for violating the First Amendment. In 2018, a woman named Sarah Townsend was at a Mobil Gas Station talking to a man in a wheelchair when a North County police officer pulled up and began to arrest the man. Seeing no reason for... Continue Reading →
"What a b!tch!" "B!tch please." "SON OF A B!TCH!" Whether it comes from a college frat bro, a drunken Red Sox fan, a Starbucks-yielding lady you accidentally bumped into on the street, or the average Massachusetts driver on a Monday morning––getting called a bitch is basically Boston's rite of passage. The well-known swear first got... Continue Reading →
When is and isn’t it okay to ask a journalist to divulge their sources in court? Should the press be allowed to have special privileges? Who even is the press, anyway? In chapter six of his book Freedom for the Thought That We Hate, Anthony Lewis talks about the complicated nature of reporter’s privilege when... Continue Reading →
We’re getting to the point in the Trump Presidency where if you went around and asked a group of people to name one blatantly incorrect thing Trump has said, everyone would be able to come up with a different answer. The most recent of which, is, of course, the claim that they are building the... Continue Reading →
Oct. 21, 2019 in Santiago, Chile. If you’ve been keeping up with international news, you’ve probably heard about the protests happening in the Chilean capital of Santiago right now. I first heard about these protests from a fellow student I had met while studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina this summer. She’s currently in Santiago, and... Continue Reading →
What does journalism owe the past? What truths must be uncovered from yesterday to tell the stories of today accurately and fairly? This past week a new show named Watchmen created discussion around the lack of knowledge of White Americans about their histories and the history of racial violence. The show a superhero premise where they travel... Continue Reading →
I learned about propaganda when I was in third grade. I was reading an American Girl book about a girl growing up during World War Two. I remember assuming that propaganda, like many other elements in the story, was a thing of the past. I remember thinking that today, now that people had access to... Continue Reading →
The Russian’s lack of guilt in the way they manipulate people through propaganda is astounding. Their tactic of flooding people with false information so they drown in it is startling. They were so effective in the American election that the media at times could not figure out where to look. What they do is smart... Continue Reading →
We all know Trump pulled our troops out of Syria and we know that it was arguably the stupidest and most random thing he could've done. Maybe not so random, though, since President Trump decided to do it on Putin's birthday - basically as a birthday gift for him since Russia stepped in to take... Continue Reading →
image via NPR. https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2019/10/08/boston-says-a-dorchester-pot-shop-is-a-move-towards-equity-its-not-that-simple-residents-say Who's to say new opportunities aren't a good thing? This recent article from WGBH News discusses the positive and negative aspects of the new marijuana store set to open in Dorchester's Grove Hall. For reference, Boston's Dorchester neighborhood is 43% African-American, and 23% of residents report being affected by poverty. This... Continue Reading →
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