Somewhere There Is a Pony

Underneath all this manure there is a pony. This quote means somewhere underneath all the crap you are giving me there are some golden nuggets of information. This is what my 9th grade world history teacher, whose name escapes me at the moment, at Irmo High School (Go Yellow Jackets) in Columbia, South Carolina use to say. I heard this phrase again today for the first time in a long time. Now keep this saying in mind.

Today I had the pleasure to miss class and attend the William O’Neil Lecture in Business Journalism featuring Alan Sloan. Allan Sloan is the editor at large for Fortune magazine. Mr. Sloan spoke to a room full of journalism students, business majors, and one lone theater student.

I actually think it’s cool the theater student was at this lecture. We journalism heads don’t really have the opportunity interact very much with the theater, dance, and art students unless we are already friends with some, but that’s an issue for another blog.

Now back to the topic

So Mr. Sloan was here to touch on the topic of “Is Journalism Dead? And Should it Be?”
In this blog, I am supposed to summarize the lecture and discuss points he made I agree or disagree with.
I will discuss a talking point first.

One student, my friend Johnny, asked Mr. Sloan if our generation will have jobs in the next 30 years. Mr. Sloan said yes but what those jobs will be he doesn’t know.

I agree. There are jobs in this world that exist to day that did not exist 10 years ago. In journalism, there will be jobs that exist in 10, 15, and 30 years from now that don’t exist today. The field is at a crossroads. It has to some how reconcile its past with its future. The business is trying to figure out how to move forward and incorporate new technology but keep the structure of the traditional newspapers and broadcast alive. How the business will work this out I don’t know. Mr. Sloan couldn’t answer it either. Like all things I believe journalism as a business will find its footing.


I honestly cannot summarize the lecture.I don’t think it came full circle. He really didn’t touch on the topic until the Q&A portion. To me the lecture was unfocused. I know I wasn’t the only student who expressed this sentiment afterwards. I feel like I learned more about his family than the topic. I do appreciate that Mr. Sloan went into how he started out as a business journalist. That is important especially if you are speaking at the William J. O’Neil Business Journalism series. I do feel the lecture could have been more focused on the topic than it was.

However somewhere I found the pony.

McCain McPinions

Blogger Dana Blankhorn is more concerned with what is not being said about the John McCain piece. He feels there is a bigger issue at hand than McCain's lobbyist lady friend or NY Times handling of the situation

http://www.danablankenhorn.com/2008/02/the-buried-lede.html


Townhall.com raises a few good questions about the McCain McScandal
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/a182a93f-f776-4375-8f4d-af7229159c15

The All Spin Zone has a little fun with numbers and McCain's love life.
http://allspinzone.com/wp/page/2/

The Captain's Quaters hounds on just how much of a non story the John McScandal is.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/017051.php

I found this political cartoon to be very funny.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2916920

McCain's Got 99 Problems

The New York Times dropped a story last week about John McCain and an alleged indiscretion with a blonde Washington lobbyist. The only way you could not have known about this was if you were living under a rock. Some where concerned this tidbit of information would rock McCain's world. I read on a Mike Huckabee forum supporters claiming God must have told the Huckster that this was going to happen and that is why he is staying in the race.

Ummmmm Ok.

The Times has been sitting on this story since last year. I don't think this story will hurt McCain's chance. His campaign is known for running on his achievements and less on the morality platform unlike most of his opponents and 98 percent of Republicans.

Off Topic:

How in the world did Republicans begin to lay claim to morality?

On Topic:

Some wonder why the Times would endorse the man and then drop kick him with this information. I for one don't know. Maybe it is all a diabolical plot in order to defame McCain and make Mike Huckabee the Republican candidate thus insuring the Presidency to Clinton or Obama (hopefully Obama crossing fingers, toes, and eyes). What the Times has done to McCain is pretty representative of what Americans do to anyone who is the public sphere. We build them up only to take them down later. If you want an example, I have two words for you BRITNEY SPEARS. The only place this story really hits is the fact McCain is so anti-lobbyist yet he was getting friendly or frisky, whichever way you chose to see it, with one.

In my opinion, the Straight Talk Express will chug on straight to the convention in September and on to the Presidential nomination.

Blog!

I am a frequent reader of all kinds of blogs from political, entertainment, health and beauty, fashion etc. The blog revolution is amazing. It has transformed our cultural and political landscape tremendously. Some people wrote blogging off as blip on the face of the internet. Or better yet a fad. Kind of like those digital pets that I along with millions of children had in the mid to late 90’s or Mc Hammer pants. I believe my cousin had multiple pairs in the most atrocious colors and patterns. I use these examples to say people thought blogging wouldn’t last, but unlike the fads I mentioned, it did.

I just finished reading blog! by Burstein and Kline and the chapter I read focused on the impact of blogging on politics, specifically the 2004 presidential race. It made note of some specific facts. One of them being how it was bloggers who uncovered the documents regarding President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard were indeed fakes. Also another interesting tidbit was Howard Dean's use of the Internet to get his campaign off of the ground and raise money. If you don’t remember Howard Dean here is a little reminder.



However, there was one quote that really stuck with me was one from a blogger.

“Blogs are fun observed Ezra Klein on his own blog I like them but they are
flawed and problematic medium. They encourage polarization and extremism rather
than debated and understand. They turn on snark and mockery more often than
facts and agile argument. I’ve not yet and not for lack of trying found
the blog where smart engaged partisans are respectfully speaking to each other
where the point is to inform and enrich rather than enrage and destroy.”

I would like to think that as human beings we could conduct ourselves in a proper manner, but unfortunately we cannot. At 20 years old I can respectfully agree to disagree with someone on their views. Sadly, there are people old enough to be my parents who can do that. Often I will come across very mean, hateful, racists, sexist, homophobic comments on blogs. Usually the nastiness is found in the comments section. This is especially common on political and entertainment blogs. The anonymity of the web makes it easy for people to make disgusting and hateful comments.

People either:

A) Believe and want to say these things in really life but are not bold enough to ever verbalize those thoughts in life
B) Shock value
C) Both

I would go with both. For me, overly hatful comments ruin my blog reading experience. There are definitely sites I know to avoid the comments section because World War III, VI, and V are happening. I will walk away feeling disgusted. There are other sites where I happily read the comments because posters can agree to disagree respectfully.

Political blogs generally preach to the choir therefore they usually are polarizing, vilifying their political rival. I see it as this way blogs are a reflection of the culture at large. Why do you think Britney Spears has 20-30 paparazzi chasing her daily because there is a societal hunger for celebrities. So, blogs are an expression of political culture and right now we live in a very politically charged and polarized nation. Do you or I have to like the comments? No. Sadly, it is just the nature of the beast.