NewsTrust

NewsTrust.net claims to be "your guide to good journalism," but according to whom?

The site is free to join and allows members to read, review and submit news stories they'd like to share with the community. The stories are rated on what are deemed to be important standards, such as fairness, evidence, sourcing and context.

You can choose to limit your review categories to the most important factors, or expanded it to dozens of questions. Apart from rating the article itself, reviewers rate their trust in the publication, which I find to be a particularly useful feature that can help expose users to news sites and organizations.

I like the idea of a community of readers gathering interesting news stories and trying to rate them on their journalistic quality, but everyone's opinion of good journalism is different. Readers have different standards and interests, and I'd be more likely to read something that was rated favorably by someone who I believe has standards similar to mine.

The site is set up to also rate members, so that any biases in their reviews would make their reviews valued less.

There are other features of the site that separate it from many other news aggregators. NewsTrust allows you to sort through stories on different subjects, based on their reviews, or how recently they've been reviewed or added. There is also a featured topic prominently displayed on the site with related stories compiled by NewsTrust.

Without knowing your community it's tough to say you would trust their judgment of what is important and well done, but I think the idea of a site where news is ranked based on journalism rather than popularity is a positive step in legitimizing news content on the Web.

Political Fashion?

The April cover of Vogue features Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen allegedly to illustrate body shape and the "secrets of the best bodies," but some who've seen the cover think photographer Annie Leibovitz had another idea in mind.

The cover bears a striking resemblance to a World War I Army recruiting poster depicting a King Kong-esque beast carrying a damsel in distress in his left arm and a weapon held low in his right hand, with an angry clenched face and mouth open wide to yell.


When I first saw the cover, I thought James and Bundchen were in an odd position, with James yelling and dribbling a ball low to his right, with his left arm around an off-balanced Bundchen's waist. It didn't seem to me that their poses depicted what they were meant to represent.

The idea that Leibovitz was imitating the poster could be indicative of her style of recreating old movie posters in her shoots, or some believe it is a social commentary about "the ancestral American fear of black men." Also linked to this theory is the fact that James is the first black man to appear on Vogue's cover.

Although the photographer hasn't pointed to any inspiration, it seems too likely that she was reinventing the King Kong picture. There are too many details present to think otherwise. James is dressed all in black, while Bundchen is in a greenish dress very similar in length and style to the woman in the poster, with her hair even styled in a similar way.

If the cover was designed in the poster's image, the question becomes who was aware of this plan? If it is indeed a social commentary, it seems likely that at least the subjects should have been clued in, but judging by the text accompanying the cover, it seems unlikely the publication had this intent in mind. A Vogue spokesman has defended the magazine's original intent, and that the subjects just looked good together.

The idea isn't necessarily as controversial as the photographer's ability to engender debate on a topic the publication is unprepared to address. Perhaps Leibovitz has succeeded further in bringing to light the backwardness of society, where a fashion magazine cover graced by celebrities is likely to receive more attention and so cause more political and social debate, than if the statement was intentionally made in a news or political magazine.

Photo Source: Gawker.com

Dr. Death '08

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed Dr. Death, claimed to assist over 100 people commit suicide in the 1990s. He has been out on parole for 10 months after serving eight years of a 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree homicide for participating in the assisted suicide of a Thomas Youk, a Michigan man with ALS, in 1998. As a condition of his parole, Kevorkian is not allowed to aid in anyone else's death or care for anyone over 62 or disabled.

To occupy his time and keep from going back to jail, the 79-year-old Kevorkian has decided to run for Congress in Michigan's 9th district (Oakland County). If he is able to collect the required 3,000 signatures on his petition he will be on the November 2008 ballot as an independent.

After his release, Kevorkian said that he would not assist in any suicides, but focus on trying to gain support for legislative change.

While some media outlets seem to be taking the news less seriously, like in the LA Times headline "Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, seeks a House seat or else," the idea is apparently not so far-fetched to everyone.

Some voters voiced possible support for the candidate in news interviews, while hosts of the View, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, came to the ex-pathologist's defense on this morning's edition of their show. After calling herself a big fan of his, Goldberg said "he believed that he could help people who were in, in a place where no one was helping them." Behar added, "The thing about Kevorkian is that I don’t consider him a bad guy."

The question is whether he will be a bad representative. In his official announcement yesterday he said "this country is going in the wrong direction." He also spoke out against the war in Iraq, claiming the conflict shouldn't even be called a war, which he defined as "when two adversaries have about the equal resources to fight."

Kevorkian is running against eight-term incumbent Republican Joe Knollenberg, and there has been doubt that the convicted felon will earn enough votes to effect the race. Though his opponents told the Washington Times that "voters are more concerned about the economy and jobs than euthanasia," he will certainly make the race more interesting and already has.

AP Photo

Red Sox season starts far from home

On the eve of the Red Sox opening day, I could not possibly talk about anything else. Even though the Sox open the regular season 6735.40 miles from home in Tokyo, Japan, Red Sox fans are literally counting the seconds until the defense of the title 2007 World Champions begins.

As the home team doesn't return to Fenway Park until April 8, some fans decided to go to them. It was reported by local news stations last night that some fans paid $5,000 to fly to Tokyo and see the season opener.

Tomorrow morning's game will air live on ESPN2 at 6:05am, and former Japanese baseball star Daisuke Matsuzaka will be starting for Boston. The Red Sox will be facing the Oakland Athletics, continuing the brand new tradition of American professional sports teams playing regular season games abroad.

Last October, the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants traveled to London to play a regular season game at Wembley Stadium. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres also played baseball in Asia this spring, with a two-game exhibition series in Beijing, China.

Despite the criticism of the long trips being hard on the players, I think bringing America's games abroad is a good idea and I would be in favor of hosting more foreign games in the United States. Some European soccer matches have been played here in recent history and I think expanding that to more sports would be a good way to share world cultures.

For the love of Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls is the main character of the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild. He is described on his show's site as a seasoned adventurer drawing experience from his time in a special forces unit in the British army.

Although the show seems to be fairly popular, most of the attention on him has come from allegations that he fabricated some of his survival adventures.

On the show Grylls often parachutes or jumps from some kind of aircraft into a dangerous and isolated area of the world, then tries to survive and find his way to civilization. He hunts and eats all kinds of animals and plants, and helps teach the viewer what to do in survival situations.



Many people seemed to be outraged when it was reported that Grylls was assisted and not really surviving on his own in the elements. However, he is quite obviously not alone, as there has to be someone operating the camera, and never claims to be trying to accomplish a survival mission unaided. In every episode he mentions stories of people getting lost in the wilderness and struggling to survive. I always felt the point of the show was to teach survival tips, not pull of amazing feats of survival.

After he was accused of staying at a hotel in Hawaii while filming a show, Grylls had to apologized to anyone who was mislead and now his show comes with a disclaimer and he is forced to engage with the cameraman so nobody is too confused.

Grylls will put himself in dangerous situations like jumping into freezing water just to demonstrate the best way to get yourself out. If he were doing it as a survival mission, he wouldn't put himself in additional danger and if he wanted you to believe he was on a solo adventure he would film himself like the Survivorman does. I think by having the camera crew we ensure that we don't miss anything Grylls does.

I personally am not as entertained by Survivorman Les Stroud's adventures, maybe because he is not as attractive or interesting as Grylls, but also because I like learning Grylls' survival techniques and hearing about real stories of survival.

It's not that I'm not a fan of the crazy reality survival material because I thought Grizzly Man was a thoroughly entertaining and compelling documentary, but Grylls makes no claims of being that crazy. The point of Man vs. Wild is to teach you how to survive in the wilderness, so if you'd rather look at Stroud or see a guy live with Grizzly Bears, go for it, just let Bear do his thing.

Man vs. Wild picture from sharetv.org

MARCH MADNESS

March Madness is without doubt my favorite non-Boston sporting event. Nothing can compare to the entire Red Sox season for me, but I think these two weeks of literal madness are the most exciting, entertaining, and best-quality action sports has to offer.

There are so many story lines, with such drama and national attention that no other tournament commands. Even if college basketball isn't everyone's favorite sport all year long, you can't deny the excitement of March Madness. The idea of a one-and-done tournament to crown the national champion, from a 65-team field creates such opportunity and anticipation that you can't help but pay attention.

This isn't even taking into account the bracket factor. Even if you don't know anything about basketball you can fill out a bracket and join the office pool or better yet compete online for monetary prizes. In some cases it's even better that you don't know who should win because a lot of times they don't.

As sites like Yahoo and ESPN offer $5 million and $10,000-worth of prizes respectively to get people involved it's becoming even more of a distraction. The interest in the tournament is so great that is was recently estimated that companies will lose out of $1.7 billion, because their employees will be so distracted by their brackets.

March Madness is like a sports fan and sports writer's dream. The possibilities for stories and great sports moments are practically endless. Even though my bracket is fairly busted thanks to UNLV and Kansas State, I can't wait to see what happens.

Final Four photo- © 2000 - 2008 Cappersmall.com
Kansas State Photo- Boston Globe/Getty Images

Community Blogs

One of the most informative and useful products of blogging's current popularity is the community blog. While community blogs aren't necessary new, they are to me, and that may be because they aren't getting the attention they deserve, making them difficult to come upon without looking.

In the Boston area there are a number of good ones to keep you up-to-date on the news in your area and even let you add to it. The blog 9Neighbors is one such example. It covers five areas, Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, Newton and Somerville, and has news and different topic sections for each place.

It offers communities for people to post news from their area and has the readers vote on the most useful and interesting stories, which are displayed most prominently on the site. It also functions as a separate blog about 9Neighbors, which offers updates and information on the community. That blog also features a local photo contest called Shoot9N and the top entries are posted there every month. One of the most best parts of the blog is the useful local content posted on it, like this interactive map of local potholes, which readers are encouraged to add to.

The site is run by Rick Burnes, a journalist who has worked at NYTimes.com, Google, The Moscow Times and The New Bedford Standard Times. From 9Neighbors you can navigate to his personal blog, where he covers various current events and posts statistics for 9Neighbors.

Another good example of community blogging is Universal Hub. This site is a collection of all the best writing from blogs in the Boston area. It serves a similar purpose as 9Neighbors by providing local news that isn't always covered by the mainstream media.

Providing news and insight for a more specific audience is H2otown, the community blog of Watertown. It includes pictures and videos and is written in a strong and entertaining voice to keep local residents involved.

Community blogs definitely fill a need, especially in smaller communities whose news and events are never covered by the Globe and aren't covered well-enough by local newspapers interested in covering big news to sell papers.

Copyright ©2008 9Neighbors

Expensive Pizza?

In a recent BostonNow article, I read that the price of pizza is on the rise in Boston. Apparently all bread products are becoming more expensive because wheat-producers, like Australia, are experiencing poor growing seasons that can keep up with the demand.

Pizza is not something that I feel prepared to add to my list of things that I can't afford, so just in case I've been filling up, even eating three slices at once as you can see in this not-so-good quality cell phone video, before pizza becomes more of a delicacy than my go-to efficient and cheap dinner.

If flour prices aren't helped by the U.S. winter harvest in June, more than just cheap slices could be at risk. Restaurants could be forced to do away with free bread before meals. I know I'm not the only one who sometimes enjoys the bread appetizer more than the main course, so this could be another disappointing trend in Boston food.

While most people can probably afford to pay an extra 10 cents for a slice of pizza and lay off the free bread, this story seems to have more broad implications of global warming and economic recession. It seems every day it is reported that the price of some good is on the rise or at an all-time high and I'm not sure how long consumers can handle it, especially if the environment and food become the casualties.

More than just sports writing

When you open ESPN's Page 2, you expect to find a lot of colorful sports coverage, generally in the form of witty and offbeat columns on anything and everything happening in the sports world. For instance, today's ever-changing and entertaining tagline reads "Page 2...where we arrive at work spikes first (just like Shelley Duncan)."

One of the most entertaining columnists on the site is Bill Simmons, also known as the Sports Guy. A true Boston sports fan, much of his work is unbridled favoritism for his hometown teams and amusing commentary on whatever he sees fit, but his most recent article is very much a departure from his typical tone.

The article is entitled "To An Athlete Dying Young," named after a 100-year-old poem by A.E. Housman. The topic is the sudden death of Jamiel Andre Shaw Jr., known as "Jas," who was a standout junior running back at Los Angeles High School. Earlier this month, Shaw was gunned down outside his home by members of a local gang, which he had no involvement in, at the age of 17.

Simmons' tone is serious and reflective, his focus shifts from life, to potential, to gang violence. He opens with a moving and descriptive scene of Shaw's father painfully eulogizing his son at his funeral on Tuesday.

It's not a tight news story, but one full of emotion, contemplation and a few tangents and pop culture references. There are however some poignant turns of phrase that make the piece. For example: "Jas' death makes all of us feel vulnerable. If the anointed ones can't make it, then who can?"

To me this piece is more than a well-written feature on a tragic news story. It is a reminder of what sports journalism can be and that sports writers are in fact writers. Though they are often caught up in cliches and statistics and their work is lost on those not interested in sports, this piece reminds me that sports can offer incredible stories and opportunities for writers to craft beautiful pieces that shouldn't be overlooked. It reminded me why I want to be a sports journalist.

Photo Copyright © 2008 Los Angeles Wave.

Journalists taking the heat

It was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal that former USA Today journalist Toni Locy has been court-ordered to pay fines, that will grow larger each week, until she reveals her sources for articles written in 2001 about the anthrax attacks.

Starting last night at midnight Locy has to pay $500 per day this week, $1,000 per day next week and $5,000 per day every day after that until she either gives up her sources or returns to court on April 3 where the judge will "consider additional measures to get her to reveal her sources."

Locy, now a journalism professor, said she can't and won't be paying the fines, which the judge stipulated had to come from her personally and that the USA Today is not allowed to cover her contempt fines.

This situation is reminiscent of the Judith Miller case in 2005. The New York Times reporter refused to reveal to the court what government sources identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent and spent 85 days in jail, until her source, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, gave her permission to reveal him in testimony.

In cases like these, journalists often feel they're doing the right thing by protecting sources they have pledged to keep confidential and speak in defense of the freedom of the press.

This can be a difficult issue to choose one side of, because there would certainly be instances where information needs to be investigated in the name of justice and security, but the rights of journalists allow them to do their job properly, completely and for the good of the public, so those should be respected.

Perhaps the practice of journalism and the codes of ethics should be more strict to minimize the use of confidential sources, but I think news organizations are worried about missing out on important information, if anonymity can't be guaranteed.

In the end, maybe the system is working in the best way it can, and journalists should face fines and jail terms to protect sources, until the sources come forward to give the court the information it needs.

Locy photo- © 2005 West Virginia University
Miller photo- Copyright 2008 NPR

Dream Ticket

After Hillary Clinton kept her push for the presidency alive with big wins in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas last night, there has been increased speculation on the possibility of a Obama/Clinton ticket in November.

In early morning TV interviews, Clinton addressed the idea of a joint Democratic ticket, while being sure not to demote herself: "That may be where this is headed. But of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said it should be me."

Barack Obama, on the other hand, seems unwilling to entertain the idea at the moment. He is quoted in a Ben Smith post on Politico as saying, "We are just focused on winning the nomination. That is my focus. I respect Sen. Clinton. She has been a tenacious opponent. It is premature to talk about a joint ticket."

The candidates seem almost destined to run together, and few would deny it would be a dreamy combination for Democrats. Using their differences, in gender, race, age, and background, the two could conceivably attract a very large support base.

During their debates, their mutual respect for each other is made apparent, and I find they are rarely in heated debates over major issues the way most opponents seem to be. Their criticisms of each other, while few, have been on matters of experience and speech-stealing, because I think ideologically there isn't enough for them to disagree on.

I think this amazing video of "Obama and Clinton" remixing the song "Anyone Else But You" from Juno really says it all.


Photo source: http://www.kansasprairie.net/