Sitting around a table in the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel, six friends
sip from porcelain teacups and munch on an assortment of delicate
pastries and sweets. The friends are a mixture of ages and interests,
but all have a common thread - each is currently a college student,
dealing with similar pressures from professors and peers alike. A girl pushes her hair behind her ear, bringing up the new spring line of a big fashion house. A boy clears his throat before reviewing the new indie blockbuster he illegally downloaded.
One of the boys, dressed fashionably in a charcoal button up cardigan over a magenta dress shirt, announces that he has some news to share. There is a calm in the conversation, and he smiles. He has recently been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), a developmental disorder concerned with inattentiveness, over activity, impulsivity or a combination.
“We all cheered when he said he got diagnosed with ADD… like it was a
good thing,” admitted Mercedes B., part of the Plaza tea party and a
19-year-old BAFA student at Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of
Design. “Because that means that he gets pills.”
Prescription drug abuse has been on the rise in the past decade in the
United States; use of unprescribed drugs in the past ten years has grown
by 430%, according to a study done by the U.S. Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration. College students have definitely
contributed to this growth; a 2010 survey by the National College Health
Association had ___ results. Out of 105,781 students surveyed, 3.2% had
taken antidepressants, 7.5% had taken painkillers, 4.3% had taken
sedatives and 7.8% had taken stimulants - all without a prescription for
the drug.
“Our culture has viewed [prescription drug abuse] as inevitable, more
inevitable than smoking weed,” nineteen-year-old New School student
Dylan D. said. “It’s hyped by the media. It’s always in movies,
television shows.”
Prescription drug use and abuse at the New School is a topic often
ignored.
“They didn’t say anything [at orientation],” Grant N., a Parsons
student, said. “People go crazy working here, they should tell you
about the effects abusing drugs like Adderrall.”
In the midst of schoolwork and final projects, prescription drugs are often forgotten about, although their abuse increases.; out of 30 students interviewed, more than half thought that prescription drug abuse at the school was a problem. Seventeen students admitted to using prescription drugs they had not been prescribed, and two even admitted to deceiving a doctor into giving them a prescription they did not need.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
discovered that almost 40 Americans die every day from prescription drug
overdoses. This poses a serious risk for students, who take pills, which
they purchased or were given, without an understanding of dosages or the
addictive properties of the drugs. Many of the New School students
surveyed were not even sure how to spell the names of the drugs that
they admitted to taking.
The ignorance surrounding prescription drugs seems to be a part of the appeal – at least to Dylan D. “You can’t see how much you’re taking.
It’s a source of excitement. People are curious to try things when
they don’t know what the results will be.”
Grant N. doesn’t even remember what he took recreationally. “It was
Percocet or Vicodin, I don’t remember. I took like four, and it
didn’t do shit.”
Other students’ self-medicate, using the drugs to solve minor aches
and pains or to help them focus intensely on their studies.
“I know some Architecture students who take Adderall all the
time,” Grant N. explained. “It’s the only way they can get work
done.”
An increase in the amount of prescriptions given has led to an increase
in the amount of people abusing prescription drugs, according to the
CDC.
“Enough narcotics are prescribed to give every adult in America one
month of prescription narcotics,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the
CDC, said in a telebriefing in early November. “This stems from a few
irresponsible doctors and, in fact, now the burden of dangerous drugs is
being created more by a few irresponsible doctors than by drug pushers
on the street corners.”
The idea of a “dealer” seems to be almost absent from prescription
drug abuse. The mysterious “friend”, who seems to have an unlimited
supply of prescribed drugs they would be more than willing to share, has
replaced the drug dealer. According to the New School students that
admitted to using unprescribed drugs, the most popular ways of acquiring
the drugs were through a friend. Thirteen students said a friend had given them the drugs, nine out of 10 said they had purchased the drug from a friend.
Mercedes B. has only taken a prescription painkiller once, and a friend
gave it to her, without any request for compensation - though it could
also be contributed to the doctor’s negligence.
“The Percocet came from a friend who was getting his wisdom teeth
removed. He got a full prescription three or four months in advance, so
we just snorted it.”
Regardless of the risks that come with abusing prescription drugs- arrest, addiction, and expulsion, to name a few – some students don’t feel that it is a problem at the New School.
“I don’t think anything bad is coming out of it,” Dylan D.
believes. “I think a majority of the New School uses [prescription
drugs], but it’s the same at other colleges. Everybody does it.”
Either way, prescription drug use is on the rise, and there are mixed
feelings about what should be done.
Dr. Thomas Frieden of the CDC believes in attacking at the primary
source.
“States can take effective action to shut pill mills and reduce
doctor shopping by patients,” he suggested during the telebriefing.
“Boards that are concerned with physician licensure can take
appropriate action against physicians who have been inappropriate in
providing prescription narcotics outside the bounds of reasonable
medical practice.”
Students, however, just want to be better informed.
“During orientation, health services had a table with condoms,”
Dylan D. said with a chuckle. “Really, they should’ve had
information about prescription drugs - you know, what they look like,
the effects. The fact that [prescription drugs] are addictive. Honestly,
I didn’t even know that.”
Monday, 19 December 2011
Friday, 16 December 2011
Profile Re-write
James Hannaham enters the classroom every day, sits, and removes his hat. The hat sometimes differs, but the routine never changes. He looks around the room, meeting the eyes of the students surrounding him before smiling and cracking a joke. Writing students, clutching their drafts like babies, visibly loosen up and smile easily, wondering, is this the calm before the storm?
Hannaham is a creative writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute in New York City, but that is not his limit; he claims to be a sort of renaissance man on his website, labeling himself as an “author, or writer, or something like that… perhaps novelist, but also journalist, teacher and occasional performer.”
Someone with so many interests may come off as intimidating, but, attending a class with Hannaham, one realizes just how down to earth and human he actually is. He may tell the story of his tattoo – the children in school morphed his last name into the insult, “hammerhead”, which is why he now has the shark inked permanently on his arm. However, Hannaham’s ink is not the only evidence of his finding happiness and success.
“God Says No”, Hannaham’s first novel, was published in 2009. It follows Gary, struggling to accept his homosexuality in the face of religion and the American South. In July 2010, the book was featured on Entertainment Weekly’s list of best new paperbacks, and has received stellar reviews in publications from New York to Austin to Seattle.
Although openly gay, Hannaham is adamant about separating the author from his work. In an interview with The Village voice, he calls the novel’s main character a “shadow self”; though they have basic similarities, he differs greatly from his character. In class, he warns students against reading too much into a character based on background knowledge of the author, stating, “Unless you talk to the writer, you’ll never really know.”
Recalling parts of his childhood, one can see that Hannaham’s struggles were much different than Gary’s, and his tongue-in-cheek attitude about life-changing occurrences proves that he handles adversity a bit better than his main character. Hannaham remembers his childhood fondly, regardless of the taunts. His mother, who has since passed, was his greatest influence as a child and has continued to be through his adulthood.
Hailing from Yonkers, New York, Hannaham was met with adversity from the very beginning. Yonkers, “The City of Gracious Living” was sued by the NAACP for segregation of the school system and housing in 1980. 97% of public housing was constructed in a one square mile area in Southwest Yonkers, and City Council members vetoed proposals allowing housing to be built in the wealthier areas, where most council members lived. This decision trickled down into the school system, which was widely segregated by race and socioeconomic status.
“My childhood was largely defined by various busing programs to schools on the other side of the city,” says Hannaham. The city of Yonkers lost the suit and Hannaham, though never forgetting the effects of segregation on his childhood, moved on to greater academic endeavors.
Hannaham, though a published author and journalist, did not have a clear sense of what he wanted to do growing up. He majored in design in college, though the extents of his graphic work presently are funny musings about the choice of type and layout on the pages of books and magazines.
“It took me a long time to realize that what I’d always been interested in was language and words and meanings,” Hannaham said. “I was in a rock band, but I wrote a lot of odd lyrics which seemed more the point than the music.”
In 2008, Hannaham worked for the culture department at Salon.com, the closest he’s come to a full-time job. He now is a freelance writer and writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute. His teaching is one part of his adulthood that he feels is very influenced by his mother and her parenting style.
Hannaham’s various interests and influences make him hard to pin down.
He maintains an air of mystery even when discussing his current projects.
“I am working on a bunch of different things,” Hannaham says, before giving a laundry list of goals. “A story collection, a manuscript, a group of short pieces, and a series of wall text placards that contextualize works of art that for whatever reason actually can’t exist.”
Living near Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Hannaham has strange, yet sensible, advice for living in New York City.
“Buy a piece of property in an up-and-coming neighborhood,” he says, “In a few years, your friends will marvel at how little you paid.”
Hannaham is a creative writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute in New York City, but that is not his limit; he claims to be a sort of renaissance man on his website, labeling himself as an “author, or writer, or something like that… perhaps novelist, but also journalist, teacher and occasional performer.”
Someone with so many interests may come off as intimidating, but, attending a class with Hannaham, one realizes just how down to earth and human he actually is. He may tell the story of his tattoo – the children in school morphed his last name into the insult, “hammerhead”, which is why he now has the shark inked permanently on his arm. However, Hannaham’s ink is not the only evidence of his finding happiness and success.
“God Says No”, Hannaham’s first novel, was published in 2009. It follows Gary, struggling to accept his homosexuality in the face of religion and the American South. In July 2010, the book was featured on Entertainment Weekly’s list of best new paperbacks, and has received stellar reviews in publications from New York to Austin to Seattle.
Although openly gay, Hannaham is adamant about separating the author from his work. In an interview with The Village voice, he calls the novel’s main character a “shadow self”; though they have basic similarities, he differs greatly from his character. In class, he warns students against reading too much into a character based on background knowledge of the author, stating, “Unless you talk to the writer, you’ll never really know.”
Recalling parts of his childhood, one can see that Hannaham’s struggles were much different than Gary’s, and his tongue-in-cheek attitude about life-changing occurrences proves that he handles adversity a bit better than his main character. Hannaham remembers his childhood fondly, regardless of the taunts. His mother, who has since passed, was his greatest influence as a child and has continued to be through his adulthood.
Hailing from Yonkers, New York, Hannaham was met with adversity from the very beginning. Yonkers, “The City of Gracious Living” was sued by the NAACP for segregation of the school system and housing in 1980. 97% of public housing was constructed in a one square mile area in Southwest Yonkers, and City Council members vetoed proposals allowing housing to be built in the wealthier areas, where most council members lived. This decision trickled down into the school system, which was widely segregated by race and socioeconomic status.
“My childhood was largely defined by various busing programs to schools on the other side of the city,” says Hannaham. The city of Yonkers lost the suit and Hannaham, though never forgetting the effects of segregation on his childhood, moved on to greater academic endeavors.
Hannaham, though a published author and journalist, did not have a clear sense of what he wanted to do growing up. He majored in design in college, though the extents of his graphic work presently are funny musings about the choice of type and layout on the pages of books and magazines.
“It took me a long time to realize that what I’d always been interested in was language and words and meanings,” Hannaham said. “I was in a rock band, but I wrote a lot of odd lyrics which seemed more the point than the music.”
In 2008, Hannaham worked for the culture department at Salon.com, the closest he’s come to a full-time job. He now is a freelance writer and writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute. His teaching is one part of his adulthood that he feels is very influenced by his mother and her parenting style.
Hannaham’s various interests and influences make him hard to pin down.
He maintains an air of mystery even when discussing his current projects.
“I am working on a bunch of different things,” Hannaham says, before giving a laundry list of goals. “A story collection, a manuscript, a group of short pieces, and a series of wall text placards that contextualize works of art that for whatever reason actually can’t exist.”
Living near Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Hannaham has strange, yet sensible, advice for living in New York City.
“Buy a piece of property in an up-and-coming neighborhood,” he says, “In a few years, your friends will marvel at how little you paid.”
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Feature Draft
Six friends sit around a table in the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel, sipping from porcelain teacups and munching on an assortment of delicate pastries and sweets. The friends are a mixture of ages and interests, but all have a common thread – each is currently a college student, dealing with similar pressures from professors and peers alike. One of the boys, dressed fashionably in a charcoal button up cardigan over a magenta dress shirt, announces that he has some news to share. He has recently been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), a developmental disorder concerned with inattentiveness, over activity, impulsivity or a combination.
“We all cheered when he said he got diagnosed with ADD… like it was a good thing,” admitted Mercedes B., part of the tea party and a 19-year-old BAFA student at Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of Design. “Because that means that he gets pills.”
Prescription drug abuse has been on the rise in the past decade in the United States; use of unprescribed drugs in the past ten years has grown by 430%, according to a study done by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. College students have definitely contributed to this growth; a 2010 survey by the National College Health Association had ___ results. Out of 105,781 students surveyed, 3.2% had taken antidepressants, 7.5% had taken painkillers, 4.3% had taken sedatives and 7.8% had taken stimulants – all without a prescription for the drug.
“Our culture has viewed [prescription drug abuse] as inevitable, more inevitable than smoking weed,” nineteen-year-old New School student Dylan D. said. “It’s hyped by the media. It’s always in movies, television shows.”
Prescription drug use and abuse at the New School is a topic often swept under the rug.
“They didn’t say anything [at orientation],” Grant N., a Parsons student, said. “People go crazy working here, they should tell you about the effects abusing drugs like Adderrall.”
The issue of abusing prescription drugs is not without relevance at the New School; out of 30 students interviewed, more than half thought that prescription drug abuse at the school was a problem. 17 students admitted to using prescription drugs they had not been prescribed, and two even admitted to deceiving a doctor into giving them a prescription they did not need.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that almost 40 Americans die every day from prescription drug overdoses. This poses a serious risk for students, who take pills, which they purchased or were given, without an understanding of dosages or the addictive properties of the drugs. Many of the New School students surveyed were not even sure how to spell the names of the drugs that they admitted to taking.
Dylan D. believes that ignorance to be part of the appeal of prescription drugs. “You can’t see how much you’re taking. It’s a source of excitement. People are curious to try things when they don’t know what the results will be.”
Grant N. doesn’t even remember what he took recreationally. “It was Percocet or Vicodin, I don’t remember. I took like four, and it didn’t do shit.”
Other students’ self-medicate, using the drugs to solve minor aches and pains or to help them focus intensely on their studies.
“I know some Architecture students that take Adderall all the time,” Grant N. explained. “It’s the only way they can get work done.”
An increase in the amount of prescriptions given has led to an increase in the amount of people abusing prescription drugs, according to the CDC.
“Enough narcotics are prescribed to give every adult in America one month of prescription narcotics,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a telebriefing in early November. “This stems from a few irresponsible doctors and, in fact, now the burden of dangerous drugs is being created more by a few irresponsible doctors than by drug pushers on the street corners.”
The idea of a “dealer” seems to be almost absent from prescription drug abuse. The mysterious “friend”, who seems to have an unlimited supply of prescribed drugs they would be more than willing to share, has replaced the drug dealer. Of the New School students that admitted to using unprescribed drugs, the most popular ways of acquiring the drugs were through a friend. 13 students said a friend had given them the drugs, while 9 said they had purchased the drug from a friend.
Mercedes B. has only taken a prescription painkiller once, and a friend gave it to her, without any request for compensation – though it could also be contributed to the doctor’s negligence.
“The Percocet came from a friend who was getting his wisdom teeth removed. He got a full prescription three or four months in advance, so we just snorted it.”
[FACULTY QUOTE HERE]
Regardless of the risks that come with abusing prescription drugs are great – arrest, addiction, and expulsion, to name a few – some students don’t feel that it is a problem at the New School.
“I don’t think anything bad is coming out of it,” Dylan D. believes. “I think a majority of the New School uses [prescription drugs], but it’s the same at other colleges. Everybody does it.”
Either way, prescription drug use is on the rise, and there are mixed feelings about what should be done.
Dr. Thomas Frieden of the CDC believes in attacking at the primary source.
“States can take effective action to shut pill mills and reduce doctor shopping by patients,” he suggested during the telebriefing. “Boards that are concerned with physician licensure can take appropriate action against physicians who have been inappropriate in providing prescription narcotics outside the bounds of reasonable medical practice.”
Students, however, just want to be better informed.
“During orientation, health services had a table with condoms,” Dylan D. said with a chuckle. “Really, they should’ve had information about prescription drugs – you know, what they look like, the effects. The fact that [prescription drugs] are addictive. Honestly, I didn’t even know that.”
“We all cheered when he said he got diagnosed with ADD… like it was a good thing,” admitted Mercedes B., part of the tea party and a 19-year-old BAFA student at Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of Design. “Because that means that he gets pills.”
Prescription drug abuse has been on the rise in the past decade in the United States; use of unprescribed drugs in the past ten years has grown by 430%, according to a study done by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. College students have definitely contributed to this growth; a 2010 survey by the National College Health Association had ___ results. Out of 105,781 students surveyed, 3.2% had taken antidepressants, 7.5% had taken painkillers, 4.3% had taken sedatives and 7.8% had taken stimulants – all without a prescription for the drug.
“Our culture has viewed [prescription drug abuse] as inevitable, more inevitable than smoking weed,” nineteen-year-old New School student Dylan D. said. “It’s hyped by the media. It’s always in movies, television shows.”
Prescription drug use and abuse at the New School is a topic often swept under the rug.
“They didn’t say anything [at orientation],” Grant N., a Parsons student, said. “People go crazy working here, they should tell you about the effects abusing drugs like Adderrall.”
The issue of abusing prescription drugs is not without relevance at the New School; out of 30 students interviewed, more than half thought that prescription drug abuse at the school was a problem. 17 students admitted to using prescription drugs they had not been prescribed, and two even admitted to deceiving a doctor into giving them a prescription they did not need.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that almost 40 Americans die every day from prescription drug overdoses. This poses a serious risk for students, who take pills, which they purchased or were given, without an understanding of dosages or the addictive properties of the drugs. Many of the New School students surveyed were not even sure how to spell the names of the drugs that they admitted to taking.
Dylan D. believes that ignorance to be part of the appeal of prescription drugs. “You can’t see how much you’re taking. It’s a source of excitement. People are curious to try things when they don’t know what the results will be.”
Grant N. doesn’t even remember what he took recreationally. “It was Percocet or Vicodin, I don’t remember. I took like four, and it didn’t do shit.”
Other students’ self-medicate, using the drugs to solve minor aches and pains or to help them focus intensely on their studies.
“I know some Architecture students that take Adderall all the time,” Grant N. explained. “It’s the only way they can get work done.”
An increase in the amount of prescriptions given has led to an increase in the amount of people abusing prescription drugs, according to the CDC.
“Enough narcotics are prescribed to give every adult in America one month of prescription narcotics,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a telebriefing in early November. “This stems from a few irresponsible doctors and, in fact, now the burden of dangerous drugs is being created more by a few irresponsible doctors than by drug pushers on the street corners.”
The idea of a “dealer” seems to be almost absent from prescription drug abuse. The mysterious “friend”, who seems to have an unlimited supply of prescribed drugs they would be more than willing to share, has replaced the drug dealer. Of the New School students that admitted to using unprescribed drugs, the most popular ways of acquiring the drugs were through a friend. 13 students said a friend had given them the drugs, while 9 said they had purchased the drug from a friend.
Mercedes B. has only taken a prescription painkiller once, and a friend gave it to her, without any request for compensation – though it could also be contributed to the doctor’s negligence.
“The Percocet came from a friend who was getting his wisdom teeth removed. He got a full prescription three or four months in advance, so we just snorted it.”
[FACULTY QUOTE HERE]
Regardless of the risks that come with abusing prescription drugs are great – arrest, addiction, and expulsion, to name a few – some students don’t feel that it is a problem at the New School.
“I don’t think anything bad is coming out of it,” Dylan D. believes. “I think a majority of the New School uses [prescription drugs], but it’s the same at other colleges. Everybody does it.”
Either way, prescription drug use is on the rise, and there are mixed feelings about what should be done.
Dr. Thomas Frieden of the CDC believes in attacking at the primary source.
“States can take effective action to shut pill mills and reduce doctor shopping by patients,” he suggested during the telebriefing. “Boards that are concerned with physician licensure can take appropriate action against physicians who have been inappropriate in providing prescription narcotics outside the bounds of reasonable medical practice.”
Students, however, just want to be better informed.
“During orientation, health services had a table with condoms,” Dylan D. said with a chuckle. “Really, they should’ve had information about prescription drugs – you know, what they look like, the effects. The fact that [prescription drugs] are addictive. Honestly, I didn’t even know that.”
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Weekly Response 12/7
The Huffington Post made an interesting choice of a headlining story earlier today. The article, "The GOP's Crackpot Agenda", was the center of the page, for at least a few hours. However, when reading it, I was directed to Rolling Stone, where the original article was posted - a destination I did not quite expect. This deserves some commentary of its own and how the internet is shaping journalism. A good article can be posted and reposted through other outlets, and one would never expect to end up where the end up, just through clicking through.
The article itself was somewhat biased, however the bias was well backed up with historical patterns and quotes from experts. This created a sense of trust between the reader and the author, and rather than taking everything that was written for word, I found myself raising questions, which I think as more the intention of the article than convincing the reader a certain way. It was also an all-encompassing article, bringing to light many issues surrounding the GOP, rather than choosing to focus on one. This was done through the use of headlines that broke up the piece - something not everyone agrees with, considering the many discussions our class has had. However, in this longer piece, with many different facets, I appreciated the titling of the sections, as it made it easier for me to navigate, and I wasn't so jarred by the switch in subjects.
While trying to find and example of a trend piece, I came across an article on turtlenecks from the New York Times. I expected to find this one just as trivial as the other trend pieces from the Times, but this one seems to hold some weight. The piece started with the initial notice of a trend - a fashion designer wearing a turtleneck on the red carpet. This seemed like light evidence - but the article quickly dove into more in depth evidence. The article references fashion shows from this season that implemented the turtleneck in their designs, as well as celebrities that have recently been spotted sporting the dated sweater. The article also included some "street style" photos of every day people wearing the turtleneck. Experts were not forgotten - a Parson's professor was interviewed about the history and appeal of the turtleneck in the fashion world, and why it is a recurring trend. While not a trend that I particularly want to follow, the article convinced me of its validity as a trend in the fashion world.
Monday, 28 November 2011
Profile of James Hannaham Draft One
It can truly be said that James Hannaham is a man of many talents; he admits to being a sort of renaissance man on his website, where he claims to be an “author, or writer, or something like that… perhaps novelist, but also journalist, teacher and occasional performer.”
Someone so faceted may come off as intimidating, but, attending a class with Hannaham, one realizes just how down to earth and human he actually is. He may tell the story of his tattoo – the children in school morphed his last name into the insult, “hammerhead”, which is why he now has the shark inked permanently on his arm.
Hannaham, a Yonkers native, remembers his childhood fondly, regardless of the taunts. His mother, who has since passed, was his greatest influence as a child and has continued to be through his adulthood.
Hannaham, though a published author and journalist, did not have a clear sense of what he wanted to do growing up. He majored in design in college, though the extents of his graphic work presently are funny musings about the choice of type and layout on the pages of books and magazines.
“It took me a long time to realize that what I’d always been interested in was language and words and meanings,” Hannaham said. “I was in a rock band, but I wrote a lot of odd lyrics which seemed more the point than the music.”
In 2008, Hannaham worked for Salon.com, the closest he’s come to a full-time job. He now is a freelance writer and writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute. His teaching is one part of his adulthood that he feels is very influenced by his mother and her parenting style. His writing, however, is more of himself. His novel “God Says No”, published in 2009, is about a closeted gay man and his struggle to accept his sexual orientation within the terms of his faith.
Hannaham is adamant, however, about separating the author from his work, which leads one to wonder how much can really be discovered about Hannaham merely through reading his work.
(need another quote here) *pending a meeting (unable to meet over break)
Living near Pratt Institute, Hannaham has strange, yet sensible, advice for living in New York City.
“Buy a piece of property in an up-and-coming neighborhood,” he says, “In a few years, your friends will marvel at how little you paid.”
*waiting on response from student for a student quote
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Weekly Response (make up) 11/23
Today, the New York Times really disappointed me. I have to admit that I have yet to read the article that I am about to write on, but its content attracted me, as it took up the center of the website and seemed extremely unimportant. All I can say is that I hope to one day be paid to write articles about bulldog breeding, and have them take center-stage to greater world issues, like the leader of Yemen ending his rule, etc.
Now I have to admit I have been slightly wrong. While I still feel that this longer piece may not have deserved center stage, it was a wonderfully written article. The writer set up a scene before jumping into the piece, using fantastic details that really drew me in, even though I'd initially been opposed to reading the article. You could also tell that the writer had done his research; I felt that I was educated about something I knew relatively nothing about, but not in a patronising way - it was easy. The quotes were also great; either the writer lucked out or had a plethora of quotes to choose from, because they were quirky but added greatly to the overall piece. This piece was almost more of a feature story than a news article, and I must admit that I enjoyed reading it more than I would've liked to.
I really appreciate how the Huffington Post now has an entire online section dedicated to the OWS movement and articles relating to it. I chose to read one about a protestor passing on a note to Obama about the police brutality around the country during a hand shaking session. It was a short read, and intended to be so, but it fell a little flat for me. While I did appreciate the quotes from Obama (though indirect) and the exact text that was on the note, I would've really appreciated a comment from a protestor that was there, or someone else from the audience who witnessed when the protestors originally interrupted Obama's speech. This just makes me question what makes big news vs. small news, and where priorites are given. If it's a smaller article, is it okay to neglect certain aspects of the article, just to get a short story across? I'm personally quite confused on the appropriate way to report on a situation like this.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
OWS Article - Third Draft
Carefully balancing a slice of pizza in one hand, 24-year-old Cerrij, from Mississippi, made room for her neighbor’s dog Daisy to sit on her sleeping bag – her “home” of three days. She offered the slice to her neighbor, who accepted it with a grateful smile and a nod. On the other side of Zucotti Park, located in Manhattan’s Financial district, a chorus of voices could be heard, singing Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”, accompanied by a circle of drummers.
"It's not just for me,” said Cerrij, “It's for the entire world. It's for you, for the cops that are out here night after night, for the unions, for teachers.”
Following a call to action from Vancouver-based non-profit organization Adbusters, Zucotti Park has been occupied in a protest now known as Occupation Wall Street (OWS) since September 17, 2011, an attempt to bring to light the alleged corruption of big businesses and the deregulated economy to light.
Protestors have been camping out in Zucotti Park, as well as participating in marches and planned protests throughout the city. Many of these actions have seen an increased involvement from the NYPD, and hundreds of arrests have been made and tickets issued, many followed by claims of illegal procedure. Politicians across the nation, both local and national, have begun to take notice of the movement.
Inspired by the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt, Adbusters proposed a similar occupation to the Arab Spring of early 2011 on July 13, 2011, urging those upset with the economic collapse and wealth disparity in America to occupy Wall Street. On July 26, the movement went viral, spreading around the Internet, with Adbusters proposing a spread of the movement to other cities around the country and world.
As the movement gained momentum and support, on July 28 the New York General Assembly (NYGA), previously in existence for support of earlier protests, called for a public meeting to organize the occupation.
As the movement gained a following, Anonymous, a self-proclaimed “hacktavist” organization joined the movement, posting an online video detailing their expectations for the planned occupation.
“On September 17, Anonymous will flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months,” a computerized voice claims in the video. “We want freedom.”
Within the weeks leading up to the proposed occupation, the NYGA met continuously to plan how best to organize the occupation and provide necessities for the occupiers. A trial run of the occupation on September 8 resulted in the arrest of nine occupiers.
On September 17, 5000 protestors marched through the Financial District, occupying privately owned Zucotti Park in hopes of bringing
“You have to get things into the collective unconscious in order to change things,” said 24-year-old medic Kat Adams, who has been volunteering at the occupation since September 26, when it was still in its most nascent stages. “Someone eventually has to come up with a comprehensive idea, but first you have to get the idea out there.
This call for change by Adams and fellow protestors is the most publicized and widespread demonstration against America’s economic system since the economic collapse of 2008. However, the collapse was not a surprise occurrence; years of deregulation of the economy and poor choices on banks’ behalves plummeted the nation into an economic crisis.
“A convergence of events over the past 12 years has brought America to an impasse,” Gregg Rule, financial advisor of MorganStanley and Smith Barney, said. “We are locked into a grinding economic downturn, the great middle class is shrinking, power and prosperity have become ever concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.”
Regardless of preventative measures taken following the Great Depression, deregulation of the economy in the 1990s and new rights given to banks led to mismanagement of money.
Banks and investment groups were allowed to merge. As a result, banks could now make risky investments and loans, which had previously been the business of investment groups only.
With this change, many people were able to take out loans – including, but not limited to, mortgage loans – that they may not be financially able to pay back. When, after a short period of economic prosperity, the value of houses took a nose-dive, the amount of foreclosures on homes skyrocketed.
People were unable to pay back their loans and banks were soon buried by debt. When the market crashed in 2008, President Bush signed a $700 billion bailout of the banks, at the expense of the American taxpayers.
In addition to feeling wronged by both the government and the banks, people are frustrated with growing wealth disparity between the earnings of the top 1% and the other 99%.
In a report by the Congressional Budget Office, the disparity is clear; from 1979 until 2007 the average income for the top 1% has grown 275%, while the 99% has reached its highest growth at 65%.
“People need to start listening to us, rather than the 1%,” said a 35-year-old man from Chicago, who requested only to be known as “Joe”. Protestors have adopted this mathematical lingo as a mantra for the occupation, shouting it during marches and holding up signs emblazoned with the words “We are the 99%”.
Some members of the 99% have been detrimental to the cause – specifically those outfitted in the blue and white of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Many arrests have been made since the beginning of the occupation, the most controversial of them followed by claims of wrongful arrests and brutality.
“What is rare is the sight of young, white, middle class looking women being hunted down and pepper sprayed, tossed about, hand-cuffed and in some cases arrested by members of the NYPD,” said Jill Nelson, author of “Police Brutality: An Anthology and two-time participant at Wall Street, “It says something profound about…how dehumanized, culpable and just plain low those who protect economic privilege and property are…”
Nelson refers to the Youtube video showing arrests made in Union Square, where young women are corralled and pepper sprayed by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. Controversy followed this viral video when Bologna and his family received threats after his personal information was posted online by the hacktavist group Anonymous.
Another large controversy arose out of the police action taken on October 1, when over 700 tickets, desk summonses and arrests were made on the Brooklyn Bridge after the police seemingly allowed protestors into the roadway.
“The police permitted and led demonstrators onto the Brooklyn bridge, they were escorting the demonstration, they took them way out into the bridge and stopped the demonstration,” summarized Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which has since filed a class-action lawsuit against Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD on behalf of the demonstrators.
Yotam Marom, a recent college graduate of 25, feels that the police involvement has been used as more of a scare tactic against protestors to discourage their involvement.
“Parents that have kids can’t risk being arrested, people that have to go to work the next day can’t risk being arrested,” Marom said. “I can risk being arrested. I was held for eight or nine hours.”
However, there are some that feel that the police involvement has been entirely appropriate and even beneficial to the movement.
“We facilitate peaceful protests, that’s what we do, we do it every day,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “That is our job. This is what we do and we do it every day. Make certain people can demonstrate peacefully.”
Peaceful protesting will continue not only in Manhattan’s financial district, but also in other corners of the country and world.
The Occupy movement has spread not only nationwide, but internationally. It now includes major cities in Spain, Germany and England. Not only large cities have participated, however; within the United States, there have been occupations in small towns. One woman residing outside of Bethel, Alaska is the lone occupier in the movement, Occupy the Tundra.
Crystal M. Zimmerman of Occupy Amarillo (Texas), said of the offshoot, “We held a solidarity march and rally on the 15th….nearly 100 people showed up….As we walked, people honked in support, gave us a thumbs up, cheered for us, and some even joined in the march.”
Although far from the actual Wall Street, Occupy Amarillo is gaining support.
“There are a few people that have been adamantly against what we stand for, but they typically will engage in conversation with us,” Zimmerman says. “Usually, they realize that they agree with more of what we have to say than they thought.”
One person who can’t be convinced on the pressing issues of the occupation is a man repeatedly voted into office by New Yorkers themselves – Mayor Micheal Bloomberg.
"If you focus for example on driving the banks out of New York City, you know those are our jobs," said Mayor Bloomberg on his weekly radio show, on October 7th. He has openly been less than supportive of the movement on Wall Street, criticizing the protesting and occupying as being damaging to city jobs.
However, many politicians outside of New York City’s local realm have shown their support of the movement.
“It’s independent... it’s young, it’s spontaneous, and it’s focused,” said Nancy Pelosi, House Minority leader of OWS. “And it’s going to be effective.”
Other supporters of the movement include congressman Ron Pail, GOP candidate and former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer, and GOP candidate Gary Johnson, to name a few.
President Obama is not without his own commentary on the happenings on Wall Street. In a news conference on October 6, President Obama defended his own decisions regarding the economy and expressed an understanding of the frustrations of the American people.
“What I think is that the American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules,” voiced President Obama. “And these days, a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded.”
The responses to the protest have shown the contrast in ideals of not only the American people and politicians, but also the world. The future of the movement is unknown, especially with the coming blustery winter months.
But protestor and World War II Veteran Eddie Davis seems to be onto something, expressed in ten short words.
“We all need to band together to see a change.”
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Weekly Response 11/9
Since my last post, more articles have come up surrounding the accusations against Herman Cain of sexual harassment. Almost in response to my complaints about the last article, women have now come forward without anonymity, which gives articles much more credibility. In a New York Times article this week, one of the women spoke directly to the Times, giving them a quote that made their previous articles seem much more valid, and aided the overall picture they are trying to present.
The one remaining problem with this article is the amount of secondary sources it appears to use. While the article incorporates a lot of information and quotes from people involved, not many of the people seem to be directly in contact with the Times. A lot of information was gathered from emails, televised debates/speeches, or other ways. Some of the information is presented, but without a source of where it came from, which leads me as a reader to assume that it was gathered from outside sources. I would've liked for the reporters to get in contact with the people they used to verify information and get personal quotes to use.
While direct quotes from Cain were gathered at a news conference, which seems to make it appropriate, I can't help but wonder if such a high profile newspaper as the New York Times could not get an interview with Cain himself - or at least five minutes on the phone to see if he could provide some sort of commentary.
The second article that I found interesting is from The Guardian, and its placement, rather than its content, is what first grabbed my attention. The article is about Eddie Murphy quitting as this year's host of the Oscar's. This seemed to be the feature story, taking up the largest portion of the page, with a huge picture of Eddie Murphy. What made this interesting was the articles that juxtaposed the Murphy one - much smaller, beside this article, were articles pertaining to the economic crisis in Greece, climate change, and new policies in Iran. I found it frustrating that an entertainment article - specifically an American entertainment article - took center stage next to articles handling much larger and effecting issues. I guess this is really commentary on what grabs readers, and what doesn't.
The actual article was very well-written, however, and I was really impressed by the way the journalist handled the true subject - producer Brett Ratner's reignation after criticism for using a homophobic slur. The journalist managed to present information and quotes surrounding Ratner and his offensive slur, while also giving a little insight into Ratner's sense of humor. For me, this article wasn't so accusatory and one-sided, as it very well could have been. It seemed to give two sides to an individual who already has been widely persecuted.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Weekly Response 11/2
The first article that piqued my interest was from the New York Times, composed by three journalists on the accusations against Herman Cain surrounding sexual harassment. Interestingly enough, only the day before an article had been posted quoting Cain saying that the accusations were unfounded. However, this article describes a pay-off a woman received after reporting that Cain had made her uncomfortable while working for the National Restaurant Association.
One aspect of this article that I found very interesting was the omittance of names of people that provided the Times with the information. While I understand the need for anonymity in such a high profile article, it had an negative effect on me as the reader. For some odd reason, I wanted to know exactly where these claims come from, even though I believe them already. By further supporting the article using information that "friends" of the victim gave to the Times, I was even more impacted. The term "friend" relayed to me a certain relationship with the victim - one that may have an effect on what was said, and what they believed to be true.
This weak support only improved halfway through the article when the woman's lawyer was quoted, and a name was given. Finally, I had a trusted source to help me comprehend the article. The journalists also did a great job of quoting him in an appropriate manner. However, I would've preferred to see this quote higher up in the article, as the claims seem to just be hearsay until that moment.
An article for the Baltimore Sun about a bypassed death penalty used quotes in a journalistically appropriate manner, though I felt that they did not add as much to the article as they should have. While I understand the importance of including quotes in any article, this article made me realise the detriments of having extremely dry quotes. The quotes were boring, dry and didn't add much to the comprehension and interest of the article. There was only one good quote, that offered one lawyer's passionate words about the case. The rest of the quotes merely reiterated what was said in a manner that I found completely unnecessary. Striving for a combination of the two (interesting and comprehensive) would, for me, be ideal for an article.
One aspect of this article that I found very interesting was the omittance of names of people that provided the Times with the information. While I understand the need for anonymity in such a high profile article, it had an negative effect on me as the reader. For some odd reason, I wanted to know exactly where these claims come from, even though I believe them already. By further supporting the article using information that "friends" of the victim gave to the Times, I was even more impacted. The term "friend" relayed to me a certain relationship with the victim - one that may have an effect on what was said, and what they believed to be true.
This weak support only improved halfway through the article when the woman's lawyer was quoted, and a name was given. Finally, I had a trusted source to help me comprehend the article. The journalists also did a great job of quoting him in an appropriate manner. However, I would've preferred to see this quote higher up in the article, as the claims seem to just be hearsay until that moment.
An article for the Baltimore Sun about a bypassed death penalty used quotes in a journalistically appropriate manner, though I felt that they did not add as much to the article as they should have. While I understand the importance of including quotes in any article, this article made me realise the detriments of having extremely dry quotes. The quotes were boring, dry and didn't add much to the comprehension and interest of the article. There was only one good quote, that offered one lawyer's passionate words about the case. The rest of the quotes merely reiterated what was said in a manner that I found completely unnecessary. Striving for a combination of the two (interesting and comprehensive) would, for me, be ideal for an article.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
OWS ARTICLE - Draft Two
"It's not just for me; it's for the entire world. It's for you, for the cops that are out here night after night, for the unions, for teachers,” said Cerrij, a 24 year old from Mississippi, before making space on the sleeping bag – her “home” of three days – for her neighbor’s dog, Daisy. On the other side of Zucotti park, a chorus of voices could be heard, singing Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”, accompanied by a circle of drummers.
Following a call to action from Vancouver-based non-profit organization Adbusters, New York City’s Zucotti Park has been occupied in a protest now known as Occupation Wall Street (OWS) since September 17, 2011, an attempt to bring to light the alleged corruption of big businesses and the deregulated economy to light.
Protestors have been camping out in Zucotti Park, as well as participating in marches and planned protests throughout the city. Many of these actions have seen and increased involvement from the NYPD, and hundreds of arrests have been made, several followed by claims of police brutality. Politicians across the nation, both local and national, have begun to take notice of the movement.
HOW IT STARTED
Following the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt, Adbusters proposed a similar occupation to the Arab Spring of early 2011 on July 13, 2011, urging those upset with the current economic disparity to occupy Wall Street. On July 26, the movement went viral, spreading around the Internet, with Adbusters proposing a spread of the movement to other cities around the country and world.
As the movement gained momentum and support, on July 28 the New York General Assembly (NYGA), previously in existence for support of earlier protests, called for a public meeting to organize the occupation for August 2. In a video posted to YouTube on August 4, Larry Holmes, a NYGA leader,shouts passionately, “Let’s get the steam roller rolling”, reminding those around him that this is “only the beginning” of a protest against bank bailouts and trillions of dollars cut from different social programs.
Anonymous, a self-proclaimed “hacktavist organization and key component to the growth of the protests, joined the movement. Their video, which can be found on Youtube, proclaims“On September 17, Anonymous will flood into lower Manhattan, setting up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”
Within the weeks leading up to the proposed occupation, the NYGA called for donations of food and water, as well as volunteers for the Food committee, and met continuously in the weeks prior to the occupation. On September 13, occupywallst.org released an informational pamphlet of resources for protestors, including names and phone numbers of legal organizations and rights given to protestors, following a trial run of the occupation on September 8 that resulted in the arrest of nine occupiers.
On September 17, 5000 protestors marched through the Financial District, occupying privately owned Zucotti Park.
WHY PEOPLE ARE ANGRY
Regulation of the economy followed the Great Depression in order to prevent another economic collapse. Banks were expanding and joining, i.e. Citigroup, in an act made illegal after the Great Depression. However, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was passed in 1999, allowing banks to merge.
Derivatives, which allow bankers to make bets on all aspects of loans (i.e. school loans, mortgages), became a fifty trillion dollar unmonitored market by the 1990s, creating an unstable market.
Loans were easier to get, as many banks were not concerned with whether or not they could be repaid due mainly to the fact that banks received money based on their rating. During this time, annual cash bonuses to bankers spiked and bankers became extremely wealthy.
In 2008, home foreclosures skyrocketed as more people could not pay their mortgages.
The Federal Reserves took over Morgan Chase, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae as all were on the brink of collapse. The Federal Reserve bailed out the banks at the billion dollars of American taxpayers. On October 4, Bush signed a 700 billion dollar bailout.
By 2010, foreclosures had reached six million. Banks have become larger, more powerful and more concentrated since the bail out.
Gregg Rule, senior vice president of the portfolio group and financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney, said in email correspondence of the reasons leading up to the occupation, “A lack of job creation, a stalled economy, people losing their homes - while, at the same time - a small percentage of the population enjoys unprecedented wealth.”
POLICE INVOLVEMENT IN THE OCCUPATION
Timeline of Confirmed Major Arrests
October 1, Brooklyn Bridge: 700 summonses and desk appearance tickets issued to protestors who neglected to stay on the walkway and took over the bridge
October 15, Times Square: approximately 70 arrests made by 9 PM after groups refused to disperse, resisted arrests, etc.
Many arrests have been made since the beginning of the occupation, but the most controversy surrounding the arrests comes from claims of wrongful arrests and brutality.
Jill Nelson, author of “Police Brutality: An Anthology” and two-time participant at Wall Street, said, “"What is rare is the sight of young, white, middle class looking women being hunted down and pepper sprayed, tossed about, hand-cuffed and in some cases arrested by members of the NYPD. It says something profound about…how dehumanized, culpable and just plain low those who protect economic privilege and property are…”
Nelson refers to the Youtube video showing arrests made in Union Square, where young women are corralled and pepper sprayed by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. Controversy followed this viral video when Bologna and his family received threats after his personal information was posted online.
Combating the many controversial arrests is the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has had representatives at the occupation every day, giving presentations and handing out pamphlets to inform protestors of their rights, according to press representative Jennifer Carnig.
MOVEMENT GAINS MOMENTUM
The Occupy movement has spread not only nationwide, but internationally, including major cities in Spain, Germany and England. Not only large cities have participated, however; within the United States, smaller towns have begun their own occupation. One woman residing outside of Bethel, Alaska is the lone occupier in the movement, Occupy the Tundra.
Crystal M. Zimmerman of Occupy Amarillo (Texas), said of the offshoot, “We held a solidarity march and rally on the 15th….nearly 100 people showed up….As we walked, people honked in support, gave us a thumbs up, cheered for us, and some even joined in the march.”
Although far from the actual Wall Street, Occupy Amarillo is gaining momentum, with more involvement from the community, and is only one example of the many offshoots cropping up worldwide.
WHAT POLITICIANS HAVE TO SAY
"If you focus for example on driving the banks out of New York City, you know those are our jobs," said Mayor Bloomberg on his weekly radio show, on October 7th. He has openly been less than supportive of the movement on Wall Street, criticizing the movement as being damaging to city jobs.
However, many larger scale politicians have shown their support of the movement.
During the debate on October 18 in Las Vegas, congressman Ron Paul said, “I’d go to Washington as well as Wall Street. I’d go to the federal reserve. They create the financial bubble… you can’t solve these problems if you don’t know where these bubbles come from.” Other supporters of the movement include House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, GOP candidate and former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer, and GOP candidate Gary Johnson, to name a few.
Only time will reveal how politicians respond to the protesting on Wall Street. During a news conference on October 6th, President Obama addressed OWS and defended his own economic decisions, reinforcing that he supports banks and lenders who do right by their customers. However, Obama noted that this will be a process and that, “… until the American people see that happening, yes, they are going to continue to express frustrations about what they see as two sets of rules.”
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Occupy Wall St. Article - Draft One
* Unfinished; still in process of editing throughout night
Following a call to action from Vancouver-based non-profit organization Adbusters, New York City’s Zucotti Park has been occupied in a protest now known as Occupation Wall Street (OWS) since September 17, 2011, bringing the alleged corruption of big businesses and the deregulated economy to light. Protestors have been camping out in Zucotti Park, participating in marches and planned protests throughout the city. Many of these actions have seen and increased involvement from the NYPD, and hundreds of arrests have been made, several followed by claims of police brutality.
HOW IT STARTED
Following the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt, Adbusters proposed a similar occupation to the Arab Spring of early 2011 on July 13, 2011, urging those upset with the current economic disparity to occupy Wall Street. On July 26, the movement went viral, with Adbusters proposing a spread of the movement to other cities around the country and world.
As the movement gained momentum and support, on July 28 the New York General Assembly (NYGA) called for a public meeting to organize the occupation for August 2. In a video posted to YouTube on August 4, Larry Holmes, a NYGA leader, is surrounded by several people, holding signs bearing messages about job cuts and bailing out the people – the occupation in its most nascent stages. Holmes shouts passionately, “Let’s get the steam roller rolling”, reminding those around him that this is “only the beginning” of a protest against bank bailouts and trillions of dollars cut from different programs.
Anonymous, a self-proclaimed “hacktavist organization and key component to the growth of the protests, joins the movement in the most media-savvy ways, using Twitter and posting a video manifesto to bring attention to the occupation of Wall Street. The video, which can be found on Youtube, features a computerized voice, truly maintaining the anonymity of the group, proclaiming, “On September 17, Anonymous will flood into lower Manhattan, setting up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”
Within the weeks leading up to the proposed occupation, actions are taken by the NYGA in preparation for the arrival of the expected protestors on Wall Street. The NYGA calls for donations of food and water, as well as volunteers for the Food committee, and meets continuously in the weeks prior to the occupation. On September 13, occupywallst.org releases an informational pamphlet of resources for protestors, including names and phone numbers of legal organizations and rights given to protestors, following a trial run of the occupation on September 8 that resulted in the arrest of nine occupiers.
On September 17, 5000 protestors march through the Financial District, with intentions of occupying 1 Chase Plaza. After the police interfered, the protesters reconvened and, after forming an official statement, decided to occupy privately owned Zucotti Park.
WHY PEOPLE ARE ANGRY
Deregulation of the economy and the banks began years after the Great Depression, when the financial structure of the United States was still tightly wound. Greenspan, in charge of the Federal Reserve, is attributed to the snowballing of the deregulation. Banks were expanding and joining, i.e. Citigroup, in an act made illegal after the Great Depression. However, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was passed in 1999, allowing banks to merge.
Derivatives, which allow bankers to make bets on all aspects of loans (i.e. school loans, mortgages), become a fifty trillion dollar unmonitored market by the 1990s, creating an unstable market. Banks relied on these derivatives and fought to keep them unmonitored, a battle they eventually won when Congress made it illegal to regulate derivatives.
Loans were easier to get, as many banks were not concerned with whether or not they could be repaid due mainly to the fact that banks received money based on their rating. During this time, annual cash bonuses to bankers spiked and bankers became extremely wealthy.
Banks neglected to set aside money in the event that loans defaulted. In 2007, auditors raised warnings but were ignored. A third of mortgages had already defaulted by this point. In 2008, home foreclosures skyrocketed as more people could not pay their mortgages.
The Federal Reserves took over Morgan Chase, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae as all were on the brink of collapse. The banking industry was sinking fast in 2008; Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15. The Federal Reserve bailed out the banks at the billion dollars of American taxpayers. On October 4, Bush signed a 700 billion dollar bailout. Stocks continued to fall.
By 2010, foreclosures had reached six million. Banks have become larger, more powerful and more concentrated since the bail out.
Gregg Rule, senior vice president of the portfolio group and financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney, said in email correspondence of the events leading up to the occupation, “A convergence of events over the past 12 years has brought America to an impasse. We are locked into a grinding economic down turn, the great middle class is shrinking, power and prosperity have become ever concentrated …. A few seem to be profiting enormously at the hands of the many... A lack of job creation, a stalled economy, people losing their homes - while, at the same time - a small percentage of the population enjoys unprecedented wealth.”
POLICE INVOLVEMENT IN THE OCCUPATION
Timeline of Confirmed Major Arrests
October 1, Brooklyn Bridge: 700 summonses and desk appearance tickets issued to protestors who neglected to stay on the walkway and took over the bridge
October 15, Times Square: approximately 70 arrests made by 9 PM after groups refused to disperse, resisted arrests, etc.
Many arrests have been made since the beginning of the occupation, but the most controversy surrounding the arrests comes from claims of wrongful arrests and brutality.
Jill Nelson, author of “Police Brutality: An Anthology” and two-time participant at Wall Street, said, “"What is rare is the sight of young, white, middle class looking women being hunted down and pepper sprayed, tossed about, hand-cuffed and in some cases arrested by members of the NYPD. It says something profound about…how dehumanized, culpable and just plain low those who protect economic privilege and property are…” Nelson refers to the Youtube video showing arrests made in Union Square, where young women are corralled and pepper sprayed by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. Controversy followed this viral video when Bologna and his family received threats after his personal information was posted online.
Combating the many controversial arrests is the New York Civil Liberties Union, who has been at the occupation every day, giving presentations and handing out pamphlets to inform protestors of their rights, according to press representative Jennifer Carnig.
An email sent out to New School students by President David Van Zandt confirmed that three students had been arrested, but the reasons were unspecified.
MOVEMENT GAINS MOMENTUM
The Occupy movement has spread not only nationwide, but internationally, including major cities in Spain, Germany and England. Not only large cities have participated, however; within the United States, smaller towns have begun their own occupation. One woman residing outside of Bethel, Alaska is the lone occupier in the movement, Occupy the Tundra.
Crystal M. Zimmerman of Occupy Amarillo (Texas), said of the offshoot, “We held a solidarity march and rally on the 15th….nearly 100 people showed up….As we walked, people honked in support, gave us a thumbs up, cheered for us, and some even joined in the march.”
Although far from the actual Wall Street, Occupy Amarillo is gaining momentum, and only one example of the many offshoots cropping up worldwide.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Journal Four
After having my interest in the Wall Street Occupation sparked in class, I've been closely following as many different articles and sources about the incident as I possibly can. Oddly enough, one of the best sources for coverage of the occupation isn't even a national newspaper; The Guardian has been supplying almost a new article every day since the protesting really got intense. One of the latest articles is about officer Anthony Bologna and the investigation he faces after videos were released of him questionably pepper-spraying some of the protestors.
This specific article, by Robert Mackey and Karen McVeigh, makes good use of sources to provide as accurate and unbiased of a view as they possibly can. The authors spoke to one of the protestors that was sprayed, as well as the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, to make sense of the news. However, the person that created the news - the cop in question - as well as the NYPD have not been interviewed. This doesn't seem to be from a lack of effort - many of the articles I have read on the subject seem to say that the NYPD has declined to comment on any of the situations.
What really struck me about this article was the use of video support as an additional source. The article is broken up by two videos, which the authors briefly analyze. These videos show two different perspectives of the incident, and the reader can really gain a sense of what happened from the visuals. Overall, I thought this coverage of the incident was admirable, as it paid a lot of attention to the sources to build the article.
The Baltimore Sun disappointed me this week. An article about loose potbelly pigs finally being captured headlined the website. However, it wasn't so much the subject of the news that had wishing for more, but the lack of sources in the article. While I understand that pigs can't really be interviewed, and therefore the "person" creating the news is eliminated as a source, the journalist only spoke to animal control. After reading the article, I am unsure of where the pigs came from (maybe a farmer is missing two pigs? house pets gone awry?), and I'm unsure what kind of effect the pigs had on a larger scale. There was no source to really make sense of the news for me, and the very brief article was severely underwhelming.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Article One
Beginning on Friday, September 23, service on the G train between the Court Sq. stop and the Bedford-Nostrand stop was suspended by the MTA due to construction, affecting many of the commuters and businesses that live off of the G line.
Starting at midnight on Friday, service on the G train was suspended between the two stops, and is not expected to resume until five AM on Monday morning.
The exact nature of the construction could not be released for security reasons, according to an MTA official. The G train has been down twice within the past week, between different stops, affecting both the Brooklyn and Queens bound routes.
Landon Peer, a nineteen-year-old jazz student at the New School, lives off the Classon stop of the G train and had to face the tough facts of commuting this weekend.
“I had to take the bus, which is very frustrating because they don’t run very regularly,” said Peer. Peer spent the better part of two hours journeying home after a party Friday night. “The MTA did a good job of scheduling the construction on a weekend, as to not mess up the work week, but some of us have places to go on the weekends.” In addition to having to find a new route, Peer struggled with the short notice. Peer said, “The MTA posted the notice on Friday afternoon, so really I had no idea until then that I may have to change my plans this weekend.”
A local restaurant owner off of the Nassau Avenue stop, who would prefer to remain anonymous, was pleased to find out that the G train was down in his direction. “Being close to Williamsburg, I feel that I already lose diners to the restaurants on Bedford Avenue. When the G train is down, more people stay in the community, rather than venturing into Manhattan. More people staying means more diners eating,” he said on Saturday evening.
The G train is notorious for its service, and an online search proves such. On Urban Dictionary, a contributor based definition website, the G train was defined as “annoying, unreliable, and/or weak and a waste of time”, by member “Jobu”. However, the wait is not the only impact of the G train on the community.
Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the New School, made sense of the effects of a subway line closed for construction. “Disruptions and closures of subway lines have a significant impact on both the local communities along the route and the region as a whole,” Heathcott wrote in an email correspondence. “Short term disruptions can be absorbed economically without too much difficulty, but long term closures or re-routings can cause a ripple effect of economic problems (not to mention hardship and inconvenience to commuters).”
The G train is scheduled to resume service between the Court Sq. and Bedford Nostrand stops early Monday morning. No further construction is currently posted for the G line.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Journal Three
The first article I found interested me most not because of the content, but because of how much I gained from the comments. After having such a negative outlook on comments being enabled on online articles, this article proved me wrong in that respect. The article is titled "Chinua Achebe forces 50 Cent to rename movie", and it was written by Sean Michaels for The Guardian. The article itself is very interesting, as I had no idea that 50 Cent is, basically, producing an entire movie. I also remember reading "Things Fall Apart" by Achebe in high school, and agreeing that 50 Cent should have to alter the title of his movie to be different than the very influential book. The comments in this article actually provided more information for me than the article.
At first, I was in such agreement that 50 Cent should have to change the title; there's a special place in my heart for both literature and Achebe's book, and not so for film. However, from the comments I gained the information that there is no copyright on titles, which I had not known before and which was not mentioned in the article. For the most part, the commentary was knowledgeable and even included cited information. One commenter mentioned and cited a Guardian article written earlier in the week, discussing the lack of copyright and how authors are running out of titles that haven't already been used. Another commenter mentioned other places where the phrase "things fall apart" has appeared, informing me that maybe Achebe wasn't so original when he created the title.
Of course, there were the discouraging comments - comments dissing 50 Cent based on his looks, with slight racial leanings. It's unfortunate that the comments that are so intelligent are followed by ones of much lesser intellectual value.
After discussing the deterioration of top-tier news, and the influence of the Associated Press, I stumbled across a perfectly frustrating example of this on my own local news site. The article is titled "Seemingly drunk Swedish moose found stuck in a tree" and it's from the AP. The first thing that frustrated me about this post is that it was on the front page of the WBOC site. Really, Delmarva? Is this what counts as front page news? First, it has absolutely no effect on anyone - at least, anyone in Delmarva. If anything, it's a cute and kitschy story that should be featured elsewhere. Perhaps there was nothing more serious, more first page worthy. However, I find that hard to believe, with as many issues as Delaware alone has. I feel that this may be an example of the financial difficulties that have fallen on local news sources. It could be that WBOC simply does not have the money to pay reporters to go out and dig up news, to do research into more pressing issues. This could be why they chose to use such a silly "filler" story. I was just entirely frustrated by this short, stupid article, and the fact that it involves people halfway across the world. Quite honestly, it shouldn't have even been news outside of the small town in Sweden where it happened. This article only shows the lack of resources lower-tier papers now have.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Journal Two
The Huffington Post has proved to be one of my favorite resources for news on the internet. I feel that, for the most part, the Huff Post manages a good balance between news and opinion. However, I recently read an article that was somewhat frustrating in its subtle insertion of opinion over fact.
David Bromwich, a Professor of Literature at Yale, wrote an article entitled "What 9/11 Makes Us Forget"on the Saturday before September 11. The article is tricky - there are a lot of books quoted, people quoted and factual information interspersed with very bold claims and accusations. The quotes Bromwich chooses to use in the article are largely one-sided and contribute mostly to the point he is trying to make. There are whole paragraphs dedicated solely to Bromwich's ideas about September 11, 2001 and the "disgusting" politics involved. I think that this may be an opinion piece, however it is categorized under "Politics News", and can be found on the front page of the site along with other news stories. This caused confusion and I could only assume that this was meant to be a news piece as well as an opinion piece. This piece is so strongly biased and strongly opinionated that, although I may agree with some of the things it is saying, I cannot take it to be good journalism.
An article that I really enjoyed reading based on its "truthiness" is by John Dorschner for the Miami Herald, titled, "Undocumented Immigrant and federal fugitive costs taxpayers $350,000 at Miami-Dade hospitals". The first thing that struck me about this article was the fact that the author chose not to use the term "Illegal Immigrant". Using such a term would have immediately had negative connotations and readers would have immediately had a certain idea about the subject of the article. I feel that Dorschner tried to handle the article in as unbiased a way as he possibly could. Throughout the article, Dorschner handles his subject, who is illegal and a criminal, by fact, in a very fair and unbiased way. He presents all the facts, using quotes from outside sources to present a story. He doesn't only use quotes from one source, or sources leaning entirely in one direction, but uses multiple different views to help strengthen the news. He even uses the subject's wife in his article which, although may lean towards one side, presents a view opposite to those expressed by the people the criminal took advantage of. Two sides of the story are shown, and all opinions are supported by quotes and factual information, making this a reliable and dependable source of news for me.
In my weeks of following different sources for news, I've found that the most dependable sources, and the ones I go back to most often, are the sources that cover all the bases and use facts and varied quotes to back up any claims. The sources that promote a general "truthiness" and a certain fairness are the ones I find to be most respectable in journalistic endeavors. I will not stop reading pieces that are more opinionated or biased, however I will take them with a grain of salt and understand the differences between honest and dishonest journalism.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Journal One
The first article I'd like to comment on is from the Baltimore Sun, the regional newspaper I will be following most closely all semester. It is titled, "Visitor estimates show flat summer season for Ocean City". This article sparked my interest because it is relevant to my life, as I live and work in Ocean City during the summer, and the amount of tourists directly affects my job. What I noticed after reading this very brief article was the lack of quotes. It provided the necessary information (amount of tourists on popular weekends, specific events) in a very concise manner. However, I feel that there could be a more personal side to the story, and that the lack of quotes or input from local business owners, etc. stripped away the important part of this story - the amount of visitors directly correlates with people's lives. The only quote mentioned was from Ocean City's communication manager, Donna Abbott, and I feel that her brief quote showed only one view on the decrease in crowds in Ocean City. This story also was not written in the inverted pyramid style, as it had a sort of limp lede, only touching on what was about to be said in the article. After reading this article, I searched for even more localized news to see if there were any other articles commenting on the tourism issue in Ocean City. The most related articles I could find from both the Ocean City Today and Ocean City Dispatch focused more on Hurricane Irene and the effects of the Hurricane rather than its effect on tourism.
The second article I chose to focus on came from The Guardian and is titled, "Plane from Pakistan to UK forced to land after bomb threat". It sparked my interest because of the very near ten-year anniversary of 9/11. I was surprised to see that the bomb threat involved planes from outside of the country, not traveling anywhere near the United States. Much like the first article I mentioned, this article was written very concisely, providing exact numbers and times for the emergency landing. This article really cemented the importance of facts for me - it seems that important news stories all require concise factual statements. What put me off about this article was the fact that it seemed to build suspense for something that may not be of any worry. Although I understand that information may not yet be available to the author, the journalist left out the fact that everyone was okay, and that no bomb was found. It seemed almost to be stirring a bit of a scare, with the chosen quotes and the information that was incorporated. I still had many questions after reading the article, and I feel that some of them could've definitely been answered but may have been chosen not to. While I understand the importance of being cautious and proactive with bomb threats, especially so close to the anniversary of something so momentous, I'm not sure if the journalist handled to story as well as they could. It seemed very much to have a negative air, rather than one of security.
Assigment One: due Sept. 7, 2011
Brooklyn, NY – On the evening of August 31, 2011, the skies over Greenpoint were lit up with lights from an unidentified flying object (UFO), witnessed by several residents of the neighborhood, who only later discovered the object to be a blimp, advertising DirecTV.
Several residents were seen walking down Meserole Avenue in the direction of the lights, pointing and causing some commotion on the usually quiet street. Miles away, the distance contributed to the confusion about what the object truly was. Concern was raised when the blimp, which had been hovering in one place for about ten minutes, began to move in a wide circle. It disappeared behind taller buildings before reappearing in full view over Meserole Avenue. The lights of the blimp, which had remained a solid white, began to strobe several colors – green, red, and blue – reminiscent of UFOs seen in science fiction and fantasy movies for years. Confusion was raised when commercial planes were seen taking off near the blimp, rising miles higher.
“It shouldn’t have been flying so low,” Dylan Demanski of 189 Meserole Avenue said of the blimp. “That’s what really confused me – other planes were flying by, going higher, and this thing just kept hovering, lower than anything else in the sky.”
Demanski said he questioned his neighbor about the blimp when he arrived home and found Demanski pointing at the sky. Demanski’s neighbor said that there had been some reports of strange activity in the skies over Greenpoint the previous weekend, during Hurricane Irene.
Only later was it discovered that the unidentified object was a blimp, through the most unusual means – Facebook. A photo was posted of Demanski looking towards the sky, taken by his roommate. The caption of the photo said, “UFO sighting in BK?” Within the hour, an unknown friend had commented on the photo saying, “IT WAS A BLIMP ADVERTISING DIRECT TV!” Through social media, the mystery of the flying object was solved – but not everyone was so pleased with the fact that the UFO was merely a commercial blimp.
“It’s been like my lifelong dream to see a UFO. It really has,” Demanski said in the aftermath of the sighting, admitting to being quite disappointed when he was told the unidentified flying object was only a blimp.
“It looked, at least from where we were standing, like it was a discus. It had strobing lights, so I didn’t really know what to think,” another Meserole Avenue resident, Mercedes Beach, said of the blimp.
Both spent at least an hour outside on Meserole Avenue, staring in awe at the sky and speculating on what it could possibly be. While their fantasies may have been dashed by the discovery that the mysterious lights were only those of a blimp, Demanski and Beach handled the news with a grain of salt.
“I knew it wasn’t really a UFO,” Beach admitted with a shrug. “That stuff is for Hollywood blockbusters, not for far out Brooklyn.”
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