Monthly Archives: April 2015

Stormy Weather

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Twitter over the recent years has become a means for people to express themselves to a wide audience and has allowed for news to reach people in a much quicker way. This efficient mechanism is not without flaws. In other words, there are negatives that come with positives with having a twitter.  In Storm Paglia’s case, twitter, was a means of expressing his distaste for Virginia legislation on illegal immigrants receiving in-state tuition. On February 13, 2015, he claimed; “The fact that the VASenate and VAHouse allow these ILLEGALS in state tuition with an easier process than if I were to apply is DISGUSTING.” These comments cost Paglia his job as the undersecretary for university dining services at George Mason University.

We must focus on the bigger picture here. This is not just about a tweet. This is about “political correctness.” I have never been a fan of the term. In fact, I call it “political incorrectness.” Being politically correct, I find it to be an excuse for blatant disregard to freedom of speech, which is what Paglia was exercising as an American. The people of this great country have become weak. Anything and everything is now deemed offensive. What Paglia said is true and apart from referring to them as these illegals, I agree with every word he said. It is truly incomprehensible how illegals receive benefits regardless of their lack of citizenship.

Unfortunately for Paglia, he is a public figure in the George Mason community and everything he does and says in a public space is monitored by the media. The media will portray anyone the way they, media, choose. In fact, the media, to me, are the real racist in today’s society. It has become more about ratings than getting REAL news out there for the people for whom they “serve.” It is about what is trending. That is what news has become over the years, trends, not news. And if you havent noticed by now, race, is a trendy topic. People love to talk about race and racism on one hand. Meanwhile, on the other hand, they claim how wrong racism is and how we should rid our society of it. How do you plan on doing so if you refuse to stop talking about it? The fact of the matter is that the media feed off of these types of stories. The media today has grown overweight with racial topics and its time for the media to start exercising because what they are doing only adds fuel to the fire

It is good for business they might say. But this cannot be about business any longer. We must focus on the big picture and change the course we are on before we lose our freedoms entirely. The more we keep talking about race, the more power we give it. We give power to racism by finding and deeming words to be offensive. We all know the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” right? As cheesy as it may be, this is how we must approach racism. This is how I have approached racism ever since coming to The United States from Colombia. Kids mocked me in school, claiming my father was a Colombian drug lord. They even went as far as saying that I was a cocaine dealer and that my entire family was as well. My feelings were never hurt, as ignorant as those statements were, because I did not care for their ignorance. Nor did I dwell on their remarks. The truth is that these words only hurt if we give them the power to do so.

For Storm Paglia, he is the latest victim to fall prey to politically correctness. I give credit to Paglia for standing by his comments. He showed true courage. The opposite goes for those who coward behind the infectious disease that is being politically correct only to make stories out of a tweet that is protected by our constitutional rights as Americans, and as human beings most of all.

 

–Nick Ortiz

Someone Cried Wolf and Paid the Price

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Someone Cried Wolf and Paid the Price

Where do I begin? The original Rolling Stone article that was published and retracted this past year is a perfect example of what NOT to do in the world of journalism. Rolling Stone is not known as a political magazine, but when the opportunity arose for Sabrina Rubin Ederly, she grasped it so hard she was blinded by the substantial plot holes in the story. It is not entirely her fault however. Editors are paid employees that check the work of writers. This includes checking plot structure and clarity. But it seems as if the editor responsible for this article lacked such qualities. The article was based on a lie. This” Jackie” character reported a rape at the university of Virginia fraternity party. Rolling stone never fact checked the story that Jackie reported.

The main issue I have with the article is that it was published. It went through the journalist and editor. Two people who dedicate their lives to journalism and informing people of the truth.

There are standards in journalism. There are certain ways of informing the people with solid information. There had to be doubts in the minds of Sean Woods, the primary editor and Ederly, the writer of the controversial article, before publishing this article. “The editors invested Rolling Stones reputation in a single source,” the University of Columbia report concluded on the matter. You cannot simply break the rules of journalism in order to get more hits on their website.

CNN Money reported that Charlottesville police had recently announced they could not find any evidence that a rape occurred. But they stressed that their findings did not mean that she hadn’t been raped and that they were keeping the investigation open.

Jackie refused to cooperate with Charlottesville police and Columbia University. Her lawyer claimed that it was in her best interest to remain silent.

The worst part is that Ederly issued a public apology, but nowhere within the apology is there a mention of the under fire fraternity. The fraternity has had to endure a plethora of criticism throughout the year. Their house had been vandalized on campus. Members of the fraternity were subject to defamation.

You must admit when you have wronged. The retraction was a good move, but it was enough. The apology which failed to address those whom were truly affected was abysmal to say the least. The fraternity was not the only deserving of an apology, the public and those who read Rolling Stone deserved an apology as well.

In recent memory, there have been other journalists caught not following the rules. Brian Williams was one of the foremost trusted news Anchor in the world. After he “misremembered” some very detailed events, he was suspended without pay for six months. The news world made an example out of Williams, showing that even the greatest can fall. Rolling Stone has decided not fire Ederly. This may be due to the fact that this was not entirely her fault. Granted, she wrote an unprintable piece, but there are eyes which are paid to turn away such unprofessional work in order to keep up their reputable status in the news industry.

Unfortunately for the consumer of news in today’s day in age, news is no longer what is important. It is what is relevant and what gets the most attention that gets the most news coverage. So for the sake of what is trending, Rolling Stone gambled their entire credibility on what I can only name, a hunch of a story. This new version of news is destroying the very fibers of what the news is supposed to be about. Sexy, trendy, and website hits are the new requirements for what makes news today. The rolling stone article is a clear cut example of the latter. Rape is a trending topic and it gets the attention of readers. This is why they published the article without any hesitation. They knew that publishing an article about a college rape would get national attention and their name would be all over the reports. Talk about free advertising.

I understand that it is an important topic that people must stay informed about. But that is not what I am disputing. I am disputing the fact that because newspapers and magazines crave to be the first to release news, they are losing their integrity. Who knows how many times misprints due to the inability to fact check will occur.

What is so damn hard about telling the truth and doing some basic research?

You are a journalist Ederly. You are published magazines with thousands, if not millions of readers Rolling Stone, show some class! Even though Rolling Stone is an edgy magazine and don’t focus their attention to harder news, fact checking is still a responsibility that journalists have to their readers and print the truth.

I hardly ever read Rolling Stone before and after this eventful saga of dimwitted journalism, I doubt I will pick it up again. If you ask me, whatever credibility Rolling Stone had before this article came out, has gone completely out the window.

 

-Nick Ortiz