According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, polar bears can’t stop global warming.
Well, neither can any animal on the endangered species list.
On Friday, the department decided to uphold a Bush-era policy that prevents the federal government from using the Endangered Species Act to crack down on global warming or its largest contributors.
What is it about being behind the wheel of a car that turns an ordinary, docile citizen into a snarling, aggressive maniac?
Yet another violent road rage episode has ended tragically, with a 29-year-old father dead ― shot point-blank in the face while his three children watched from the car.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, folks.
According to Gawker.com, the Great Chicken Riot of ’09 has erupted on the streets of America. Keep reading →
Fear has taken root around the globe and the culling of the swine has begun.
With more than 850 confirmed worldwide cases of people infected with “swine flu”, also known as H1N1, some governments are reacting in panic to reduce the spread of the disease, or at least look like they are doing something about it. Keep reading →
One of journalism’s most basic tenants is “Be objective.”
And one of its most closely guarded secrets is that there are some stories that it is impossible to cover objectively.
In some cases, this because of deep-seated personal biases on the part of the journalist. That’s the classic case for one-sided, inaccurate journalism, and generally the first accusation that gets thrown out by media critics against news outlets that report stories that don’t support their own preconceived world view.
But that’s not the only sort of bias that exists. It’s not even the most dangerous.
Enter National Geographic’s Lockdown. A one-hour documentary-style program chronicaling life in various prisons around the country, it bills itself as an educational look at an aspect of life totally alien to most of its viewers.
Yet a story is only as reliable as its sources. And how do you give an accurate view of something when your only sources are murderers, pimps and thieves?
Lockdown serves as an example of how difficult it is to make television, a medium of unreality by its very definition, give an accurate portrayal of events. Putting aside the fact that the very presence of cameras tends to cause people to act in ways they normally wouldn’t (the girls gone wild effect), the people profiled in the series have no real motivation to give the people profiling them the pure, unvarnished truth.
Consider: you’re in prison for life, in all likelihood for a crime you did in fact commit. The environment in which you live is one of constant fear and intimidation, where one’s reputation for violence is not a detriment, but rather a key component in one’s social standing — and possibly, personal safety.
Now imagine a group of men with cameras come and ask you what its like. Do you tell them truthfully that it’s a hellish existence? Or do you, accustomed to lies and self-aggrandizement as a means of survival, fudge the details a little? Do you paint yourself in slightly more sympathetic strokes, make your life out to be something slightly more grandiose than it is?
Of course, most journalists try to compensate for source bias by interviewing a wide range of sources. But the rather unique problem of prison documentaries is that the only sources one is likely to find are so close to the story that its impossible for them to be objective. The medium itself doesn’t help, favoring as it does uncomplicated stories. Nat Geo does what it can, but it’s simply not possible to fit a great parity of opinion into an hour and not break the flow of the narrative.
Ultimately, Lockdown does what it can to show the truth behind bars, and if it falls short of that goal, it’s more due to the limitations inherent to such an undertaking than anything else. And certainly, it’s entertaining. Ultimately, however, the only way to get the truth about prison life is to be the one behind the bars.
Everybody poops. It’s true. Whether we are doing it on a squat toilet in Eastern Europe, a super high-tech toilet in Japan or in a bathroom right here at SJSU, we all need a nice place to “take care of business.”
So, I’ve put together a list of my top five places to go potty here on campus.
Lately, there has been a lot of hoopla surrounding the recently opened “Psycho Donuts,” in downtown Campbell.
When I last visited on Wednesday morning, I saw a picketer in front of the shop, holding a sign that read “Boycott Psycho Donuts.” A note was posted on the glass door that said, “Sorry, sold out today!”
I am a white American. I’ll never be anything else.
It drives me crazy when someone asks me about my culture as if I’m supposed to respond with some amazing, exotic tale of how I was born in some magical far-away land filled with incredible, vibrant people.
As I sit here in a semi-worn out computer chair, wearing an Italian national soccer team jacket, Italian blood running through my veins and the colors of the flag in my soul, it might come as no surprise that I’m writing this blog about Chiaramonte’s Market. The market, located on 609 N. 13th Street, is one of the oldest running businesses in San Jose, and I happen to be related to its owners.
The market is owned and managed by Louis Chiaramonte Sr., his wife Rose and their son Louis Chiaramonte Jr. The market is one of the oldest family-run delis — not only in San Jose, but in the entire U.S. — and one of the oldest retail food service businesses in Santa Clara County.
Since 1908, and hot off the heels of its 100-year anniversary, the Chiaramonte’s Market and Delicatessen continues to serve its specialty fresh, hand-made Italian sausages that are enjoyed by a diverse group of people living in San Jose.
April 8, 2009
Old enough to text, old enough for jail
The wonderful thing about going to school is that, believe it or not, you do learn things. Now, whether you expect to learn something about a particular topic is another story. Take for instance my recent experience from a general ed mass communications class where we were asked if we knew what “sexting” was.
I promptly responded by saying “phone sex through text messages?”
Wrong! It was something a bit more malicious than that as it turns out.
Keep reading →
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