Monday, November 7th:
I thought today’s issue was overall a very diverse one with interesting articles. I though that the article on increasing sexual harassment in middle and high school was disturbing but not at all surprising. I was especially saddened to see that half on those who reported being sexually harassed did nothing about it. Hopefully, most of these children at least feel as if they have someone to talk to about their problems. I think that the article was a very good and concise summary news article with some great quotes from children and school officials. I think that the Times could definitely run a feature piece spotlighting a particular school where harassment was reported, or on a particular student who had a story to tell, this would really bring a more immediate, human perspective to the issue as a whole.
The other national story today that I found rather disturbing is the one about Christians advocating corporal punishment for children and the deaths that have been tied to parents who seemed mentally unstable to begin with, who used tips from the book. This debate centers on where the overlap is between punishment/ discipline for children and abuse and neglect. I thought that this article was extremely in depth, perhaps more so than the story about bullying. I thought that the extensive quotes gotten really added to the piece, and that quotes from the Pearl’s parenting book “To Train Up a Child” also gave a lot of material to work with for the article.
Tuesday, November 8th:
Today’s big headline in the Times is the first public accuser who has come forward to put forth allegations that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed and groped her. This marks the first serious public allegations that could mar Mr. Cain’s campaign, as well as the first serious sexual harassment charge that has come out for the campaign (not to mention, it’s the most serious charge that has been aired at a candidate in years). The Times’ story mainly focuses on the woman who made the public allegations, Sharon Bialek. They repeat her allegations and describe Ms. Bialek at the press conference she recently gave, saying that her voice cracked and that she became emotional while she recounted her experience with Herman Cain. The article portrayed Ms. Bialek as someone who was not seeking financial gain from her allegations, rather, someone trying to speak up for more of the women who felt they could not come forward themselves. The Times noted that even though Ms. Bialek has had past financial problems, she was not seeking monetary compensation from either Herman Cain’s campaign or the television talk shows that had invited her on to share her story.
Wednesday, November 9th:
I thought the lead on the Times piece on Italy’s debt crisis and Silvio Berlusconi’s immanent resignation from his post was very concise and very good. I also like the language used by the author, including the sentence: “political commentators said they could see no escape this time for the prime minister, whose Houdini-like ability to wriggle free from scandals is legendary.” Additionally, I thought the article’s balancing of the main important points of the debt crisis with smaller details surrounding the case, including the sentence: “After the parliamentary vote, a photographer’s zoom lens caught Mr. Berlusconi writing ‘eight traitors’ on a piece of paper on which he had also written ‘resignation.’”
I found the Times’ business section article on Occupy Wall Street influencing organized labor and unions to be more vocal and aggressive in their demands very interesting. It’s interesting that the unions were at first cautious about supporting the movement. It was intriguing to read specifically about the seemingly vicious and raucous fight between the Teamsters and Sotheby’s because of the auction house’s lockout of art handlers associated with the Teamsters. The article integrated good quotes from a lot of the Unions. Even though the Unions have been inspired by Occupy, Occupy reps said that they must stay autonomous and not be attached to any one social or politically influential group. The give-and-take between this new movement and this historically political and embattled organization is very interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment