Friday, February 24, 2017

No more than 4 hours ago, White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, chose to bar The New York Times, CNN, Politico, Buzzfeed News, and The Los Angeles Times from entering in the White House briefing. The Editorial Board kindly sheds some much needed light on the situation by publishing Barring the White House Press Corps From the White House, which explains the historical significance before us. Not ever in the history of American government has either political party president ever banned an accredited news organization (kudos to them because they must've been asking all the right questions) from a White House briefing. What may be raising more brows, is the fact that the media that was banned, hasn't exactly rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Trump. At the moment, one might even say they're more liberal just for the sake of not being associated with Mr. Trump's choice of political party. Strategically, that's also who The Editorial Board aimed for as their audience in this jaunting editorial. They also possibly hit a homerun considering most young adults tune into CNN and Buzzfeed News, also persuading them to grab their pitchforks in the battle against Trump. One other key that made this argument logically compelling is the comparison of major political history events such as, the Watergate scandal, the Monica Lewinsky affair, and even the attack on 911, the presidents never dared ban media (let alone SPECIFIC media) from a briefing for fear of looking small. Not only does the provide logic to the argument, but it also give factual evidence.
What makes the author, whom after a little research reveals to be Francis X. Clines, so credible is that he's done his fair share in the reporting world. Before joining the crew in 2002, he spent 40 years as a reporter for The Times on the city, national and foreign news staff.
No more than 4 hours ago did the American people witness what Mr. Spicer told Politico would never happen because of the balance between a democracy and a dictatorship would be off kilter. No more than 4 hours ago, the American people had what North Korea has seen for so long: a media blackout.
As George Orwell once said "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Friday, February 10, 2017

Now I would assume to say, the majority of us in this class have a fair chance of one day parenting a child, whether it's on purpose or slightly surprising. I would also assume some of us don't want to live in the country right now due to the new man in the White House, so why on earth would we want to raise our potential children here now,especially after injustice just happened no more than 72 hours ago. On February 7th, Betsy DeVos was voted the United States Secretary of Education, leaving many of us including The Atlantic's article "5 Things to KnowAbout Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick for Education secretary"biting our nails. In this article, author Emily Deruy tells why we truly should be concerned about what's going to happen to our already seemly failing education system now that a woman of no political background, has never had a student loan, and who has never even went to a public school, in charge of schooling itself. Oh, and that's not to mention her goals of prioritizing charter schools, making public schools even more underfunded and eventually forcing our children to attend said charter schools. So yes classmates, this is probably one of those rare articles thats actually worth wasting your time on.