Final Draft story 3

Slug – Canvassers

 

Reported by – Jon Tattum

 

Proposed Headline – Canvassing from Canvassers perspectives

 

Blurb – Canvassers talk about the successes and drawbacks of canvassing.

 

“Hey do you have a minute for the environment?” Unless you turn up the volume on your I-pod, you probably hear these words often while on campus. Mark Severy, a 25-year-old canvasser for Environment Colorado, says he is used to being avoided.

 

“It’s a good day when you’re out here for like five hours talking to between 35 and 40 kids” Severy said.

 

Of these people, Severy predicts that around 15 to 20 percent of them donate money.

 

According to Jacey Dapper, a 22-year-old who also canvasses for Environment Colorado, the amount of people Severy talks to during a shift is pretty average.

 

“Around 40 people stop, about five or six of them become members and around 15 of them sign postcard petitions,” Dapper said.

 

The postcard petitions are sent to the state legislature to try and increase awareness of a cause.

 

According to its Web site, Environment Colorado’s cause is to focus “exclusively on protecting Colorado’s air, water and open spaces.” Mike Severy said environmental issues made him want to become a canvasser.

 

“What first drew me into working with the organization was to work on energy and preservation energies,” Severy said. “But I do enjoy canvassing on gay rights or other social issues as well.”

 

Severy canvasses in different towns including Fort Collins and Breckenridge. He said the average donation doesn’t vary from town to town.

 

“The average monthly contribution is about $15 a month” Severy said. “On one-time contributions, the average is usually about $35 to $40.”

 

This average can change due to bad weather, which tends to put people in bad moods, Severy said. Sometimes however, people will be rude despite the weather.

 

“Sometimes people will be like, ‘haha this guy’s like trying to get money for a cause and is trying to sap all of the funds of the people’” Severy said.

 

Severy said these comments are normally said quietly.

 

“For the most part, the good thing is that they just keep walking” Severy said.

 

Word Count – 333

 

Sources – Mark Severy, 25. Jacey Dapper, 22.

Story Ideas

1. 7th annual poetry slam (friday)

2. Interview campusers, find out how many students donate, average donation, what the worst things kids have said to them while passing, etc.

Final 2nd story

SLUG – Hullo, My name is Lily Foster

 

Reported by – Jon Tattum

 

Proposed Headline – Hullo, My Name is Hunter Ewen

 

Blurb – The CU student talks about creating his multimedia production, “Hullo My Name is Lily Foster”

 

Music, poetry, film, aerial choreography: CU music doctoral candidate Hunter Ewen used all of these art forms to tell the story of a sexual abuse survivor in his multimedia production, “Hullo, My Name is Lily Foster.”

 

Ewen’s audience viewed the only production of his show Saturday at the Atlas Building’s Black Box Theatre. He used a Dean Small Grant from the music department to finance his show. When did Ewen realize he could put on the production?

 

“About 15 minutes ago,” Ewen said shortly after the show ended. Though he created the show’s dialogue, poetry, artwork and film, he said the production required the help of many people.

 

“As long as you keep it open and stay flexible, it makes for a really successful project” Ewen said. The show was something of a methodical composition said Ewen.

 

“If I’m doing a really angry scene then I try to get as angry as possible,” Ewen said. He wrote all of the show’s poetry from Lily’s perspective. He even created a Facebook profile for her.

 

He said how he tried to relate to the perspective of an 18 year-old sexual abuse survior.

 

“Go and read as many files as possible and go and interview as many people who were covering abuse victims as possible and try to find out what life from their perspective was like,” Ewen said.

 

Word Count – 227

 

Source – Hunter Ewen, CU music doctoral candidate

Hard News Leads (unfinished)

1. Three to four children die every day in the United States from child abuse or neglect according to a survey released yesterday by the Child Abuse Prevention Center in Baltimore.

2. Police arrested 150 anti-abortion protestors yesterday on disorderly conduct charges of blocking the entrances to an abortion clinic in Milwaukee.

3. A man robbed a Chinese food delivery driver

Edit Funeral story

PANORA, Ia. – The small town welcomed home one of its soldiers Friday, but instead of jubilant well-wishers, 525 mourners packed the United Methodist Church. Instead of a parade down Main Street, a stream of cars stretched from the church to the West Cemetery outside of town.

Flags at half-staff and red, white and blue ribbons tied to flower sprays surrounded the altar. There were tears of grief, not of joy.

To the rest of the country, Army Spec. Michael Mills was one of 191 Americans killed in the war. To the 1,100 people here, Mike Mills was the 23-year-old hometown boy who carried on a family tradition by joining the Army.

He was one of 28 people killed Feb. 25 when an Iraqi suicide bomb exploded. His funeral Friday provided a somber contrast to the joyous reunions held for returning troops throughout the country.

Event Coverage #2

Slug - Hullo My Name is Lily Foster

Reported by - Jon Tattum

Proposed Headline - Director Hunter Ewen talks about his new show "Hullo My Name is Lily Foster"

Blurb - Ewen's production left one audience member "speechless."

Story - Wild, jubilant jazz music dances in the audience’s ears. Images of faceless musicians swirl on the huge projector screen; colors have replaced their features. Two women gaily begin a synchronized dance on stage. There is no singer alongside them though, and no stylish lyrics to complement the mood. Instead, pounding through the speakers, the audience hears the heavy breathing of Lily Foster as she cries “stop, stop, ow, stop, please stop.” The scene seems to go on forever.

CU music doctoral candidate Hunter Ewen said in a Colorado Daily article that he would be disappointed if his new multi-media production “Hullo, My name is Lily Foster” did not make his audience feel uncomfortable.

“ He definitely accomplished his goal,” said J.D. Drumheller, an 18-year-old high school senior.

Ewen used many art forms to tell his fictional story of an 18-year-old sexual abuse survivor named Lily Foster including music, poetry and film. At one point, he even used a choreographed aerial dance. The show had its only performance on Saturday.

“I’m speechless” Clara Wachtel, 68, said, “It was amazing, it just really takes a while to digest.”

Lily gives her audience a hint of what they will be in for at the beginning of the show: nudity, language, sexual content, the list went on. She advises them to turn off their cell phones, but to her embarrassment, her phone rings off stage. Her abusive father, who is also the conductor of the music, is not amused. He grabs her arm firmly.

“Ungrateful B----, can’t even turn her cell phone off,” he says. This will not be the last time that he treats Lily like trash.

The show required the help of many people said Ewen, including many musicians and stage crew. So when did Ewen realize he could successfully put on the production?

“About 15 minutes ago,” Ewen said shortly after the show ended. He received a Dean Small Grant from the music department and used it to finance his show and he also created all of Lily’s poetry and artwork featured in the production.

Ewen researched sexual abuse survivors so he could better relate to their perspectives. He spoke about the process.

“Go and read as many files as possible and go and interview as many people who were covering abuse victims as possible and try to find out what life from their perspective was like,” Ewen said.

He even created a Facebook profile for Lily. He said that the process of creating the show was somewhat of a methodical composition.

“If I’m doing a really angry scene then I try to get as angry as possible, and if I’m doing a really light scene, I try to do that before I start writing a piece,” Ewen said.

Though the story is fictional, Ewen said that it is based in reality. He said that there are many people who suffer from sexual abuse who don’t want to make their opinions known.

“ It’s like 1 in 4 women suffer from sexual abuse in their lifetime, which is really a scary figure. It happens all the time,” Ewen said.

Ewen wants to become a teacher of composition. He believes that the production of “Hullo My Name is Lily Foster” will help him realize his goal.

“I think this is going to be my breadth piece,” he said.

Word Count - 598

Sources - Hunter Ewen, Composer, CU music doctoral, candidate. J.D. Drumheller, 18, high school senior. Clara Wachtel, 68.

UMC food court

The UMC food court is an unfriendly place for eavesdroppers. It’s hard to pick up a particular sound wave when one is in an ocean of voices. The conversations are sporadic and they constantly change in intensity; they build into crescendo’s and then fall into silence.

Of the 42 people whose faces I can clearly view, 39 of them would mark ‘Caucasian’ on a census survey. Despite this fact, they speak very few words of English. Here, at the food court, the local population speaks a nonsensical language in which they carelessly throw in a couple of English fragments such as “ I wanted to” and “Craig was called.”

If everyone were to leave the room, it would be much colder; that’s asking a lot though, those 42 people I mentioned make up about 1/6 of the room’s occupancy. It is probably around 20 yards shorter than a football field and ten yards less wide.

The tables and chairs form a pattern of number and color; there are mostly four or five old, small, wooden chairs with red seats for every gray tabletop with a black metal base. If only the people would behave and fill up these tables, the pattern would be complete. There wouldn’t be this cluster of chairs sprawled about; the labyrinth would still be there, but there wouldn’t be as many dead ends. But the people pull chairs from now odd tables and clamor together with their friends. Others can’t find tables, not only because of the large crowd, but also because they consider tables with one occupied seat to be taken; the other open seats become useless.

The carpet complements the blur of sound. It looks like one of those skewed pictures you stare at that are supposed to have a hidden image. It is a mirage of colors: blue, purple, orange, green, but mostly gray.

The smell is the usual, that of air. The kind where you can take a deep inhale, and though your surrounded by what your sure is many smells (I am 40 feet away from at least three restaurants), your not sure there are any scents present. Maybe it’s the smell of warmth?

I try my best to follow the path of a conversation taking place at the table next to me. There are two girls who appear to be around 19 or 20. One girl has streaks of blonde highlights throughout her brunette hair; she is wearing a thin, gray sweater button up. She must have bought this sweater for the sake of style, because it’s not keeping her warm. The other girl is wearing a real sweater, a red one, and she has not yet decided to put highlights in her brown hair. Unlike her friend, she is a bit chubby.

“Oh atheists,” I hear highlights say in a jubilant way. Though it is hard to follow the conversation, I gather that she is telling her friend about a debate she had on religion with a man who “took himself way too seriously.” “It’s not even his opinion, he puts it down for other people,” she says, still laughing. I never find out whether she took a religious or secular stand on the issue, that doesn’t seem to be the angle of her story. The angle seems to be the absurd arrogance of this man’s argument. This arrogance made the girl feel that any reasoning with this man would be useless. She concludes her story by sharing the new perspective she would take if she were to ever debate this man again; “So now I just want to say all these stupid comments, just to be petty and immature.”

SLUG: Karl Rove/Howard Dean debate

 

REPORTING BY: Jon Tattum

 

PROPOSED HEADLINE: Karl Rove defends Iraq War decision during debate

 

BLURB: Rove replies heatedly to a question about the need to investigate the Bush Administration’s motivations to go to war.

 

STORY:  During his debate with Howard Dean at the Macky Auditorium, Karl Rove said Monday that many are responsible for the Iraq War.

Responding to an audience members question stating the need to "confront the sins of our past" and investigate the Bush Administrations decision to go to war in Iraq, Rove replied that many Democrats also supported the idea.

Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, quoted various Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore who all, according to Rove, once stressed the need to go to war in Iraq. 

“If we are seeking equal justice then we are going to endite everyone of these individuals," Rove said to a roar of applause.

He disagreed that the decision to go to Iraq was a mistake.

“We did the right thing based on the intelligence we had at the time,” Rove said.

Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, said the decision to go to Iraq was based on a lie.

"Iraq had relatively little capacity for weapons of mass destruction," Dean said.

He said that former Vice President Dick Cheney perpetuated the lie.

"I happen to think that it was the vice president withholding information from the president" Dean said.

As Rove read off the Democrats quotes, Dean interrupted him with a question.

"Who told them all that?" Dean asked.

Dean does not think an investigation will occur.

"You can't have one administration investigating another unless there is really clear evidence," Dean said.

Travis Lemay, a Junior at CU, said that Rove made a good point about the hypothetical invesigation.

"If George Bush made a decision on it, and technically it was based on intelligence, so did everyone else. All the Democrats said it, and if they say they didn’t know it was false, well then neither did George Bush," Lemay said.

He said that the idea that Cheney withheld information from Bush could be true.

 “I feel like that’s the only argument they could have because its not like Bush is going to lie through all that, a real lie” Lemay said.

Kurt Humphreys, a junior at CU, is more skeptical towards the two debaters.

 “I take what they say with a grain of salt,” Humphreys said.

 Before the debate, Humphreys agreed with the decision to go to Iraq.

 “I agree with going to war I don’t agree with how we meant to go to war with them”

 The debate did not change his mind on the issue but he did take the debaters views into consideration.

 “I feel like action was necessary based on what they said. They both said that there was trouble and it needed to be taken care of. The Bush administration didn’t do it in the best way,” said Humphreys.

 Word Count: 500

Visuals: Pictures from the debate

Sources: Travis Lemay, Junior at CU. Kurt Humphreys, Junior at CU.

 

Story Ideas for Rove/Dean debate

1. Student's reactions to the debate

2. The questions CU students posed at the debate (if students are able to pose questions to the debaters).

3. Basic story - cover the ideas expounded by each man.

4. Health care histories - Research each past histories on Health Care. Did Dean do anything for Vermont's health-care when he was Governor? What has Karl Rove done to influence health care? Did he have any influence on health-care policies during the Bush years?

5. Which person's views more accurately reflect the state American health-care is in today? How closely does it reflect the Obama White House's stand on health-care?

6. What got Rove and Dean interested in debating each other? Do they debate often with each other or with others?

News Story - Do Right-Handed People Live Longer than Left-Handed People?

The New England Journal of Medicine reported today a study that found that the average age at death for right-handed people is nine years older than that of left-handed people.

Researchers found that right-handed females tend to live six years longer than left-handed females, and right-handed males live 11 years longer than left-handed males.

Left-handed people were four times more likely to die from injuries while driving than right-handers and six times more likely to die from accidents of all kinds.

Diane Halpern, a psychology professor at California State University at San Bernardino, said her study should be interpreted cautiously.

“It should not, of course, be used to predict the life span of any one individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”

“It’s important that mothers of left-handed children not be alarmed and not try to change which hand a child uses,” Halpern said.

Halpern, one of the studies two researchers, tried to determine why fewer left-handed people are among the elderly population.

She studied death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California counties. Relatives were queried by mail about the subject’s dominant hands.

“Almost all engineering is geared to the right hand and right foot.” Halpern said. “There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment.”

Left-handed people represent 10% of the U.S. population

“We knew for years that there weren’t as many old left-handers” Halpern said.

.“Researchers thought that was because in the early years of the century, most people born left-handed were forced to change to their right hands. So we were looking at old people who used to be left-handed, but we weren’t,” Halpern said.

“The truth was that there simply weren’t many left-handers left alive, compared to right-handers.”

Suggestion for visual presentation - There could be a bar graph comparing the average age of when right-handed men and women die compared to when left-handed people die in order to attract readers to the story.

February 2nd Homework

U.s. census statistics

1. The total population of Colorado according to the 2009 census – 5,024,7748 on july 1, 2009

2. The population of asian and pacific islanders in Colorado in 2000 - 108

Crime Story #1

• http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Conditions.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

• There are 250 sex offenders in Boulder County. To be more specific for my area, there are 4 sex offenders in the 80305 area code. 

• http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/sorSearch/    You go to this URL and then you click on the interactive map. The search can tell you what type of offender the sex offender is, for instance, if they are a “Child Sexual Offender” or a “Sexually Violent Offender.” The map can tell you also the closest streets the sex offender lives to, along with the relation of his living space to that of churches and colleges and schools along with other related information. 

•

Crime Story #3

1. University of Colorado's crime statistics for 2008

Homicide - 0

Forcible Rape - 7

Robbery - 3

Aggravated Assault - 7

Simple Assault - 33

Burglary - 44

Theft - 446

Motor Vehicle Theft - 4

Arson - 6

2. U.S. Department of Education crime statistics for 2008

Homicide - 0

negligent manslaughter - 0

sex offenses forcible - 15

sex offenses non forcible - 0

robbery - 6

aggravated assault - 11

burglary - 118

motor vehicle theft - 8

arson - 15

Question 4: Political reporting #1

1. Through Michael Bennet's Cycle Fundraising from 2005 - 2010, he has raised $3,661, 380 and he has $2, 850,594 on hand.

2. Through Mark Udall's Cycle Fundraising fromr 2005 - 2010, he has raised $12, 015, 829 and he has $40,287 on hand.

Question 5: Political reporting #2

1. Bill Ritter received $4,365, 457

2. $984,026

3. $525 gub candidate/$525 other state wide candidate/$200 legis candidate.

Question 6: 

2. Four year institutions - $19,362

3. Four year private institutions - $30,393

Question 7

http://www.colorado.gov/

Question 8

http://ci.boulder.co.us/

Research

Weather Story #1

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/Deadliest_Costliest.shtml

1. Hurricane Katrina

2. New Orleans, 2005

3. $81 Billion

Weather Story #2

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/prepare/

Plane Crashes

1. 2

2. 36

3. Part 91: General Aviation

4. SCHD Alaskan Airlines INC

5. 49

Truth: a Popularity Contest?

One lie can lead to another…and another…and another. Whether or not Dan Rather’s report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service is fair and balanced or crooked and contrived was beside the point. He lost his job.

 

The story, which aired on 60 Minutes 2, claimed that Bush received preferential treatment during his time in the Texas Air National Guard. Shortly after CBS posted documents supporting the stories content on their website, they came under heavy fire from critics, or to be more specific, bloggers.

 

Accusations of many different flavors surfaced: From issues of illegitimate type to political bias, CBS found themselves in a shadow of problems that just kept on building. Once the controversy reached the airwaves, the future of many CBS careers were in trouble.

 

It still isn’t clear whether or not CBS forged their documents. The investigative panel however, came to the conclusion that CBS did make certain mistakes such as airing the report to quickly and believing too zealously in the truth of their story.

 

Funny thing is, many news organizations sub came to the same flaws as they covered the controversy. Viewers watched as news sources such as MSNBC and Fox news erringly reported on an erring report. While Corey Pein of the Columbia Journalism Review elaborated on these flaws, I couldn’t help wondering if his own report of the issue was accurate.

 

This story of CBS’s flawed report is a cautionary tale for all journalists. Because they weren’t careful, they began a spark of distrust in consumers, including myself, that circled around back to them. They turned the truth of their story into a popularity contest. In turn, they became the story and were treated with the same respect. 

Poorer than You

Poorer than You: Before entering this sight, I have to admit, I was already a bit endeared to it. I’m a sucker for anything that demeans itself, not because I care about modesty but because I like the feeling of being better off than other people.

 

After traversing the sight for oh… about five minutes (probably a longer amount of time than the average surfer spends on a new blog) I had the feeling that it’s main focus was to help housewives save money. It wasn’t until I caught the description of the site in my peripheral vision, “Money issues for college students and 20-somethings, without being boring,” that I started to care. This line really needs to be bigger.

 

As a 20-something college student myself, I am often looking for ways to save money. The hustle and bustle of the school/work world however, makes it hard to find the time. Stephanie, the creator of Poorer than You, lays out in a very coherent and ‘non-boring’ format, practical ways of achieving this goal.

 

She is a very transparent gal. Regularly giving readers updates on her bank account, Stephanie lets them in on her personal struggles with money. She is not a corporate henchman trying to make a buck through deceitful information; Stephanie is ‘one of us.’ A ‘one of us,’ that is, with sources into the financial world.

 

The guest writers Stephanie has on her blog add to her credibility. The advice posted by “Life insurance specialists and a “certified personal financial counselor” show that she is in tune with the financial world.

 

 The headlines get right to the point and are meant to be appealing for her intended audience. Lots of times they have number in them such as “10 Places to Make Money Online” which gives me the impression, whether rational or not, that the article will be a quick and easy read.

 

The blog lacks video and audio links, but I don’t think this matters to much to Stephanie’s present and future subscribers. An easy and ‘non-boring’ medium that will help them escape their ‘ramen with a side of peanut butter and jelly universe’, should be good enough.

Blog 1 (First assignment)

So……what are priests good for? Well, when it comes to interpreting religious texts, they are the whiz kids. After all, each priest supposively has a tight knit relationship with his specific god. This privilege gives them power and influence. People flock to the churches to learn how to live their lives: how to live morally, how to focus on what’s truly important, how to live successfully, ect. Do Journalists share any of these traits? Walter Lippman wrote that the task of “selecting and ordering” the daily news is one of the “priestly offices in a democracy.” Is he right?

            Well, what if the stories on the front page of the New York Times were always about celebrity gossip? What if Lippman and his cohorts decided to merge all the news of political issues onto the last three pages of the New Republic? The order and selections in news publications are supposed to reflect the importance the public places on news topics. Readers are accustom to this process and use it to help decide what is important to them. Through the work of the publications, the public is spurred to act, or not to act. In this way, journalists do carry a very priestly obligation.

            A difference between an average news journalist and an average priest however, is shown by the way in which they relay their information to their followers. They both have privileges; the priest claims to have close contact with a god, while the journalist claims to have close contact with specific sources. As the priest interprets the information for the public to understand, the news journalist puts out his information bare, and counts on the public to dress it up with their own interpretations.            

            From this analysis we see that a journalist lacks a priest’s privilege of an opinion. Of course, there are types of journalists who have this honor. In this way, I would change Mr. Lippman’s observation very slightly. It isn’t as much the task of newsman in general which is priestly, to be more specific, it is those journalists who are privileged with their opinions, such as pundits and editorialists, who are the real priests.