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.