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One of the things that young reporters struggle with is the realization that there is no one perfect way to approach a given news story. In fact, different publications my approach the same story in radically different ways.
Three San Diego men appeared in federal court on Wednesday, charged with aiding the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab. You can read details of the indictment at Courthouse News Service. Al-Shabaab is an Islamic insurgent group that is active in Somalia. It’s officially linked to Al Qaeda, has an arm just for targeting Jews, and has been involved in everything from embassy bombings to attempts on the life of a Dutch cartoonist who drew images of Muhammad.
Reporters love to share former President Jimmy Carter’s stories and opinions. As the nation’s 86-year-old grandfather-in-chief tours the nation promoting his latest book, “White House Diary,” he’s generating a fair amount of ink. No surprise there.
I joined a couple of other friends to cover the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive this past weekend. You can check out my 100 or so photos of the event here. The event was funny, had a serious message about being nicer to political enemiesopponents, but was also full of snark. After a couple of hours, we headed back home and watched the rest of the program on Comedy Central. We heard that Yusuf Islam had been part of the program. We didn’t believe it at first but it was true. He really did appear. He performed the song he sang he made famous under his former name Cat Stevens — “Peace Train” — against Ozzy Osbourne singing “Crazy Train.”
Now that the midterm voting is over, the news media can focus on what’s really important: What do Tuesday’s results mean for Democrats and Republicans in the general election two years from now?
I hear, since my office is on Capitol Hill, that there is some kind of election going on today. The word on the street is that all kinds of terrified, emotional, angry people are going to march into polling places and destroy the era of hopeful, rational, optimism that has ruled our great land for the past 18 months or so. At least, that’s just what I read in the papers.
It’s no secret that the mainstream media have struggled to understand what’s happening politically in the country right now. You could say they’re more Stewart/Colbert than Tea Party. They’re just not terribly well suited to understand or explain how, exactly, the Republicans likely are about to retake the House of Representatives.
