JOU Articles: week 5

Article 1: Olympic Officials' Icy Response to Death of Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili is Way Off Track. Written by Filip Bondy of the Daily News on February 14th, 2010.

This story is one I'm sure almost everyone in the whole world knows about, which is why I chose to read it. I'm a big fan of all things Olympian, so this story has been buzzing around my television for the past few days. All of the coverage on this tragic accident have similar tones of mourning and remembrance, but this article takes a more controversial view. It quotes a few officials who claim that Nodar was inexperienced and wasn't an athlete of a high enough caliber to successfully run the treacherous course instead of taking fault for having a course with extremely unsafe elements. One of the interesting parts of the article was the part with quotes from other lugers. It really gave me some perspective on what the others were feeling, and it was smart for Mr. Bondy to have included their opinions. It was a nice article, but with all the heavy, more interesting coverage surrounding this tragedy, it will most likely fade into obscurity.

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Article 2: Kevin Smith Oversized? Ejected From Flight. Written by Matt Sayles of the Associated Press on February 15, 2010.

Since my news-reading tendencies usually lean towards the tragic and dramatic, I specifically wanted to find something a little less depressing. So, when looking at the St. Pete Times website, I found a tagline from the AP. The keywords were "overweight" and "plane", so I just had to read it. What stood out the most in this story was how Southwest airlines practically tripped over themselves to make it up to Smith. Any regular joe who couldn't fit properly in the seat would probably be ignored and treated as insignificant. Maybe, just maybe, after some sort of legal action, would the overweight passenger find restitution. But no, since Smith is a famous director he got multiple apologies and almost as many gifts.

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Article 3: 4 Mega-Awkward Things You Need To Say. Written by Lauren Otis from Cosmopolitan magazine on February 14, 2010.

Okay, so girly advice columns actually interest me. I read them a lot, but they're not always the easiest to review when putting together my journal of articles. But, I'm going to try from now on to include these types of journalism because they're fun and generally enjoyable. The sources were very well-established early on in the article, and the author used these sources a few more times throughout the story. I really liked that because you can take two doctors who have a strong knowledge base on the psychology of relationships and use their expertise to back up points in your argument. A little more variety in sources would have been nice, though, because two people's opinions aren't the only ones worth hearing. Also, since this is an advice column and less about reporting news, I don't really know what their stance is on getting quotes from people who have experienced these problems before. I would have liked to see an example sent in by a reader showcasing how they've dealt with the same situation.

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Article 4: Gators Suspend Gary Brown. Written by Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun on February 15, 2010.

News about the Florida Gators is always news to me! Therefore, I reacted strongly to this article. I am so sick of hearing about players who can't stop breaking the goddamn LAW. STOP DOING THAT. It seems to happen all over the country, but UF is supposed to be better than that. How are we supposed to continue our image of being this exceptional state university when the football players can't stop getting in trouble with the police? Also, the type of infractions are particularly damaging. You don't hear about players getting in trouble for accumulated parking tickets, you hear about them allegedly physically hurting women and drunk driving. As far as the quality of the article, I noticed something sketchy that we had gone over in class that deals with the issue of "good journalism". Andreu sources that "According to the police report...", then continues his perspective. I felt that he was being lazy by using some random "Anonymous source" that wasn't even a real person at all. He could've tried to get a statement from an arresting officer.

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