JOU Articles: week 6

Article 1: Toyota Recalls Won't 'Totally' Fix Sudden Surges. Written by Tom Raum and Stephen Manning of the Associated Press on February 23, 2010.

With all the coverage on the Toyota recalls, it's really gotten my attention over the past couple of weeks. This one was especially important to me because it was well-written and extremely informative. I wasn't surprised to find that Toyota had been figuratively full of hot air with all their promises of instant fixes. Obviously, that never works, and hearing more promises from more CEO's doesn't give me much confidence for the average Toyota owner's safety. There was also a great emotional element to this article, which is usually lacking. Raum and Manning reported on a court event where a woman shared her personal experience with the defective cars. That is pretty important to me, because I really love being able to relate to the story on a more human perspective.

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Article 2: Burton and Depp on Same Page in New 'Wonderland'. Written by Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun Times on February 23, 2010.

This article was short, but it was a very pleasant read. Like I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have a tendency to focus on the more dramatic or tragic headlines, so I'm making a conscious effort to choose more light-hearted stories. Therefore, I chose to venture into the "entertainment" section of the newspaper. This was also a little different because it was actually just an interview-style session with Burton and Depp, which is different from straight news-reporting articles. Zwecker captured their conversation in a way that showed them in a very endearing fashion-- maybe that's wrong, but who cares? It's a fluff piece that generates hype about the new movie. Altogether, the article was charming and was even able to tie in a theme at the end of the story that was present in the beginning (their "gestures").

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Article 3: Guilty Plea Made in Plot to Bomb New York Subway. Written by A.G. Sulzberger and William K. Rashbaum of the NY Times on February 22, 2010.

Wow. Just... wow. I don't know if I've ever been as focused while reading as I was just now. What a great story. It made me really angry, and it's rare for me to feel such clear emotions while reading news stories. I just feel detached from them somehow, especially if the writing is sub-par, but that was definitely not the case here. It was so beautifully and carefully crafted, with such great resources and flow; not once did I have to go back and re-read a sentence in order to absorb it properly. I won't say it's the greatest article I've ever read, but it's pretty damn close because the content itself is so enthralling. I haven't seen this story in other media outlets, but maybe that's because it's so new and since it originates in NY, obviously the NYTimes has first dibs. This will probably be all over the news on national levels very soon.

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Article 4: Five Years After Jessica Lunsford's Killing, Legislators Rethink Sex Offender Laws. Written by John Frank of the St Pete Times on February 24, 2010.

Let me just start by saying that I cried a lot while reading this article. It wasn't just a heart-wrenching memorial story, though. It presented the somewhat controversial idea that emotional, "knee-jerk" lawmaking isn't actually improving much in the long run. This article documents the different opinions well, from those who blindly trust all forms of sex-offender restrictions to those who are trying to get a more realistic grasp on the problem. The sources seemed very reliable and the statements from officials were very thorough and gave more than just a "one-liner" from some random congressman. It seems that Frank really pressed hard for more lengthy responses. I also really appreciated how short the paragraphs were, it really broke down the story into coherent parts that were easy to follow.

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