Wake of Echoes

"Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns—30,000." -- President Obama President Obama said that during a speech he gave on January 5, 2016 , when he announced a new executive order to tighten gun control. I have no doubt he believed what he said -- that he believed in what he was doing. First, because Obama's personality has always been unequivocal. During his eight years in office, I never saw him waffle on what he believed. One of Obama's defining characteristics was his fondness for standing ankle-deep in the hardened cement of his progressive ideas while demanding that others "compromise" by coming around to his way of thinking. Second, because Obama shed tears while he made  his speech , and as much as I disagreed with him on ... well, almost everything, I  DO  believe he was sincerely moved by the issue of gun violence in America -- or at least his own righteous indignation in it. I really don't fault him...

Last week, I told you a little known fact about roadway deaths in America, which accumulated to more than 75,000 people in 2015 and 2016 combined. But the media has been mostly silent about those tragic deaths. Why is that? I shared my ideas (and my disgust) in part one of a series on the value of LIFE in the American Media. Today I continue that series with part two: Do All Lives Matter? War & Peace George Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze "My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war , banished from the earth." -- George Washington Just reading our first president's words brings tears to my eyes. First, because I've read extensively about Washington and what he went through to bring this great nation into being. The Revolutionary War was at the same time horrific and glorious, characterized by both needless deaths and deaths that bought liberty so precious, we who are Americans can barely comprehend life w...

Let's make that question personal: Do all lives matter to YOU? Do all lives matter to ME? I ask because I stumbled across a lonely article last year, which I can't seem to find now. So I went to the source: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which reported that approximately 40,000 people lost their lives on American roadways during 2016. That estimate is up six percent from the 2015 numbers , when 35,092 people died on American roadways. Together, 2015 and 2016 mark the most drastic two-year escalation in roadway deaths in 53 years. But you haven't heard about that on the news, have you? No, there hasn't been time for the media to dwell on 75,000 Americans losing their lives. They were too busy talking about important deaths. You know, like the ones in Ferguson, Baltimore and San Francisco. And those other deaths caused by someone who shouldn't have a gun, or someone else with a pre-existing condition. Seventy-five thousand Americans, de...

News this weekend included floods in the gulf coast , a fire and knife attack on a Swiss train, an elderly woman who was accidentally shot by police in Florida, and a Washington woman who crashed her car upside down into a Starbucks drive-thru. So why were these stories in the news? And what stories might have been rejected so these stories could be featured? Newsworthiness is the term I learned back in J school that expresses all the possible components of an event that could qualify it for coverage by the media. Today I will define each term, give examples and then talk about how they might be manipulated to create bias. Newsworthiness isn’t an equation or a checklist. An event doesn’t have to meet three out of seven criteria to be considered newsworthy, for example. Neither does ONE element typically make something newsworthy. It’s usually a combination of these elements that has to be judged by editorial staff. On a slow news day, the top story might be a pol...

To be Fair… I heard a political analyst use this phrase on a news channel this morning. The analyst to his right immediately laughed. “To be fair?” she scoffed. “How can you pretend your analysis is in any way fair ?” And so it goes. And doesn’t it feel like this political season is worse than ever? In a series of posts over the next couple of months, I’m going to attempt to address issues of fairness, truth, accuracy and bias. Why am I qualified to do this? First, I have a degree in journalism and studied media bias extensively during my years at Arizona State University. Second, I am completely and utterly disenchanted with BOTH presidential candidates this year, meaning I’m not inclined to defend either of them. If that doesn’t sell you on my credentials, read on for my incredible insights and be prepared to change your mind! Is that a Fact? Facts are the first thing I think about when analyzing fairness, truth and bias. We all learned the difference be...