College: the closing of another chapter

There’s a mixture of who I am in piles on my bed and scattered on my bedroom floor. I don’t know what to say as this chapter of life closes. A million feelings are exploding inside of me at once and just as many thoughts are engulfing my mind.

Graduation isn’t for another month, but to look into the college newsroom where I’ve spent the last two years or so of my life is bittersweet. It’s going to be one place I’m going to miss like crazy when I leave this town.

Light in the dark of bad news

There are many days when it seems like the world is going insane. Or at least the people in it are.

Just this week alone, news has included American politician Mike Huckabee bashing bashing single mothers, someone on Twitter was spitting hateful comments towards former Calgary Flame Theo Fleury regarding being him sexually abused by convicted sex offender and former junior hockey coach, saying things like “Are you enjoying all the attention this has given you?” Theo’s status later stated, “I’m not upset at all. Want to show an example of what survivors of sexual abuse have to go through when they reveal their secret.”

Why cut ties with heritage?

News of the latest scandal to rock the British royal family has likely shocked many royal family followers in both Canada and Great Britain.

Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth, was photographed with a teenage prostitute, has been associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstien, and the British media is flocking to allegations that the prince has close ties to a Libyan leader’s son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi.

Polygamy- when is there too much freedom?

I don’t claim to know anything about religion, because I don’t, but one thing that has never made sense to me are people who hide behind religion and use it as an excuse for the things they’ve done.

New evidence has been introduced in a polygamy case in BC, where  the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) Prophet Warren Jeffs awaits trail on accusations of sex crimes against minors. New information has been found that claims that teenage girls as young as 12 and 13 have been smuggled across the border to the US by their fathers. These girls were “married” to the Prophet.

Hello world…

Distractions; they surround us. Sometimes we don’t even realize how we drown in our cell phones with wifi internet, our laptops and mp3 players and iPods.

Sometimes we hide behind it all; afraid of what the silence might reveal should we turn them all off and just exist where we are.

Not your average story

As a journalist (even a student), I get story ideas from friends quite often. Some are intriguing while others flop. One in particular was given to me at a party. I had a friend suggest to me interviewing this Touch for Health practitioner in town for a profile story. It sounded good, seems as Touch for Health, as I know now, is not something that is a well known practice.

“The ending is the most important part”

So that Rick Buis child porn case hit me harder than I thought it would.

Once the adrenaline and rush of the story wore off, after writing the almost 600 words in under an hour and the newspaper came out the next day, the full impact started to hit me. I didn’t really think about it until one of my instructors came up, hugged me and asked if I was alright. Something inside cracked right then and suddenly the feelings I had surrounding the case, the anger, sadness, hurt for the victims, it all started trickling out from the tough wall I thought I had. Turns out even the strongest of walls we think we build aren’t as tenacious as we think they are.

The balance between journalism’s darkness and light

A former vice-president of my college pleaded guilty to child porn charges and the Special Prosecution of the case went into graphic details about the material found on his computers, making everyone in the room shudder in a disturbed silence. The kids in the videos were as young as one years old, perhaps younger, and as the prosecutor said, it “leaves nothing to the imagination.” After the court house, it was back to production where I had an hour to pop out a 500-word story and still get the page done.

Finding story ideas- keep a list

I found a great post about finding stories on the weekends. In actuality, these suggestions would work for any slow news week. Because there’s nothing journalists dislike more than a slow news day, when sources don’t call back and no breaking news makes the news room erupt into a frenzy of excitement.

Sources- to name or not to name?

The debate about whether journalists should be required to name their sources is ongoing and has been for years. Just when it seems talk of it has turned  mild, something comes up that fires it off again.