Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show

In Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show by Martin Kaplan it is said that the media cares more about rating and having an audience then having news that matters. He gives examples of media including the news and the Internet which can distort the knowledge we obtain. The news wants a story regardless if it is important or not.

I agree with his idea that news is for entertainment and not of much importance anymore. The news decides Michael Jackson is more important than something major in the world.

Kaplan says," Instead of trying to tell us what's true, journalism now prides itself on finding two sides to every story, no matter how feeble one side may be" (140). This is one point on Kaplans main idea. He states that journalists just want a story no matter how they have to get it.

what orwell didnt know response

In the essay Politics and the English Language from the book What Orwell Didn't Know he says that the English language is poor because our thoughts are foolish. Orwell gives 6 rules on what not to do. Orwell also states that language should be simple instead of using big complicated words use simple words that people can understand. He also states that if your going to use a metaphor or a simile do not use one that is always used like "toe the line". He gives examples of how bad our language is. We try so hard to sound smart that the meaning is lost.

I like this article even though it was hard to read. I like the idea that we use simple language instead of complicated terms you have to look up in the dictionary. I also found the rules helpful because by following these rules things will be much simpler to understand and people will enjoy reading different varieties of readings.

Mexico extradites record number to U.S.

In an article I found interesting on CNN's website http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/01/mexico.us.extraditions/index.html

Apparently Mexico sent 11 people back to the US over the weekend. 4 were charged with drug related crimes and the rest were charged with sexual assualt, robbery, murder, etc. The states involved include California, Texas, Florida, Maryland and DC.
The total extraditions for this year from Mexico to US is 100 which is 5 higher than last year.
People who are for increased extradition say that US gives more severe punishment.

I think the article should be more specific on the crimes committed and it should tell the city involved. I also think that they are wrong when they say that US has more severe punishment, or maybe it just means more severe legal punishment, cause I always thought it was worse to go to jail in Mexico than in the US.

Neighbors Thought Shooting Victim was Halloween Dummy

In Marina del rey there was a man who was shot in the head and lying outside on the balcony of his apartment. It took four days to notify the cops because they thought it was a sick Halloween prank. Jerry McKibben from the LA county departmentof Coroner says, "... Everything is pointing to it being a suicide."

This article is pretty short but it tells a lot of information. I think this was a halloween stunt. The man was 75 years old and he probably wanted to go out with a bang. I don't get how the neighbors didn't notice that the dead person was real and not some doll.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-marina-del-rey-body,0,7551861.story
KTLA news, October 16, 2009

Husband shot soccer mom as she chatted on webcam

I found an interesting story http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/09/gun.soccer.mom.dead/index.html it is about the women who brought a gun to her daughters soccer game over a year ago. She was talking on her web cam with her friend and her husband shot and killed her then went upstairs and killed himself. There kids were at a neighbors while this happened.
There was no reason why the husband went off his rocker and the friend didn't actually see it happen. He looked away at the time of the shooting. She was shot several times with a 9mm handgun the same type as her gun only hers wasn't used. The husband shot himself with a 12 gauge shotgun.
There were reports that the couple were separating but they were still living together. I can't understand why the husband would do something so stupid and why he would leave his children without there parents.
My guess is that he was upset about the separation and he didn't want to be separated. I find it strange that the article would mention the incident over a year ago because it doesn't seem very relevant. If he wanted to kill her because of that then he would have done it a long time ago and there was no reason to kill himself. I think the article left out the motive for why this happened.

Lone Pine, Ca gets hit with earthquakes

A story posted on October 3rd got my attention, MSNBC reports that Lone Pine, CA has had four earthquakes magnitudes 3.0, 4.5, 3.0, 3.1. These occured between midnight Saturday and Sunday morning. There also have been a few other earthquakes on Thursday and Friday with a few aftershocks.

I found the story to lack alot of stuff. It was ver general with no details. It says no injuries or damage but I dont think thats the whole story. The was no first hand accounts from Lone Pine, none of the residents said anything about it. There was no reactions.

It can be found at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33155125/ns/us_news-life/

Murder-Suicide in Maryland

In an examiner.com article "Murder-Suicide confirmed in Md. family's death," a man shoots his wife and two kids, while they were sleeping, with a 12-gauge shotgun and then proceeded to shoot himself, because the recession was really taking a toll on their ability to survive. The bodies of the wife, Jennifer, and his kids, Charles Jr. and Emmaline, were found in their beds. While Charles L. Dalton was found next to his bed. He also had the nerve to shoot their beagle. This has shown to be a growing trend people killing themselves and their family over a major crisis such as the recession.

In response to this article i have 4 things to say.
1. I thought money couldn't buy happiness. He acted like if he didn't have money then life was pointless.
2. Why does he get to make the decisions for everyone in his family. Is it because hes the 'man' of the house.
3. Could he have picked a bigger gun? Then again maybe he wanted to make sure he got the job done right.
4. What did he have to kill the dog for? The dog doesn't need money to survive. Unless he thought the relationship between Dog and God was to close and didn't want to be judged.
This article was not biased, it was a statement of facts and quotes from the spokesperson.