Manjoo Post: True Enough reveals enough truth, although many don’t see it.

A lot of people today see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. There’s not as much thinking outside the box in our society today as there used to be, especially with regards to the media. To give a perfect example of this I provide two similar examples that occurred today in my Public Affairs class. My classmate Caroll Lovel stated that she watches FOX News when she was discussing another student’s blog. Immediately, before hearing what she had to say, many of my classmates whispered disgruntled moans under their breath and their heads turned as if someone said the building was on fire. When I mentioned that I enjoy watching Bill O’Reilly, but don’t really care for any other program on the Fox News Network, I noticed a few classmates laughing or looking up to the heavens like this was unbelievable. However, as Gil pointed out, “The thing about O’Reilly…they have the best fact-checkers.” Love him or hate him. I didn’t say he was perfect, but I am able to stay accurately up-to-date with current events and major news stories watching his program. Before I could finish my point, I wasn’t allowed to state that I also watch both Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Anderson Cooper on CNN occasionally. I actually watch all three of the networks that would probably destroy each other in a gang fight if given the opportunity.

Can anyone else say that they watch all three of these networks? I would bet it’s not many….

Before even reading the book: True Enough, the inside cover immediately grabbed my attention. Manjoo illustrates an example of how deeply held beliefs can displace our very perceptions of what’s real and what’s not in the world around us. The problem that Manjoo identifies is that we only see the insights that favor ourselves or our beliefs and shutout anything that contradicts. There’s an old saying that there are two very sensitive subjects you never bring up: religion and politics. The two are identical in conversation because if one has a different belief than the other, it is rare that either will EVER win the argument. How can both sides be right? They can’t! It’s the same with politics. Whether you’re a Democrat/Liberal, a Republican/Conservative, or an Independent/Moderate no one will ever be right. The problem is that many get trapped in ONLY what they believe with no regards to any other.

Let’s take a closer look at the media as a whole according to Manjoo. There is one thing I mentioned earlier today that nearly every form of media is using nowadays: peripheral processing. It’s when the media relies on erroneous pundits. To show I am not biased in my three favorite network anchors, I’ll go after Bill O’Reilly on this one. About once a month, he has a body language expert appear on his show to examine slow motioned video footage of politicians, comedians, presidents, anchors, and other members of media making news at the time. She examines their facial expressions, their hand movements, and their posture to basically tell everyone what is already obvious enough in the video, which is usually a type of emotion. I still can’t quite gather how her opinion on looking at people is deemed newsworthy. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m sure she is an expert at reading people, but this isn’t like the television drama Lie To Me, where a fictional doctor can tell if someone is lying based on body language that will eventually lead to solving a murder or discovering a cover-up. If that were true Mrs. Cleo would still be on television.

Many people are so convinced if someone on television sounds confident in something they say, it must be true. They accept it without ever beginning to wonder if it’s true, accurate, or even real. In my short life of 22 years and counting, I have seen and been through enough scenarios where being skeptical is like second nature to me (I like to call in out-of-the-box thinking, it sounds less brutal). I don’t immediately disbelief someone’s facts when I hear them, but I do question them. I think that’s why I want to be in broadcasting. It’s like when someone tells you a story that doesn’t completely make sense and by asking certain questions you can catch that persons mistake or lie in some cases. As journalist and broadcast majors it is vital that we all understand that the media we are used to now won’t always be like this. It only took a few years before Facebook and Twitter were like gold for journalists. Can you imagine what it will be like 10 years from now? As I understand it, people can already blog from their smart phones today! It’s only a matter of time when technology will advance so far that media will immediately be sent to your brain.

Courtroom 62: Trial Case

Today, I traveled once again to the court house downtown to complete my assignment on the trial case. My classmates and I arrived at the courthouse and examined different courtrooms we could possibly sit-in on. Nearly all the court rooms we checked were locked. It wasn’t until we were on the fourth floor when one of my classmates entered a judges chambers did we learn that there would not be a trial until 1:30. So to pass the time we took a journey to Gilligan’s Sports Bar Restaurant to have lunch and a drink.

The time flew by almost instantly and we were back at the courthouse going through metal detectors once again. We voyaged to the sixth floor to courtroom 62 which was nearly empty upon our arrival. There were more cops and lawyers then people attending. We quickly snuck into the back row because I was unaware there was a no shorts policy and didn’t want to be removed from the courtroom. The two gentlemen in the row in front us were engaged in a whisper conversation that was so loud we had to move closer to be able to hear any conversations from the judge and the lawyers. The first case was very quick and very brief. It involved one of the gentlemen that were talking in front of us. I still don’t recall what he was there for, only that the trial had been rescheduled for a later time. The second case was just as short. A woman who was supposed to be at the trail was in Japan. The judge rescheduled and moved on.

The third case involved the only man in an orange jail jump-suit in the courtroom. He was still in hand-cuffs and shackles when he entered the courtroom and during the entire length of his trial. He stood very tall and looked way beyond his actual age, 16. The judge talked to attorneys, the officer involved with the case, and then to the defendants grandmother who was in the courtroom. Apparently, the young man has had many felonies and misdemeanors already on his record and was also on probation. After an argument occurred with his grandmother he ran away, which eventually lead to him running from officers when he was out at night. He was outside his house at an hour past his probation officers request. The grandmother cried throughout the entire case; she is the legal guardian of this young man. Eventually, the judge decided he had no choice but to put the young man back in jail.

The final case was the longest of them all. The defendant, Mr. Rubio, was there due to a knife that was found on a probation random check of his house. There were several witnesses in this case including several probation officers and supposedly his son and wife. The plaintiff and defendant lawyers asked all of the probation officers several questions to put the case in a clear light; here it is as far as I know: Mr. Rubio was on probation and had not failed any alcohol or drug related tests. When probation officers came to his house one day and searched his house, Mr. Rubio (according to a probation officer on the scene) smelled of alcohol and his eyes were blood-shot red. When searching his room they came across a knife that was later identified as a scuba knife. Mr. Rubio was arrested for having possession of the weapon which was a violation of his probation. Mr. Rubio’s attorney was VERY VERY GOOD in my opinion. Even though the facts were against him he still came off believable and asked many frequent short questions. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the case concluded, but I really wish I could have stayed. This case was lengthy, yes, but very interesting. It was like watching a suspenseful movie.

Meeting #2: Land Use

This semester has been very difficult for me in all of my classes. Always when it seems that all hope has been lost, I find a way to walk away victorious. I didn’t realize this second meeting would be due tonight until yesterday evening. As fate would have it, there were several meetings I could attend today and still manage to complete this assignment before midnight. Since after class I am dedicated to homework, I went to the earliest one: The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. The meetings agenda focused on land use, something I was not really confident on or knew anything about, but it was either that or a meeting about agriculture; something I know absolutely nothing about.

The meeting began like every other public meeting I have attended: The pledge of allegiance and a short prayer. Next a member of the board presented the chairman with a “slugger” or baseball bat for his achievements as board leader in the last year. Every member of the board had signed his unique baseball bat. Immediately after, they dove right into the first issue which I’m not too sure what it was even about. They voted right away before I could make any sense what they were voting on. Now I knew I had to focus.

Luckily, their next order of business was a gentleman asking for an extra million dollars for the construction area by I75 and Bruce B. Downs. Finally! Something I could understand and certainly could relate to. A member of the board then asked the gentleman when the construction by the interstate would be completed, but the gentleman did not know. The board all voted in support of the extra money. The board went on to a couple who are migrant farmers. The man has had medical issues that make it very difficult for him to work. The couple is going through a hard time and was requesting a sign on their property. I did not understand the purpose or even what they were trying to achieve. The vote passed 6-0 for the third time in a row; I began to wonder if any of the board members would vote no on anything.

The next item on the agenda was a staff item involving an outline on something I did not understand. Two people discussed the outline as something being involved in the community and that they claimed to have a PowerPoint presentation. They did not show the PowerPoint. Instead they voted again and again the vote passed 6-0. Surprisingly, the meeting was adjourned for the time being. The meeting would pick up again later in the afternoon. I was immediately surprised because this was the shortest public meeting I had ever been to and had also not realized they were going to delay the rest of the meeting.

William March: Campaign Contributions

“You cannot give money to someone else and have him or her contribute it to a campaign. It is illegal.”--- William March

It’s good to try and support a candidate financially, but you must follow the rules like everyone else. Everyone is allowed a limit on financial contributions to keep the elections fair. You cannot give money to someone else and have him or her contribute it to a campaign; it is illegal. It is one of the most difficult challenges for prosecutors to catch. No one will ever know unless someone tells, which is not likely to happen. William March gave my class a variety of websites to track down who has made contributions. By visiting these sites, as journalists, we can search for some unusual campaigns contributions that may be newsworthy, especially when the contributor donates a significant amount of money that he or she or the company does not have. These websites allow you to see what persons or company made contributions and whom they made contributions to.

March provided my class an example during the 1996 election where Bill Clinton received a large amount of soft money from an individual involved with a corporation named Future Tech. Soft money is given to a political party where there is no limit or cap on how much one can donate. March’s’ associate tracked down the guy through multiple public records. Some of the sites we were given as an example were: 1) sunbiz.org/, 2) moneyline.cq.com/pml/home.do, and 3) http://www.opensecrets.org/. March mentioned that the second website was his favorite and that we could check federal campaigns. You don’t have to use just these three websites; it’s as simple as going to Google and typing in campaign contributions.

Towards the end of the class we were lectured on the importance of self-control and opinions. March told us that he would not reveal to us his political party who whom he voted for. He stated that, “[we] could check public records and find out, but it is not something that I will reveal publicly” because of his job as journalist at the Tampa Tribune. I could sense he was holding something back, almost like an incident that occurred involving this topic. Something about his tone and the very serious facial expressions and body language revealed to me that this is a significant lesson to take in. I have never had a problem revealing which parties or candidates I support and disagree with, but then again I don’t work for the Tribune.

Preston Trigg- Budgets for Journalists

“It’s the money you take in and the money you spend. That’s all a budget is.”
---Preston Trigg

Preston Trigg was back for a second time this semester, this time to educate us on budgets. He explained that the beginning of most budgets includes a lot of facts, usually like the number of employees or background information on the government entity or the city or county. It is usually a lengthy document. But don't be fooled on the extensive length of the document. That's usually used as a decoy. “Don’t rely on just the summary—sometimes it is what the agency wants you to report." Especially for journalists, we need to keep it simple for the reader. These documents are so long and detailed that it wont be hard to lose the readers attention.

Triggs educated us on the differences between revenues and expenses that are permitted in Florida and also explained fiscal’s years. I never knew budgets were on a different schedule then the rest of us. Budgets fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th every year. One thing Triggs mentioned over and over and even mentioned it the last time he was here was to follow the money. The budget is clearly one of the most important pats of a reporter’s job. It can lead to your stories. He mentioned an example featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If the Buccaneers raise their ticket prices, that's a story. Stadium attendance to these games is how the Glaziers make their revenue and if they raise the ticket price you can assume their hurting in money (even though they are in serious debt and have blacked out all the home games.) I feel this would be my strong point in journalism. My dad has been a financial advisor for over ten years. I know how to manage, handle, and acknowledge what a normal budget should look like

Public Meeting 1: Northdale Recreation Center

The first required public meeting I attended was at the Northdale Recreation Center. The matter they were discussing was about the two intersections on Dale Mabry Highway at North Lakeview Drive and Northdale Boulevard. The two intersections were acknowledged by the County’s Department of Public Works as being two locations that have had severe traffic delay due to multiple accidents and the overcrowded roads. I was surprised to see how many people were at this meeting considering this didn’t seem to be something that would strike interest to the public. They even had to pull out extra chairs at one point to lend a hand to those who didn’t have a seat. A Preliminary Design and Engineering Study was conducted to establish enhancements to the intersections to diminish the traffic and improve the safety on these roads. The study found that the two intersections flow of traffic is horrible due to the lack of turning lanes. The study concluded that traffic safety and operation could be enhanced by: “Modifying and / or closing off the two nearest median openings that are located on North Lakeview within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway” and by “Modifying and closing off the nearest median opening located on Northdale Boulevard within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway.” They showed a video to everyone to demonstrate how they were going to improve these intersections. The video was very informative and provided specific details how the county would improve this. We were also given a pamphlet that listed all of these details. Most of the details were similar for the two intersections. For example, the county plans to widen both roads to make room for extra turning lanes. Also, they would replace streetlights and create traffic separators.

I found this meeting to be a little dull for me because I do not drive on either of these roads regularly. I know that most of the people attending must either drive on the roads frequently or was involved in many of the accidents on these roads. At one point one of the city officials or speakers said there was a possible option that was not mentioned on our pamphlet, which would prohibit any construction and leave it the way it is. As a frequent driver on Bruce B Downs by the construction by i75, I could definitely understand why many people applauded at this point. Construction traffic stinks! I think everyone can agree on that; however, I do understand that the county’s first concern is our own safety.

Field Trip: Hillsborough Medical Examiner Office

-----"I saw dead people”

I loved the fact that the Hillsborough Medical Examiner office was within two miles of the university. My friend Lou Lou and I were the last two to arrive to the presentation. Vernard Adams, the chief medical examiner, gave a great presentation, but spoke in a very low voice that made it difficult to hear the recording that I took that day. He stressed something that I thought would be obvious, but never thought about: Photographs of autopsies are not available to the public (even though I happened to see a photograph later on the tour). This came in effect after Dale Earnhart, the NASCAR race-car driver, was killed in an accident during the 2001 Daytona 500 race. Newspapers wanted photographs of the autopsy, but obviously the family objected to this. This introduced the Earnhart protection act, which prevented photograph autopsies to become public records. Written records of the autopsy are public records unless the case is under examination, like rape investigations or criminal investigations. Someone from the medical examiners office has to call the state attorneys office and get approval from the state attorney to determine if these are open to the public or not. Now you may get a different response if you ask the detectives handling the case. The police may not allow it to be a public record because it may interfere with investigations.

After the presentation Mr. Adams took us on a tour of the building. Our first stop was to see the clerical files room. This is where I accidentally managed to view a photo of an autopsy. With respect to the individual, I wont go into details about what I saw, but it reminded me of a prison photo only the subject was not alive. Each folder was organized with different color tabs to identify which ones were suicides, homicide’s natural death, drug related deaths etc. I was surprised to see that they had more suicide cases then homicides. As we continued the tour we saw a science lab that reminded me of the ones I saw in high-school and learned that the electric bill of this place was approximately $25,000 to keep fresh air circulating. Then we came to everyone’s favorite part: The Autopsy Room. We were originally told that were not allowed in the room because they were in progress of clearing the organs of one of the bodies; however, once we saw other classmates in the room we demanded to go in as well. The body we saw reminded me of a prop that didn’t even look real. Once I remembered that they clean the bodies and collect the organs, this made it easier to remember that this person was indeed real. Next we saw the fridge where multiple bodies were kept. The smell in this was unbearable. I literally had to hold my breath while in the room and could still smell it even after the door was closed. The tour ended with Mr. Adams explaining how much he loved his job because it’s always interesting.