Since Watergate, are journalists heros?

Since Watergate, are journalists heros?
No, they are not heros. Before Watergate, they under-exaggerated things. Now, they over-exaggerate things. It used to be if there was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in virginia that caused some people to fall, some water bottles to fall, some paintings to rattle, they said "oh, don't worry, there was no earthquake at all." Now, they would say "There was just a major earthquake in virginia, causing massive damage. Everybody needs to check on loved ones from Florida to New York, because the death toll is high." and then they wouldn't stop talking about it for months after. They get people to spend millions of dollars, all wasted, on extra food, evacuations, etcetera, etcetera. So, no, I do not believe journalists are heros quite yet. but we could be soon. All we have to do is tell the truth, the whole truth, and not exaggerate anything. We need to tell it how it is, not how it's not.

"Journalsim's major problem nowadays is that it's too detached from the overall society"

I think this quote means that journalism was started to bring the truth out, but now it's all about this celebrity and that celebrity, this president getting impeached and what he did to get that impeachment. When you turn on the news, they say "Good morning America!" and start listing reason why it's not. This person shot this person, so-and-so got hit by a car, Justin Bieber makes number seven on Top Ten Women of the Internet, so-on and so-on. But, what they don't tell you is what rich guy just donated seven-million dollars to charity, who took a bullet for someone they loved, and who was a hero. I don't know about everybody else, but my friends and I want to see about good things, not bad things.

Correct info?

How do you know what's right or wrong as a journalist?

As a journalist, you can't get all your information from one source. You have to check one source, then check it with another source. If they agree, it's more likely to be true. If they disagree, you need to investigate further. The more sources you use, the better your information will be.

You need to make sure your sources aren't bias. If both of your sources strongly disapprove of or resent the subject you need information about, they might tell you things that aren't true just to make it look bad. If someone was in love with an army general, they might not tell you the war atrocities he committed, just how that general made his troops win the battle.

You also have to make sure that your source knows about the subject. You don't want to ask an artist about   military leaders, but you might want to ask a former army general about military leaders.

Hurricane Irene ~Interview~

I'm interviewing my mom's friend, Cynthia Moncrief, about her experience with Hurricane Irene.

"Where were you during the hurricane?"
"At home, in the basement."

"Before the hurricane hit were you worried?"

"No."

"Did anything exciting or weird happen during the hurricane?"

"A tree branch fell down in the driveway where I was supposed to park my car, so I had to park my car in the street next to my driveway."

"Did your power go out at all? If so, how long?"

"Power never went out, but cable and internet did."

"Did your basement flood at all?"

"No."

"Overall, was the hurricane big for you?"

"No, I've been through them before."

"Well, thank you for taking time to talk to me."

"Your welcome."

Now I'm going to interview Cynthia's son, Dylan, about his experience with hurricane Irene. Keep in mind that Dylan is nine years old, and he fell asleep during the most of it, so his recount of the hurricane will strongly differ from Cynthia's, even though they were together the whole time.

Where were you during the hurricane? 
I was at my mom's boyfriend's house.
Did the power go out?
The power did go out, for about five minutes after the hurricane.
Do you have any exciting stories to tell us about the hurricane?
No, I don't.
What time did you end up falling asleep?
Same time as always, 9:00 pm.
Who were you with during the hurricane?
I was with my mom and Char, my mom's boyfriend.
Were you worried, or scared, before the hurricane hit? And why?
No, because I'm not afraid of hurricanes.
During the day, when it was raining, what did you do to keep from getting bored?
I was playing my DSiXL, watching a movie, and sleeping.
Well, that's all, but thank you for taking time to talk to me.
Your welcome.

Hurricane Irene

We all know about the recent hurricane, Irene. Some people got effected more than others. But, up where I live, everyone was panicking for nothing.

The news people always start out with a worst case scenario, and get more and more exact when the problem gets closer. They said that it was going to hit South Carolina, and work it's way up, until the hurricane hit New York. My dad is very practical, and knew that the chances of a actual hurricane hitting us was very slight. An actual hurricane has not hit Delaware since 1903, over one-hundred years ago. We have gotten hit by many "remnants of" or "moisture from" many other hurricanes, to many to count. Many have become tropical storms before they hit us. To get people to keep watching the news channel, they will do anything, include waste thousands of other people's money. people get stupid when they are scared. It's just what people do. The worst damage was flooding, maybe some fallen trees. one tornado was spotted, in Salem, New Jersey. THAT'S ALL!!!

My parents rented three movies for the weekend, Rango, Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Red Riding Hood (adult movie). My cousins, Matt and Will, along with there dad, spent the night at our house because there apartments are infamous for flooding. My mom made a chocolate cake. It fell apart, but it was still delicious. We ate cake, watched movies, and laid around. My mom was sleeping.

While my mom was sleeping, I was playing games on her iPhone. My mom-mom (my mom's mom) called and said to me "Get down into the basement, there's a tornado in Stanton!" Stanton is literally right behind my house, so I woke my mom up and gave her the phone. I didn't know if this was just mom-mom being mom-mom, or if there was really a tornado heading for us. My mom said for everyone to get into the basement, and she headed down. She wasn't trying to get anyone else down, she was just went to the basement. I told the four little kids to get down in the basement (my two cousins and my two brothers) and the tried to coax our dog into the basement. My uncle's just sitting on the couch smiling. He has a really twisted sense of humor, maybe it's the brain surgery he had, or maybe it's just who he is. My dad was out front during all this, and he walks inside, and asks what we are doing. Mom explains that there is a tornado in Stanton. He argues with my mom that he was just outside, and there's no tornado. Yea, mom-mom just being mom-mom. 

The power flickered a few times during the night, but nothing major. We had a less then an inch of water in our basement. I fell asleep around one o'clock, and when I woke up the rain had stopped. The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm just before it hit. My uncle was missing. I found out that he had gone to a heavily flooded area after I was asleep, with an inflatable raft, and gotten himself arrested. It's just like him to do something like that. There was 21 deaths in eight states blamed on Irene, including an eleven year-old boy that had a tree fall on him. My aunt wrote on Face Book "Big thanks to the news station for the advice to buy food and flashlights!" Does she really need to have the news station to remind her to buy food? Again, panic makes people stupid. Like my dad predicted, Hurricane Irene was not all that the news stations said it would be.