Editor’s Note: It has been a long year dealing with COVID-19 and its long-term fallout. Here is a collection of blog entries about getting through the last year from my commentary and blogging students. Really impressed with what these young people have to say.
Alexis is a student who works full-time along with going to school. Having to be isolated due to COVID-19 made life tough for her.
Grace McDonald works at answering the question of “Why are you in choir” through the voice of one of her classmates.
I've interviewed a lot of people about their COVID-19 experience, but the story told by my fellow choir member, Tyler Clay, has my heart broken and hopeful at the same time. Music truly can make a difference.https://t.co/cC3ukaIVkG#JMC406
Makenzie Krumland tells the story of a young woman and her family dealing with COVID-19 while stranded in another country.
When visiting family for the holidays, the trip is typically spent in the company of your loved ones, making memories and catching up with one another. But this was not how Vanessa Ortiz and her family spent their Christmas during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://t.co/TaupdEqNgj
Ryan Range looks at how his school life changed when everyone was sent home from school in March of 2020. The events of that spring and summer led to him creating an award-winning short film about The World Theatre.
Ashely Hopkins is another of my students who turns to making soup (in this case, chili) when the weather turns cold and there’s not really anywhere to go.
I love to eat chili on any cold day in the fall or in the winter. So I wrote about it, go check it out! #JMC406https://t.co/uzhPJ6OC4j
Caity VanDeWalle takes an almost short story approach to telling the story of how her friend Abby dealt with having to go home during the early stages of the pandemic.
And finally… During the summer of 2020 I broke out of isolation for a week or so of motorcycling in Arkansas with an old friend. During that trip I discovered that Bass Reeves, Black lawman, from the HBO series Watchmen was a real person.
Motorcycling in the Time of COVID19: Riding with Bass Reeves and the Watchmen. Sometimes truth is more amazing than fiction.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to my friend Dr. Michael Socolow, University of Maine, for letting me reprint his article from The Conversation. Dr. Socolow takes a look at China’s repression and human rights abuses and asks whether cheerful media coverage of the Beijing Olympics in February 2022 signals complicity with Chinese propaganda. He does so by looking back at Hitler’s 1936 Olympics.
On the morning of Aug. 14, 1936, two NBC employees met for breakfast at a café in Berlin. Max Jordan and Bill Slater were discussing the Olympic Games they were broadcasting back to the United States – and the Nazi propaganda machine that had made their work, and their visit to Germany, somewhat unpleasant.
Slater complained about all the staged regimentation and the obviously forced smiles everywhere.
“Why don’t they revolt? We wouldn’t stand for all this browbeating and bullying in America. I know that. Why do they stand for it here?” Slater asked Jordan.
As they were talking, three armed Nazi guards sat down at the next table. The whole café quieted. “It was as though a chill had come over those present,” Jordan later recalled. “In a nutshell, there was the answer to Bill’s question.”
I included the story Max Jordan recounted in his memoir in my book on the Nazi origins of Olympic broadcasting because it perfectly encapsulated the quandary facing American sports journalists whenever the International Olympic Committee pushes them to broadcast happy images provided by repressive regimes.
It’s now less than 100 days from the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and therefore it’s time for an honest discussion about the ethics of sport journalism and the morality of American media’s complicity with authoritarian regimes that hide the active repression of their citizens.
A sign reading ‘Juden Zutritt verboten!’ forbidding entry by Jewish people to the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Photo FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Thus, the Chinese government now wants good press in the West. And its efforts to ensure favorable coverage have prompted new concerns about media control and censorship during the Games, with a U.S. government spokesman recently urging Chinese government officials “not to limit freedom of movement and access for journalists and to ensure that they remain safe and able to report freely, including at the Olympic and the Paralympic Games.”
But, as was clear from the experience during the 1936 Olympics, if U.S. journalists go to Beijing and emphasize the beauty of its landscape, the happiness of its citizenry and its futuristic infrastructure, and fail to cover the more controversial realities in China, that would signal compliance with – and promotion of – Chinese propaganda.
This is American sports journalism’s Red Smith moment.
Politics, meet sports
On Jan. 4, 1980, Walter “Red” Smith, the veteran New York Times sports columnist, surprised his readership with his endorsement of the boycott movement against that summer’s Moscow Olympic Games. Boycott advocates were protesting the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Smith’s stance was unexpected, as he had carefully sidestepped – or even ignored – many other moments he considered unhealthy political intrusion into international athletic competition. But Smith wrote that history had proved that America’s participation in the Nazi Games was a mistake – even if the great Black American runner Jesse Owens redeemed the event in public memory.
“When Americans look back to the 1936 Olympics,” Smith wrote in his famous column, “they take pleasure only in the memory of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals.” Outside of that, he admitted, “we are ashamed at having been guests at Adolf Hitler’s big party.”
Smith was an old-school sports reporter, already an old-timer in 1980 – he died in 1982. His reporting and columns reflected the influence of Grantland Rice and Paul Gallico, the giants who invented modern American sports writing in the 1920s. But there had always existed another group of sports reporters less afraid to point out obvious political unpleasantness.
For example, the great Jimmy Cannon had no problem freely peppering political references and acerbic commentary throughout his columns. Westbrook Pegler detested the Nazis and criticized them relentlessly throughout the 1936 Games. And Howard Cosell’s sharp commentaries, on such issues as Muhammad Ali’s boxing suspension in the 1960s and the political activism that erupted in 1968 in Mexico City, remain a credit to his legacy.
That Red Smith had spent decades remaining largely apolitical in public made his support for the boycott surprising. That he was only the second sports columnist to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize, and that his opinions were widely respected, gave his endorsement significant clout.
‘The one lever we have’
Smith opened the gates for others to point out the incongruity and obvious hypocrisy of celebrating the Soviet Union’s peaceful intentions while the Soviet army was invading and occupying Afghanistan. In his column, Smith quoted British Member of Parliament Neville Trotter, who led the boycott movement in Great Britain.
“This is the one lever we have to show our outrage at this naked aggression by Russia,” Trotter told Smith. “We should do all we can to reduce the Moscow Olympics to a shambles.”
One well-known and nationally respected sports journalist has explicitly and unambiguously called for boycotting the 2022 Beijing Games: Sally Jenkins. The Washington Post’s veteran columnist – who last year was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary – published a scorching column plainly stating that “ignorance is no longer an excuse.”
“It was a forgivable mistake to award an Olympics to Beijing in 2008,” she wrote. “It’s unforgivable to hold one there now.”
Red Smith’s boycott column remains one of his most important and lasting examples of public service. As a media historian, I believe that those who emulate his courage today, like Sally Jenkins, will likely be remembered in the same way tomorrow.
(NOTE: Pressed “Publish” instead of “Save.” There’s more to come.)
For the last six or seven years, every summer I do a national-scale motorcycle scavenger hunt run by a motorcycle club out of Minnesota known as Team Strange. Each year it has a theme. This year’s Grand Tour is made up of bonus locations that were intended to be a part of last year’s Butt Lite X motorcycle scavenger hunt rally. (See, it’s a shorter version of the 11-day, 11,000-mile Iron Butt Rally, so it’s Butt Lite…) And just to make it more fun, all of the bonus locations for Butt Lite IX are included as well. (You can read more about my various experiences on these tours here.)
It’s now November and it’s time for me to submit all my photos, and the easiest way is for me to just upload them all here. So you can all ride along. If you watch the photos carefully, you’ll see which of the bonus sites I collected riding my white Suzuki V-Strom and which I got on my bright red Honda Rally.
Getting Started
“In 1964, Dwight D. Eisenhower called Andrew Jackson Higgins “the man who won the war for us”. Higgins was born in Columbus, NE in 1886, and without his landing crafts the Allied strategy in World War II would have been different and winning the war more difficult.” This photo is from the Higgins memorial in Columbus, NE. (01 Higgins Boat, 6/9/21)
“George A. Wyman was the first person to cross America on a motorized vehicle. Wyman started in San Francisco, California on May 16 and arrived in New York City 50 days later on July 6, 1903. On June 14, 1903, Wyman stopped in Ogden, Iowa for repairs to his motorcycle.” (02 Wayman Waypoint, 6/9/21)
“According to this unusual monument topped with a giant boot, 25 men and one woman are buried on the hill, killed by cross fire in a range war between the cowboys and homesteaders.” NOTE – This is one of two different Boot Hills I will visit this year. This was also the first bonus I claimed on the new Honda CRF300L Rally as the bonus was located on a minimum maintenance road. (03 Boot Hill, 6/22/21)
From my trip to the Black Hills
My trip to the Black Hills was done with my friend Matt the Bishop.
“The Sandhills Heritage Museum is housed in the 100 year-old Home State Bank building and is part of a campaign by the residents of Dunning to ‘Make Blaine County Great Again.'” (04 Sandhills, 6/26/21)
“This arched cantilever truss bridge over the Niobrara River is connected in the center with a single pin and is the only one of its kind in the U.S. It was built in 1932 at a cost of $55,524.” (05 Bryan Bridge, 6/29/21)
Overlooking the Niobrara River.
“The Fossil Exhibit Trail in Badlands National Park tells the story of the link between many common modern-day animals and their prehistoric ancestors, including dogs.” (06 Badlands, 6/26/21)
One of the requirements of the grand tour is that I have to have my motorcycle in the photo at every stop. But sometimes, like with this spot on a boardwalk in a national park, I can’t take the bike to the site of the bonus, so I need an alternate photo to show that I rode there. (06a Badlands 6/26/21)
“Roughlock Falls Nature Area is located in Spearfish Canyon and is considered to be one of the most beautiful locations in the Black Hills. At one time, the Homestake Mining Company owned this area, but it was never mined. The Homestake mine closed in 2002.” (07 Roughlock Falls, 06/28/21)
You couldn’t see the sign from where I parked, so here’s my bike at Roughlock Falls (07a Roughlock Falls 6/28/21)
“This dam is named for the town of Pactola, now flooded under the reservoir. The town was named by miners during the Black Hills Gold Rush which led to the Great Sioux War of 1876, during which the U.S. Army drove the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne people from their land.” (08 E.C.W. 6/29/21)
Once again, the monument I needed to photograph couldn’t be seen from the parking lot, so here’s my Wee Strom at the site. (08a E.C.W 6/289/21)
“Visitors to downtown Rapid City are greeted by the City of Presidents, a series of life-size bronze statues of past presidents along the city’s streets and sidewalks. The project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each sculpture is privately funded and the pattern of placement is chosen to eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain.” You can clearly tell that the sculpture is of Obama, but recognizing his daughter is a bit of a stretch. (09 Obama 6/29/21)
There’s also a statue of President G.W. Bush with his dog, Barney. W was not a very strong likeness, and it took Barney for me to be sure I had the right one. (11 GW Bush 7/1/21) I’m presenting W slightly out of order because I want to keep the two presidents together.
For Jewel Cave National Park, I had to buy something from the gift shop featuring a bat along with a receipt. (The cave is full of bats and Team Strange has had a bat fixation for some time.) (10 Jewel Cave 6/30/21)
The sticker on my motorcycle. (10a Jewel Cave 6/30/21)
“A family reunion in 1987 led to what has become America’s best known version of Stonehenge. Carhenge was a bonus on leg one of the first Butt Lite.” It is located near Alliance, NE. (12 Carhenge 7/1/21)
My parked motorcycle at Carhenge. RVs blocked the view of the main monument from where the bike was parked. (12a Carhenge 7/1/21)
Break-in Rides for the Rally:
My new CRF300L Rally needed break-in miles put in on it so I could get it in for its first service and to get its suspension redone. So the next couple of rides didn’t really call for a light dual sport, but that’s what they got.
“This original Pony Express Station was built in 1854 on the Oregon Trail four miles east of Fort McPherson and was used as a fur trading post and ranch house. From 1860-61 it was used as a Pony Express station, and then as an Overland Trail Stage station. It was later moved here and is ‘dedicated to all pioneers who passed this way to win and hold the west.'” (13 Pony Express 7/18/21)
A closeup of the plaque at the Pony Express station. (13a Pony Express 7/18/21)
“On January 18, 1874, Lakota Sioux passing through this area purportedly stole food, furs and a cow from some settlers. The next morning, a dozen men went in pursuit determined to recover the property or fight. They found the Lakota camped on Pebble Creek and after they refused to surrender anything of value, a fight ensued, leaving one settler and three Lakota dead.” Near Burwell, NE.(14 Pebble Creek 7/19/21)
Riding With Mike
The rest of these rides were with my friend Mike around Kansas and Nebraska.
“Nicodemus, founded in 1877, was the first western town built by and for black settlers. In September of that year 300 settlers recruited from Kentucky arrived at the newly platted town. This site represents the only remaining all black town established at the end of Reconstruction.” Nicodemus National Historic Site is frequently on the list of 10 Least Visited National Park units. I’ve been there several times, and it is well worth a visit. (15 Nicodemus 8/7/21)
“Voted the 2nd best restroom in the US (we’d love to see #1), Bowl Plaza almost certainly will be the nicest public restroom you’ll visit on this entire rally. Lucas, Kansas, gets about 15,000 visitors a year visiting several folk art attractions so they needed a public restroom. It took four years to build and has become an attraction on its own merits.” (16 Lucas Fancy Bathroom 8/7/21)
My motorcycle outside of the Lucas, KS fancy bathroom. (16a Lucas Fancy Bathroom 8/7/21)
“This Garden of Eden is the creation of S.P. Dinsmoor. He began constructing his vision in 1907 at the age of 64. The surreal sculptures and design of the house are meant to reflect Dinsmoor’s belief in the Populist movement and his religious convictions.” This is the second site of unusual public art in Lucas, KN. (17 Lucas Garden of Eden 8/7/21)
View that shows Garden of Eden entrance sign. (17a Lucas Garden of Eden 8/7/21)
“The Massacre Canyon battle took place on August 5, 1873 about half a mile west of here. A Pawnee hunting party of around 700 was surprised by a war party of 1,500 Sioux. It was the last great battle between Great Plains tribes. In the ensuing rout, 75-100 Pawnee were killed, men and mostly women and children, making this the bloodiest attack by the Sioux on the Pawnee.” This is near Trenton, NE. (18 Massacre Canyon 9/6/21)
Close up of the sad-faced warrior. (18a Massacre Canyon 9/6/21)
“Boot Hill was Ogallala’s only cemetery from 1874-1884. Over 100 people were buried there in that period, significant because the town had a population of less than 130 permanent residents at the time. A large statue of a cowboy sitting on horse titled The Trail Boss stands on the hill in the old cemetery. It pays tribute to the courageous men who came up the Texas Trail.” This is the second Boot Hill in Nebraska included in my scavenger hunt. (19 Boot Hill Ogalla 9/6/21)
“Pilgrim Holiness Church, built in 1928, was constructed of stacked and baled hay with walls 2 ft thick. The church is stuccoed on the outside and plastered on the inside. It’s the oldest hay bale church in North America and one of only three known to exist today.” (20 Hay Bale Church 9/6/21)
And with that, my 2021 Team Strange Grand Tour is done. As always, great fun!
Editor’s Note: Facebook and its various properties (Instagram, WhatsApp) have been in the news a lot lately, and not in a good way. Congress has been holding social media hearings where Facebook is the #1 bad guy, the Washington Post has had a host of stories, and the Wall Street Journal has a whole section devoted to covering the social media giant. I’m hoping to do several posts discussing these issues. Here’s the first one looking at the Wall Street Journal’s coverage. Will update as new articles get published.
Oct. 27, 2021
A slide show about Instagram produced internally at FB found:
“Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” the researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook’s internal message board, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.”
Instagram brings in more than $100 billion a year in revenue and depends on young people engaging with them.
Publicly, IG plays down the risks it presents to teens and preteens, even while internal documents highlight problems.
Their research over several years found:
They came to the conclusion that some of the problems were specific to Instagram, and not social media more broadly. That is especially true concerning so-called social comparison, which is when people assess their own value in relation to the attractiveness, wealth and success of others.
The tendency to share only the best moments, a pressure to look perfect and an addictive product can send teens spiraling toward eating disorders, an unhealthy sense of their own bodies and depression, March 2020 internal research states.
FB bought IG in 2012 for $1 billion when it only had 13 employees.
Facebook’s Documents About Instagram and Teens, Published Sept. 29, 2021
Facebook (which owns Instagram) has studied how teen girls compared their own bodies to those they saw on Instagram. Here are the original documents of these studies.
How Many Users Does Facebook Have? The Company Struggles to Figure It Out
Oct. 21, 2021
Facebook has a problem with people with multiple accounts, even though this is supposedly forbidden. Study of recent signups showed that between 32 and 56 percent came from existing users.Facebook’s estimates of the number of US users in their 20s often exceeds the total population in that age range, suggesting problems with their estimations or problems with duplicate accounts. And those duplicate accounts are often used to amplify problematic messages. This also creates a problem for advertisers who are spending their money in hopes of reaching very specific audiences.
What do My Little Pony, Transformers, Battleship and G.I. Joe all have in common?
They are all toys from Hasbro that all became major media entertainment properties under the leadership of CEO Brian Goldner, who died Tuesday of cancer. Goldner had been with the toy giant in one position or another since 2000. Hasbro’s products include Monopoly, My Little Pony, Transformers, the board game Battleship and the early action figure G.I. Joe. Back in 2012, Goldner told the NY Times that turning toys into entertainment franchises was a “core-brand strategy. Our four movies made $3 billion at the box office, but we made $1.6 billion in sales of merchandise because we own the I.P. [intellectual property] and all the merchandising rights.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter asks: Why isn’t there a New York Times of the right?
On his media news show Sunday evening, CNN media news reporter Brian Stelter raised an interesting question:
“Why aren’t there massive American newsrooms dedicated to journalism from a conservative point of view, a reality-based conservative point of view? Why isn’t there a New York Times of the right?”
An excellent answer to this question comes from the Washington Post’s media critic Erik Wemple who says, “The ‘New York Times of the right’ is … The New York Times.”
Wemple points out how Fox News host Tucker Carlson continually trashes the NY Times on his show and then goes on to frequently reference stories in a positive light from the Times. And as is his usual practice, Wemple provides specific dates and stories. (Examples are from Aug. 134, Aug. 21, Sept. 17, Sept. 20, Sept. 28, and Oct. 4. All of these praised stories from the Times.) Wemple then goes on to give a long list of other NY Times stories referenced as positive examples by Fox News hosts.
So, Fox News likes to have it both ways – trashing the New York Times and other “mainstream” news outlets while simultaneously depending on these news outlets for important reporting.
Back in 1987, comedian and filmmaker Todd Graham had a thought. What if he combined sequences from Francis Ford Coppola’s classic reboot of “Heart of Darkness” Apocalypse Now with segments of the Disney version of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree? The short film uses footage from Apocalypse combined with dialog from Winnie the Pooh along with visuals from Winnie the Pooh and sound from Apocalypse. To top things off, he did this originally with VHS copies of the two films.
The version below is a 2012 remastered version done with digital video. One of the best examples ever of remixing.
NOTE: This is a collection of videos I’m going to be using in class this week to go with my discussion of the movies in Global Media Literacy.
You all no doubt think you are of the “cat video” generation. You think your generation invented the short video of cute cats doing cute things. But you are wrong!
Thomas Edison’s studios shot the first cat video back in 1894! I present to you… Boxing Cats!
Kirby Ferguson did a remarkable series of videos about ten years ago under the title “Everything is a Remix.” He’s now in the process of remaking (remixing!) the series for a new decade. Below is the first segment, covering music, from his remix-remix, along with several other videos I use to to discuss the concept of remixing and music. (Note: Click on the image to view on YouTube.)
Remastered Original Version
2021 Revised Version
One of the examples of remixing in this film is from artist Gregg Gillis who records under than name Girl Talk. And his album “All Day” was the basis for a great little dance film called Girl Walk // All Day.
(NOTE: Lots of NSFW lyrics in the following material. Be advised.)
You can download Girl Talk’s entire album “All Day” here.
Visual presentation of playlist in All Day:
(NOTE: Lots of NSFW lyrics in the following material. Be advised.)
Sometimes cover songs can radically transform the original into something entirely new. Consider Robyn’s dance hit Call Your Girlfriend.
And then take a look at how folk singer Lucy Wainwright Roche reimagined it:
And finally… About 15 years ago, singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton recorded a brilliant acoustic version of Sir Mix A Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” turning the rap into a sweet ballad. Take a listen:
Lots of fun, and a very distinctive cover. No way you would hear this and not know that this it the Jonathan Coulton cover. (Kinda like the Gary Jules cover of the Tears for Fears song “Mad Love.”)
So now the folks on the Fox show Glee have performed the Coulton version of “Baby Got Back,” but they have made no reference to it being based on Coulton’s cover, nor did they contact Coulton about it.
Now it’s great that Glee is picking up on something so cool. But it would be much cooler if they would have made mention of the independent musician who created this version of the song. Of course, companies like News Corp. (that owns Fox Broadcasting that airs Glee) always wants proper credit and compensation for their creative content….
For the record – here’s Sir Mix-A-Lot’s hip hop original:
Editor’s Note: Please note that nothing in this commentary is intended to minimize the violence perpetrated against Gabby Petito. But there are significant news coverage issues brought up by this case that I think need to be discussed.
Ms. Petito had come to some level of prominence as a “van life” Instagrammer – attractive young people who post photos of themselves traveling around the country and documenting their travels through social media such as Instagram and YouTube. The following video (assuming it stays up) gives Petito’s and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie’s image of themselves on the road.
The trip started in June of 2021 and Petito presented a positive view of their trip through her social media. Then, on Aug.12, the couple had an encounter with the Moab, Utah police who reported them as having “some sort of altercation.” On Aug. 30th, CNN reports that Petito’s family had their last communication from Gabby, supposedly from the area of Yosemite National Park.
Throughout September, Petito’s family reached out to Laundrie’s family, trying to figure out where Gabby had gone, but they heard nothing from either Brian or his family. Laundrie reportedly disappeared from his family’s home on September 14.
A body identified as Petito’s was found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on Sept. 21, and an autopsy led to her death being classified as a homicide. Laundrie is being sought as a “person of interest” in the case.
American news media have a long history of paying more attention to crime stories that deal with conventionally attractive, wealthy, white women and girls than to those that deal with women and girls of color or who are in poverty.
Consider the story of Casey Anthony. The attractive, young, white mother was accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter. During her trial in 2011, the news media, especially cable television, was obsessed with the case. When Anthony was found not guilty, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites were filled with outraged comments about the verdict. In addition, talk show hosts such as Nancy Grace seemed to be obsessed with the case.
Five years after the court acquitted Anthony, Google News still featured more than 202,000 links to news stories connected to the case. On the other hand, a 2016 Google search for Jhessye Shockley, a five-year-old African American girl from Arizona who disappeared in 2011, only turned up 341 news stories, most connecting to the 2015 conviction of her mother in Jhessye’s death.
Keith Woods, an expert on diversity issues who has worked for both the Poynter Institute (a journalism think tank) and NPR, says stories about minority women tend to receive less attention because reporters are more likely to report about people they see as being like themselves. And since most newsrooms tend to be disproportionately white and middle class, the disappearance of a white woman is seen as a bigger story. This control over which stories are reported means that the public at large is not aware that African American women are disproportionately more likely to disappear than white women.
And so we see the same pattern playing out once again with the the Gabby Petito, with perhaps a few 2020 factors at play.
Ja’han Jones, who blogs for MSNBC, notes that while the “cinematic qualities” of the story and the high level of social media interest in the case accounts for some of the reason the Petito story has been so big, the main explanation is that journalists suffer from “missing white woman syndrome,” a term first used by the late, great news anchor Gwen Ifill during a 2004 journalism conference.
Racial disparity in missing persons cases is an absolutely real phenomenon, according to the evidence. A 2015 study found Black children account for roughly 35 percent of missing children’s cases, but they were only mentioned 7 percent of the time in media coverage about missing children.
(While scrolling to find this tweet, I went past at least five tweets from the NY Post on the Petito case.)
And here are the covers of the NY Post from the last two days:
NY Post, 9/20/21
NY Post 9/21/21
As I started this saying, nothing I’ve written here is to imply that Gabby Petito’s death is unworthy of coverage. It is absolutely a tragedy with a large human interest component. But just as we remember that Gabby’s life matters, so we must also remember that so do those of women and children of color.
Looking for some interesting college students from out here on the prairie to hear from? Here’s your chance. Here are the blogs and Twitter feeds for my #JMC406 Commentary and Blogging students:
