Blood on the High Seas

On February 23, 2011 the LA Times reported that four Americans were killed by Somali pirates on a yacht called the Quest in the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. The four Americans are: Jean and Scott Adam, Phyllis Macay, and Robert Riggle. Soon thereafter a team of 15 Navy Seals forcibly gained entrance on to the yacht and immediately began to retake the yacht from the pirates. Two of the pirates were killed during the short lived battle and two other pirates were killed before the Seal team boarded the yacht. Around 13 or so pirates who lived through it are now being taken into U.S. Custody and then to be prosecuted. May the justice be swift and sure. 

Link to Article: LA Times- Four Americans Killed by Pirates

A slight return to the question of the week: is this article journalism? Let us say that this is indeed journalism. For the following reasons the above statement is true: 1. It states where it takes place. 2. Who was in the event. 3. What happened in the event. 4. The aftermath of the event. 5. The how the event happened. These five reasons are why the article is journalism, simple enough.

Now on to this week core biblical truth which is Growth- "Courage is fallen man's response to God's imprinted truth. The true purpose of life is to know God and obey his commandments". The Adams were carrying Bibles to Somalia when they were boarded by pirates and subsequently killed. Their courage in taking the Word of God to a largely Islamic country is notable and should be a reminder that we too must spread the Gospel.

Forward Thinking

On February 17, 2011 it was reported by the LA Times that President Obama is due to meet a dozen industry leaders, including Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidtand Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The meeting is, according to the White House, how to strengthen our economy in the Internet age. President Obama is, in my opinion, making the right moves. Not only is he going to the leading men who shape the virtue of technology and the internet as we know it, but from the article he seems to be going to them for advice on how to best use the technology we have today to boost the U.S. to the front of the pack and in doing so creating better quality of life for U.S. citizens. The subject of the meeting may be related to this, "Obama has been traveling throughout the country promoting investments in expanded broadband, education and renewable energy — initiatives announced in his State of the Union address in January under the slogan of 'Winning the Future'" (LA Times). Strident move for the president, something we all like to see. If the meeting holds true to what I am suggesting here then we may see a substantial increase in spending on research and technology which unfortunately means that something else is going to need to take the ax.

Link to Article: Obama in California

Now on to the question of the week. Is this article journalism? I would say, no. Surprisingly enough, the article lacks a few details which would make it journalism. Most of the details all deal with the subject of the meeting. What exactly is the President and the others going to be discussing? Of course that is no doubt intentional mostly due to national security reasons no doubt, but it is an essential detail which makes the article not journalism. 

This weeks core biblical truth is Evangelism, which states that "God has specific directions (absolute law) concerning man’s relationship to both Himself and his fellow man." President Obama has a specific direction which he wants to take the U.S. in. Whether he succeeds or not depends on what God's directions say. Which I suppose is the heart of every matter. Doesn't matter we try or do, if God doesn't have it in His plan, then we just have to suck it up and move on.

Political Maneuvers

Back to Egypt again we go. This time it is a little closer to home then we would have thought at first. After Egyptian president Mubarak made his speech which was not well received by the protesters, back in the states one can feel and hear political rumblings. The loudest rumbling, which was recorded by LA Times reporters Michael Memoli and Michael Muskal, was the announcement that President Obama was to meet with his national security team to discuss the "situation" when he returns to the White House. Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, told reporters that Obama might issue a statement on the situation, but he is only stalling for time for an official statement to be released as can be seen in a quotation, "I am watching much of what you're watching. We're watching, I think, a very fluid situation. What we're looking for and what the president spoke about many days ago remains our priority: an orderly transition to a free and fair election" (LA Times). One must think after reading this that if any action was to be taken by the administration it would be one of those cover their butts action and nothing resembling anything concrete that would defend the government's support of the protesters.


LA Times: Obama to meet his National Security Team

Question of the blog, is this article journalism? I would say yes. It not only states who, what, when, where, and even why, but it also gives us concrete information which we can check up on. Does Northern Michigan University exist? Did President Obama speak there? Is Robert Gibbs really a White House spokesman? Such questions can be answered and are easily verifiable. The event is also recent and relevant to the world at large. It is these aspects which make the article journalism.

This week's core biblical truth is Creation Part Two, "In God's sovereignty, He controls the rise and fall of rulers and nations". One can see that God has certainly decided that Mubarak's time is up as president of Egypt, but now the ball is in our government's court and what actions we take might decide a variety of things which cannot be supported by anything other then precedent. Whether we actively support the protesters or not it seems to me that some other form of government will replace President Mubarak. Now what kind of government it will be does depend on what we and other democratic nations decide to do about the crisis in Egypt.

Bathed in Fire and Blood

The video above shows a riot in Cairo, Egypt. The mass protest by anti-government Egyptians against President Hosni Mubarak and his regime has been plastered in the newspapers and constantly shown in the news. The article which I am writing about is describing a protest in Cairo, Egypt. No doubt as a way to show the human side of the event and therefore elicit sympathy for one side or another. "A few dozen army soldiers fired over the protestors' heads in an attempt to push them back. But pro- and anti-government protestors are well aware that the army has pledged not to use force, rendering the small number of soldiers on the ground ineffectual, reduced at times to trying to wave protesters away" (LaTimes). From that quote alone it looks to be that the article is about the government and specifically the military who are ineffectual only because one man refuses to step down. The article does not tell when the events that it records happened, but one must assumed that they happened within at least the past two days since February 3, 2011 when it was published. 


Link to Article: LA Times: Cairo Protest


Now to the important question of the day, is the above article journalism? I would say no. My reasoning is as follows: it is a good human interest story, but without any references to back the information it provides one cannot really know whether that it is a true story or something made up to get people to read the article. Secondly, you do not know who was interviewed to provide the meat of the story. Thirdly, we do not know whether the reporter was actually there, because the article does not describe any real land marks except the Tahir Square. In all the lack of such evidence lends itself in support of the theory that the article is not truly journalism.


The core biblical truth for the week is Revelation: "In society, truth is not relative to the individual, but rather is absolute and its source is solely God. Tolerance understands other's ideas, but does not require surrender of your world view." The article clearly shows that truth is often twisted to give whatever effect the author is after, whether it is to create sympathy or horror. The author tries to make truth relative, simply because he controls the outlet of truth from where he is stationed. In the end the truth always comes out, no matter how cliche that phrase becomes.