U.S. women earn hockey gold

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Sophia Constantino

By SOPHIA CONSTANTINO

On Feb. 21, the U.S. women’s hockey team won its first Olympic Gold Medal over Canada since its first victory in 1998. The game lasted through regulation playing time, overtime and an extended shootout to finish in a 3-2 win for the United States. The truly inspiring victory has drawn news media attention to one of the most underrated rivalries in recent sporting history.

As the two undisputed most successful women’s hockey teams, the United States and Canadian women’s teams have been battling it out in the Olympics for the past 20 years, since the sport was first included in the Olympics in 1998 in the Nagano games. After its first Olympic victory in 1998, the U.S. women’s team has been silver to the Canadian’s gold in all four of the following Olympic games.

The rivalry deepens considering the IIHF Women’s World Championship outcomes since its introduction in 1990; Canada dominated all but one championship for the first 10 years until the U.S. took the title in 2005. The U.S. has held the championship since 2008, except in 2012.

The U.S. women’s team has been growing in news media relevance since its introduction to the Olympics, but the team earned national attention nearly a year ago after boycotting the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in pursuit of equal pay.

When USA Hockey threatened to bring on replacements, the Women’s national team convinced high school and college level potentials to boycott as well. Fellow athletes, including the Women’s national soccer team and players’ associations for the NHL, NBA, NHL, MLB and WNBA, supported the boycott through social media. The team was successful in negotiations with USA Hockey just three days before the 2017 IIHF games, which it went on to win for the seventh time in eight years.

Last night’s victory, which happened on the 38^th anniversary of the historic “Miracle on Ice” upset of the U.S. men’s national team victory over the former Soviet Union in 1980, has brought the women’s national hockey team into the news media spotlight it deserves after years of exceptional competition and a groundbreaking stand for equality.

Copycat death threats: Fault of media?

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Grace Smith

By GRACE SMITH

Just a few days following the devastating school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., police have foiled many copycat threats toward schools and their students.

Many of the charges have simply been for written threats to kill, but the message forms have ranged from pictures on Snapchat with guns declaring dates they would attack to a physical written note threatening teachers. The police have arrested and defused these threats, but a majority of the threats made were termed as jokes or seen as “funny” by their perpetrators.

This perception of the national tragedy by high school and middle school students could reflect a much larger issue when it comes to media coverage of major shooting incidents.

A screenshot of the Rolling Stone’s Facebook page following the publishing of their Boston Bomber cover.

The news media came under scrutiny for their treatment of national disasters largely due to The Rolling Stone‘s coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing incident on April 13, 2013.

They chose to put the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s face on the cover of their magazine and caused national outrage for glamorizing and popularizing Tsarnaev rather than respecting and focusing on the victims and the city’s recovery. It was somewhat comparative to young woman who send love letters to serial killers such as Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer.

When it comes to national tragedies, the media has a responsibility to inform as regularly and as accurately as possible. But many people have urged networks and publications to not repeatedly print the accused’s face and name since the popularity and recognition is often what the perpetrators aim for when they do what they do.

Whether these kids wanted to scare their friends or see how their school’s react, a large amount of mass shootings are often inspired by the national attention previous disasters like Columbine or Sandy Hook receive.

The killers are instantly picked apart and their interests, friends, family, and possible motivations are published everywhere and they dominate the news. The Las Vegas shooter was a noted narcissist- what better way to satisfy the need for attention then to be discussed in the news for weeks?

New York Times writer Zeynep Tufekci questions news media treatment of Las Vegas shooting.

This is also fault to the new age of 24-hour news cycle. With networks dedicated to instant, braking news updates every hour of the day, these incidents are rehashed over and over.

No Notoriety, a group that focuses on media coverage of mass killings asks the media to “limit” the name and images of a shooter except for instances where the suspect is at large. Let’s focus on the event, the victims and the heroes, and not make the killer a household name.

Could gun violence be curbed by banks?

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Allie Simon

By ALLIE SIMON

In a New York Times Dealbook article in the Business & Policy section by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Sorkin suggested that banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America should ban the purchase of certain firearms using their credit cards companies in order to curtail gun violence in America.

Sorkin effectively discussed the position that many CEOs and high level executives of banks feel that they should take towards moral and social issues. He claims that they feel a “sense of moral responsibility … to confront social challenges when Washington won’t.”

Truthfully, following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day, the sales of assault weapons has not yet been limited by lawmakers in Washington, but according to Sorkin there is a “real opportunity for the business community to fill the void and prove that all the talk about moral responsibility isn’t hollow”.

An AR-15: the automatic assault weapon responsible for the most amount of deadly shootings in America

Sorkin suggests that these credit card processing banks should add restrictions in their Terms of Service in which they start by restricting the purchase of assault rifles and bump stocks, the mechanism that makes rifles fire faster.

There is even a precedent for banning the usage of credit cards for certain purchases, so the banks would not be doing something extremely outlandish. In the past month, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America have set restrictions to ban the usage of their credit cards to purchase Bitcoin – a completely legal worldwide payment system.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase said that he and his bank “have a moral obligation but also a deeply vested interest [in helping] solve pressing societal issues,” according to Sorkin.

Sorkin’s quoting of high level executives reveals their deeper interest behind solving issues like gun violence, which Sorkin believes could be easily curtailed by simply restricting what could be purchased on bank-issued credit cards.

Most people will not pay for an assault weapon in cash or they will have a harder time figuring out how to pay for it or why they should pay for it when their bank condemns it.

Sorkin includes an important detail in his editorial to show a problem in restricting gun control in this country. He writes that, after 72 hours of phone calls to high level people, nobody wanted to discuss his idea on the record or even at all.

Nobody wants to talk about a world where the purchase of assault weapons would be untraceable – only in cash. But, an America where assault rifles could not be purchased using credit cards would make purchasing them more difficult and would raise national recognition of the level of danger of these guns. According to Sorkin, it would be a great start for a country that has had more than 18 school shootings in just one month.

The school shooting epidemic

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Drew Cohen

By DREW COHEN

When the Sandy Hook Massacre occurred, I froze in disbelief. It was one of those moments where “you remember exactly where you were.” I was 13 years old at the time and in eighth grade and, boy, was I scared to go back to school the next day. I kept on asking myself, is school safe?

My answer every time was yes, because I grew up in a affluent town with good people, crime was extremely low. I kept on obsessing about the massacre and thinking of all those young kids in that small, thought-to-be safe town, and started to realize that maybe no school is safe. I thought that after Sandy Hook, something of this magnitude would never happen at a school ever again.

Just two days ago, a 19-year-old gunman with mental health issues took his loaded AR-15 style rifle and shot more than 30 people, killing 17 of them. Families were shattered, people were left lying on the classroom floor in cold blood, and America now reels from another school shooting. This shooting wasn’t like any other shooting and it hit close to home for me.

This one was different because it seemed so preventable. The school was an excellent, “A” grade school. The community was dubbed “the safest city in Florida.” How could something at this magnitude happen again, in a community of this type? In all honesty, I don’t have any answers to this question because, clearly, a shooting like this can happen anywhere. A mass shooting could occur on the bustling Las Vegas Strip, in the wooded hills of Connecticut, or in the densely populated suburbs of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

What can we the public do about this? How can we make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again? Will more people continue to support the NRA and Second Amendment rights?

These are the questions that have been running through millions of American minds this past week and action needs to be taken. Nothing has effectively been done to prevent school shootings and it has become an epidemic. Rallies need to be held, celebrities need to speak out, and Congress needs to agree on rules.

This is no longer a Republican versus Democrat issue, rather, it’s a humanity issue. It’s time Americans band together for mankind and human safety.

Charles Barkley admits to playing drunk

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Brennan Prusak

By BRENNAN PRUSAK

In a recent interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” former NBA all-star and current TV personality Charles Barkley admitted that he once played a game while drunk when he was the member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

The segment was full of laughs and was brushed off as a laughing matter. So, why are other athletes’ careers ruined due to the same actions, but the news media covers Charles Barkley’s story like it’s a joke?

The most recent instance of an athlete derailing his or her career due to substance abuse would be that of Josh Gordon. Gordon was a very talented receiver for the Cleveland Browns and burst onto the NFL scene in 2013 where he led the league in receiving yards in only his second year.

Unfortunately, Gordon had been struggling with addiction and found himself out of the league by 2015 due to their substance policy. Gordon was crucified by the news media, who dug to uncover all they could about his early life. Gordon decided to beat the press and tell all himself, sharing how his abuse went as far back as getting drunk before games in high school to simply see if he could outperform others even while intoxicated.

Luckily, Gordon has since attended rehab and been reinstated by the NFL, but it’s interesting that he was put under a microscope when he slipped up, but jolly Charles Barkley was able to laugh it off. It wasn’t even as if he simply got a little buzzed before the game, as he directly stated “I was blasted … I’m not gonna lie.”

I understand that Gordon had a serious problem, but it doesn’t mean that the same acts on a less serious scale shouldn’t be ridiculed. Barkley continued to mention that he had been drunk, or at least hungover, for games on numerous instances, so it seems unfair that he was met with laughter and not scrutiny. It seems like the news media start to play favorites when covering athletes and it is starting to come off as unprofessional.

Parkland focus turns to mental health

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Andrea Illan

By ANDREA ILLAN

On Feb. 14, 17 people were killed at yet another school shooting by former student of the school. This time it was Nikolas Cruz at Stoneman Douglas High School. This is the 18th one of the kind this year and Americans are getting fed up of the gun violence and wonder when it will end.

An image has been circulating on social media in which the words “thoughts & prayers” are crossed off and replaced by the words “policy & change.”

This differs greatly from the way America has responded to these incidents in the past.

Rather than the usual tone of remaining positive, people are calling out politicians and demanding change. The president, along with many news media outlets, has decided to, once more, ignore the gun issue and give the incident the completely wrong focus.

As reported by The New York Times, POTUS tweeted about the mental state of the shooter a few hours before he formally addressed the public.Later during his formal speech, he also failed to mention gun control. Instead he continued to focus on mental health.

Similarly, an article on the Miami New Times the next day makes mention of the mental state of Cruz.

Although the article mainly focuses on how someone in that psychological state is able to get their hands on such deadly weapons, the mention of his mental health seems unnecessary when there are bigger problems at stake.

In this instance, the shooter had mental health issues but the reality of it is that many of the people responsible for these types of massacres do not. While mental health should be addressed when looking at these issues, that is an issue in itself that should not obstruct the gun debate.

Both the news media and American politicians need to focus on the real issue instead, which is the unnecessarily high accessibility to weapons in this country.

The rising #Churchtoo movement

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Kate Johnson

By KATE JOHNSON

The #metoo movement has now inspired a new movement that is gaining traction called “#churchtoo.” The campaign was launched over Twitter by Hannah Paasch and Emily Joy, who are both survivors of sexual assault.

The mission of #churchtoo is to bring to light the rampant sexual abuse occurring in churches and among the Christian community.

Unlike the #metoo campaign, coverage of the #churchtoo movement has been very minor by secular news networks, if it is even covered at all.

However, the Huffington Post ran a lengthy online article written by Paasch. In her article, Paasch shared Joy’s story, told her own story and described the campaign.

Paasch wrote, “#ChurchToo is a platform not only where survivors can out their abusers — yes, names and all — but also where Christians, ex-evangelicals and agnostics alike can ask one another: How can we do better? What would a theology of consent and autonomy look like? How would we build a world in which that sort of church was not the exception?”

Time magazine was the only other well-known publication to run a story about #churchtoo. Their article was only a few short sentences and then a series of screenshots from fiery Twitter posts using the hashtag.

Many Christian publications have written about the campaign such at CBN, Relevant Magazine, and the Christian Post. All show support of the victims and are in favor of the campaign.

How the story of the campaign is told has varied greatly across Christian publications. I believe this is likely due to Paasch’s blatant criticisms of the Christian church.

Paasch fervently condemns what she calls, “purity culture” preached in churches and the widespread ideology of sexual restraint in the Christian community.

“That theology of abstinence that singles out women and slut shames everyone who engages in any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage. Purity culture is the religious antecedent to rape culture, as it lays the bulk of the responsibility for maintaining the sexual purity of both genders on women’s attire and behavior,” wrote Paasch in her article for the Huffington Post.

In her Huffington Post bio, she refers to herself as an “ex-Christian blogger.”

In CBN’s coverage of the #churchtoo campaign, Paasch’s name is not mentioned once. Instead, their coverage focuses on pastors and prominent Christian leaders who are advocating for churches to address the issues of sexual abuse.

CBN interviewed Jimmy Hinton, who is a pastor of Someset Church of Christ in Pennsylvania and consultant for the nonprofit GRACE on sexual abuse issues occurring in churches and faith-based groups.

Hinton reported his father, who had pastored the church for years, to the police. Hinton’s father confessed to multiple crimes against children and is now in jail, according to CBN News.

“Survivors are ready to fight for what’s right and they’re ready to fight to have their voice,” Hinton told CBN News.

CBN, a more conservative Christian network, did not quote any of the Twitter posts for the campaign or any survivor’s fiery condemnations of the Christian faith. Nor did CBN mention anything about “purity culture.”

Conversely, the Christian Post and Relevant Magazine, ran stories about the campaign where the majority of the text was direct quotes from survivors’ Twitters.

The Christian Post and Relevant Magazine both mentioned the oppression of women in churches and told the stories of people who have left the church as a result of sexual abuse.

This raises the question, is coverage of the #churchtoo campaign another way of suppressing the voices of victims?

In my opinion, the CBN story did not suppress the voices of survivor’s. They quoted prominent Christian U.S. gymnast, Rachael Denhollander, who was the first U.S. gymnast to publically accuse USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

“I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt so you may some day experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me, though I extend that to you as well,” Denhollander told Nassar in her impact statement in court.

I personally enjoyed reading CBN’s story about the campaign because it focused on church reform and the big strides being made to put an end to sexual abuse in the church and faith-based organizations. The CBN article did not dwell on the horrific crimes of the past, but rather spoke of optimism for the future.

Cake decorating case before high court

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Sophia Constantino

By SOPHIA CONSTANTINO

As legalization of same-sex marriage expands across the country, couples are ready to celebrate after years of waiting. Over the past few years, though, the news media have had no shortage of controversies to cover in the aftermath.

A frequently sparked debate is that between the engaged, gay couple and the Christian specialty baker. In November 2012, a Colorado couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, was refused a wedding cake by Masterpiece Cakeshop. According to Craig, “This happens all the time,” as reported in a January publication of The Guardian.

The couple would go on to take owner Catholic store-owner Jack Phillips to the U.S. Supreme Court in a five-year Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, determining the limits of free speech and what is considered discrimination.

Though lower level court cases ruled in favor of Craig and Mullins, a similar case in California Superior Court under Judge David Lampe ruled today in favor of a baker’s rights to “artistic expression.”

Catholic baker and owner of Tastries Bakery in California Cathy Miller refused to create a wedding cake for couple Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio, though she did refer their order to Gimme Some Sugar, a nearby competitor bakery.

Miller’s lawyer claimed cake decorating is a form of artistic expression. Judge Lampe ruled that, so long as Miller does not deny the same-sex couples purchases from her counter, she is free to refuse to produce a custom cake.

In acknowledgement of the case’s sensitivity, BBC News reported Judge Lampe’s warning regarding the very circumstantial nature of the court’s ruling, “A retail tire shop may not refuse to sell a tire because the owner does not want to sell tires to same sex couples,” Lampe said, clarifying the creative aspect of the case that led to the final ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case.

Father lunges at Nassar during hearing

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Abby Lloyd

By ABBY LLOYD

On Feb. 2, Larry Nassar, ex-USA gymnastics team doctor and Michigan State University athletics trainer, had his third criminal hearing in front of his victims and their family members. Nassar harmed more than 250 victims and will be sentenced somewhere from 40 to 175 years in prison.

Nassar was a osteopathic doctor, which meant he moved his hands over a patient’s muscles and joints to stretch and apply pressure and resistance to those joints. However, he took the care too far. Nassar stated after getting caught that “as a doctor, he was in a position of authority over his victims, and that he used that position to coerce them to submit to the penetration.”

As girl after girl after girl, came up to the podium to speak the gruesome details of her attack, parent Randal Margraves grew angry and unsettled. Margraves, a father of three daughters all of which were abused by Nassar, commented to the judge, “Give me one minute with that bastard.”

After Judge Janice Cunnigham responded to his request “no,” Margraves ran over to Nassar and his attorney and attacked him. He was tackled by four deputies and escorted out of the courtroom. His daughters all screaming “Dad!” while his wife hugged them.

“There is no way this court is going to issue any type of punishment due to the circumstances of this case,” Eaton County Circuit Judge Janice Cunningham said later the same day.

On Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram people are calling Margraves a “hero.” Someone started a GoFundMe page for him that is currently at $2,000 in donations to the family.

Before this all happened, Nassar was getting away with his countless sexual assaults. A softball player at Michigan State, Tiffany Lopez, who was also assaulted was told by someone she confined in that “she was fortunate to receive the best medical care possible from a world-renowned doctor.”

More than five girls came forward about Nassar’s abuse to Michigan State officials. However, they weren’t taken seriously. When officials decided to ask Nassar about such accusations he replied that they were “misunderstandings with the girls.” The twisted world we live in.

Media change focus as Nassar trial ends

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Sophia Constantino

By SOPHIA CONSTANTINO

Serial child molester Larry Nassar entered the courtroom for the third and final hearing on Jan. 31, 2018, to receive his final sentencing.

After a grueling seven-day hearing in Ingham County Circuit Court in which Judge Rosemarie Aquilina allowed nearly 160 women to speak about their respective violations at the hands of Nassar, the former Olympic doctor began another trial in Eaton County Circuit Court this week under Judge Janice K. Cunningham. Nassar will face another 60 women accusing him of more of the same and faces 40 to 175 years in prison.

Though as the doctor’s fate becomes more and more certain, that of the organizations by which he was employed is only raising more questions.

Most pressingly, Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics are being called upon to respond.

According to a recently published BBC report, the directors of USA Gymnastics have all resigned after the US Olympic Committee demanded the board step down. Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon has stepped down and a criminal investigation has been launched into the university.

As the investigations continue, the question remains: what now? Nassar will spend his life in prison and the case will delve into the nitty gritty of who knew what and when they knew it. If justice is thoroughly carried out, those who allowed Nassar’s repulsive manipulation of power to persist will be aptly tried as well. And though the individuals will be persecuted, how do we begin to repair the infrastructure of a so clearly damaged organization?

A bill passed by the senate on Tuesday requiring amateur sporting organizations to report sexual assault now awaits President Trump’s approval. The bill would also necessitate training to prevent such assaults.

And though a bill of this suit certainly seems like a step in the right direction, the irony of whose desk upon which it sits cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, a case of this caliber simply cannot be ignored. We thus will wait with baited breath for our president’s review.

Fired for being pregnant

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Kristian Del Rosario

By KRISTIAN DEL ROSARIO

In June, Whitney Tomlinson, a 30-year-old single mother and packer at a Walmart Distribution Center in Atlanta, told her supervisor she wasn’t feeling well. She was experiencing morning sickness, which made her supervisor require her to get a doctor’s note in order for her to have a break.

The doctor was not able to identify any worrisome pregnancy complications, but suggested her to avoid heavy lifting while at work. After getting a note from the doctor, she handed it to her supervisor who then sent her to human resources.

She thought she would be granted a break, but it was not the type of break she had sought. It was not legal, according to a new complaint filed by Tomlinson to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Tomlinson was told to apply for an unpaid leave from her job, she was surprised and angry and was curious as to what she had done wrong. Her supervisor told her because of her “restrictions,” she was a “liability” and asked her to call a third party claims management service.

Walmart’s human resources told Tomlinson that she was not permitted to return to work until after she gave birth and she would need to apply for a formal unpaid leave of absence to avoid losing her job.

In 1978, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. This made discrimination based on pregnancy and childbirth related medical conditions illegal.

Elizabeth Gedmark, a senior staff attorney and director for A Better Balance, said that Walmart’s treatment of Tomlinson was a violation of this act and that she needed restrictions to prevent problems before she started.

The news media have portrayed this story in a respectful but worrisome manner due to the immense detail about the issue. Stories don’t try to protect Walmart’s reputation because, at the end of the day, the business was unjust toward this worker.

Women are sexually harassed at work and it’s why women are discriminated against for being pregnant at work and it’s what needs to change.

Flu season breaks records this year

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Abby Lloyd

By ABBY LLOYD

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just reported that Florida’s flu activity has tripled in just one month from December 2017.

When people receive a flu vaccine, they are protecting against four different strains of flu. However, there is sometimes a case where the flu that spreads is not covered by the vaccine. This year’s deathly strain is called “Virus H3N2.” The effectiveness of the vaccine again Virus H3N2 is only 10 percent.

A total of 37 children have died from the flu this season and more than 12,000 people have been hospitalized for flu-like symptoms. Sadly, this is only one month into the flu season.

Schools, government and doctors are trying to educate people on the difference between a cold and flu, and the ways to avoid both. Start by washing hands frequently, sending children or adults home if they feel sick, stay hydrated, and lastly and most importantly, get the vaccination.

Although cold and flu are both horrible to have, the flu is more severe. Emergency rooms are overbooked as of late and are trying to have patients distinguish between cold and flu before coming in for help.

If you start to develop flu symptoms like a runny nose, headache, vomiting, coughing, or fever, you should go see a doctor in the first 48 hours of feeling symptoms. Doctors can give out an antiviral drug that shortens the effects but only if you come within 48 hours.

The bad news is that this flu will last longer than the normal flu season, which usually only lasts from October to February. Dr. Larry Wolk, Colorado’s chief medical officer, said: “It may be several months before this flu season ends.” The CDC officials hope that the flu season had already peaked in the first week of January, but since then it has only increased in people it has affected.

Coverage from the Christian perspective

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Kate Johnson

By KATE JOHNSON

You may be familiar with the 700 Club, an almost daily newscast on ABC’s Freeform channel produced by the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN). At CBN, every breaking news headline that another news network like CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC would publish, is reported with Christian or religious-based spin.

On the CBN News website, under the CBN logo, it says in bold letters, “the Christian perspective.”

Many news outlets have sections for news in the United States and world news. CBN has sections for news in the United States, world news, and another section only for news in Israel.

CBN reports the major stories, but in very different ways than secular news organizations.

For the recent school shooting in Kentucky, like all major news networks, CBN posted a breaking news story about the incident in the traditional hard news format. Later on, CNN posted a follow-up story about a shooting victim who called her mother, whereas CBN posted a follow-up story about Kentucky students coming together for a prayer circle. MSNBC brought up the debate about gun control legislation and CBN highlighted that the shooter joined an atheist group.

Photo of Kentucky School prayer circle from the CBN News website. Photo credit: Tilghman Pride‏ via Twitter.

This method of reporting and drawing in a particular audience by CBN fills a very specific niche.

It raises questions about accuracy and definite bias, but is this that different than the ways in which “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert caters to bleeding-heart liberals or FOX News caters to radical conservatives?

Those who visit a news media organization such as the CBN for their news are not looking for a neutral or unbiased prospective. They are looking to find out about the latest news both in the U.S. and worldwide reported to them from a Christian viewpoint with the emphasis on how faith is involved in the major stories of today.

Therefore, the CBN audience would be more interested in reading about the prayer circle in Kentucky, than the debate for gun control legislation. As someone who turns to CBN for the majority of my news, I can attest to this.

Perhaps focusing all coverage on faith may be seen as leaving out major parts of the story about the school shooting. Conversely, covering prayer circles and religious ties could be viewed as adding more depth.

CBN is the only major news network that fills the Christian audience niche. Its top headlines of last week include, “Pastor Pleads for Protection and Prayers as Syrian Town Endures Attack,” “Oscar-Nominated Film Tells True Story of Muslims Protecting Christians,” and “‘I Never Liked Holding Hands at Church Anyway:’ As Flu Deaths Rise, Churches Change their Rules.”

The UM watchdog for fraternities

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Regina Sánchez Jiménez

By REGINA SÁNCHEZ JIMÉNEZ

The last issue of The Miami Hurricane published an editorial about the danger of fraternities. The last event that made the newspaper pay attention to fraternities was the death of a Florida State University student Nov. 3 after attending a fraternity party.

An editorial is opinion, so journalists have more freedom to speak about some topics, because they just present their opinion but they base it on facts. The importance of an editorial, though, mostly lies in the point of view.

In this editorial titled “Fraternity culture poses danger to students” in the print version, the staff is aware that it can be accused of “fake news,” so it defends itself before any reaction can show up.

Here you can find the online version of the article: http://www.themiamihurricane.com/2017/11/13/death-of-fsu-student-merits-moment-of-reckoning-for-toxic-fraternity-culture/

The editorial staff reveals some examples of games that are played in UM fraternities to take a position opposing them and then to suggest solutions.

As they can’t prove that these games actually happen, so they defend the argument by saying: “Even if these hazing practices only amount to rumors, the fact that they are so widely circulated without any generalized outrage condones and perpetuates such behavior.”

The article ends with a warning that the staff will keep reporting about fraternities, but also looking for sources that back up their point of view or suggest even better solutions.

They are taking the editorial role that they serve in their community seriously, in this case the UM campus. Journalists have the responsibility to report about the things that are not working in their community and give voice to people that suffer because of these issues. They are called the Fourth Estate and watchdogs because they willingly monitor and report about the actions and inactions of the people in charge.

So, in my opinion, they are doing what they should do, but prematurely. As they say twice that they are aware that this information can be called rumors or fake news. And, at the end of the editorial, they ask readers to contact them with related stories.

This way, the editorial loses some credibility. It would have been easier and more professional if they had identified sources and prepared one or more news stories to back up the editorial. In that manner, they would gain authority to opine about it.

Same-sex marriage closer in Australia

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Kayla Foster

By KAYLA FOSTER

Australia is on its way to legalizing same sex marriage, after a survey showed that the country is ready to take a progressive step forward.

In a survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 62 percent of registered voters said “yes” to same-sex marriage, prompting Parliament to consider legalizing the weddings later this year.

If legalized, Australia will become to 26^th country to do so. Following after Ireland to put same-sex marriage to a popular vote.

Needing only to change its Australian Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, the overwhelming push sparked thousands of marriage equality supporters to fill the streets in celebration of the news.

The news came to social media with #AustraliaSaysYes as people celebrated with posts and pictures of loved ones waiting to get married.

Meet Alastair & Steven – their 8 year engagement could soon become a legal marriage. Here’s how they reacted to #AustraliaSaysYes #TheDrum pic.twitter.com/QP6uBNctKV

— ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) November 15, 2017

Congratulations Australia 🇦🇺 🏳️‍🌈 FINALLY #AustraliaSaysYes

— Ali🌻🏳️‍🌈 (@AliceGagaxo) November 15, 2017

Congratulations Australia!🇦🇺🌈Everyone deserves a life filled with love, free from discrimination and injustice. #LoveIsLove #AustraliaSaysYes 💛💜💙 pic.twitter.com/M6WSEVJQS9

— Jessimae Peluso (@JessimaePeluso) November 15, 2017

According to CNN.com, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that legalization could happen by Christmas. However, there has been opposition from conservative politicians due to extensive religious protection, in hopes to stall the bill.

Several lawmakers have submitted their drafts of the bill, but fear of discrimination and dissolving protection are making lawmakers cautious to proposals.

If a law is passed, this will be a major step for the country, after the last prime minister, Tony Abbott, openly opposed same-sex marriage and led the campaign in against changing the law.