Summary Lead

A Moscow man died in a car accident at 5 p.m. Monday.

John Fraizer, 20, was driving 20 mph over the speed limit when he lost control of his 1998 Ford Mustang. Rain and slick roads caused him to hit a utility pole on the intersection of Main Street and Broad Street. The impact threw Fraizer over 20 feet through the windshield. He was not wearing a seat belt and died instantly.

3 Pitches

Pitch #1: Dear Editor, With population numbers rising and our landfills overflowing, do we recycle enough? Although WSU’s campus is filled with recycling receptacles, how many people really use them? I constantly walk by garbage cans that are almost full, while the recycling bins sit nearly empty. On one occasion, I even saw a janitor take the recycling and empty it in the garbage can! To make matters worse, it has been suggested that WSU has to pay an annual fine for not recycling enough. Do we really want our tuition dollars paying for something that can easily be fixed? I’d like to investigate this situation a little further, especially with Earth Day approaching. Please contact me at acmeyer@wsu.edu if you are interested. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Anne Meyer Pitch #2: Dear Editor, You’re on your way home after a long day at work, when all of the sudden WHAM, you get hit by another car. As if this weren’t bad enough, it turns out the driver doesn’t have insurance. How many drivers are on the roads without insurance these days? We all know it’s against the law, but countless people do it anyway. What if we were to make a law that required proof of insurance in order to renew our license tabs? Would this alleviate the problem? It probably would have helped my mom, who was put in a similar situation last week. I would like to write an article about the risks of driving without insurance and what people can do about it. Please contact me at acmeyer@wsu.edu if you are interested. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Anne Meyer Pitch #3: Dear Editor, Why does society says GO WAL-MART, but no to local businesses? The Pullman Chamber of Commerce is trying to put a Wal-Mart in our town, but fought against a local store called “The Dock Shop,” owned by The Pullman Grange Supply. You probably haven’t even heard of “The Dock Shop,” yet it has been in business for almost four months. As an employee of the Dock Shop, I witnessed the struggles The Pullman Grange Supply endured in order to get the store up and running. On the other hand, The Pullman Chamber of Commerce is practically building Wal-Mart itself. If you’d like to find out why, please contact me at acmeyer@wsu.edu. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Anne Meyer

Compare and Contrast News Sites

The three news websites that I chose to compare and contrast were Google News (http://www.news.google.com), New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com) and BBC News(http://news.bbc.co.uk/). My goal was to look at websites that may not be as popular as CNN or MSN. The most obvious similarity between the three websites was their primary stories. Not surprisingly, the theme of the news seemed to be politics and the war in Iraq. Another similarity was their target audience of well-educated, middle-class viewers. They also had a similar format and style. Out of the three, BBC had the most appealing layout with more color and organization. BBC also did something different than your typical U.S. news website and divided the stories by country and/or topic rather than just topic. BBC took a much more global approach to news than Google News or New York Times. As an American it is typical to assume that all major U.S. news websites are unbiased. However, I learned that U.S. news tends to focus only on news stories that directly relate to or affect the U.S. in particular, even if the story occurs in another country. I would consider both Google News and New York Times to be unbiased and in accordance to the “Murrow standard” of being fair and balanced. Nonetheless, the BBC website was by far the most unbiased on a global scale. In regard to top stories, the three websites also differed. Google News’ top story was “Two Strong Democrats head for funds face-off”, New York Times’ top story was “Iraqi death toll exceeded 34,000 in ’06 U.N. Says” and BBC’s top story was “Israel’s military chief resigns.” I was surprised to see that every single website that I viewed (beyond just these three) had a different headlining story. It seems peculiar that they would all differ on their opinion of the most “newsworthy” story. Out of the three sites that I viewed I would likely use the BBC website if I wanted a more world-wide perspective. However, if I was particularly interested in U.S. news I would view the New York Times site. I think it just depends on what the viewer is looking for.