I said I wasn't going to...

It's a shame that we, as journalists, are sometimes not entitled to our own opinions. I'm not going to get into it, but I'll just say this...I am sure you have noticed there is one less post on our blog and that's because of insecure journalists who think if you don't talk about a negative subject, it will somehow just go away.

And since certain people can't speak about the topic, I'll air it out.

I'm glad the two reporters got fired. Honestly, I hope I never see another byline of theirs in the paper ever again. In order for journalists to start gaining back the trust and respect of readers, editors are going to have to crack down on the reporters who take the easy way out. I am sure everyone hates doing man on the street work but how lazy do you have to be to steal from someone's Facebook profile. Not only did they let their former college and college newspaper down, they let down each and everyone of us who wan't to do this for a living. It's one more hurdle we all have to overcome.

Moral of the stories

Don't be stupid and risk blowing everything you built up on one single story. It's not worth the time or effort.

Re: damn my college newspaper looks bad

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=86258

tales from the city

Sorry, that I have been MIA as far as the blog is concerned. I'm a little inept when it comes to technology, so our dear friend Dariush gave me some instructions. (Although, this is proving to be far easier than I would have thought.)

Ok, so here's a re-cap about my my summer in the city. Working at the AP has been an amazing experience. Not only have I gotten some great bylines/clips, but I've learned so much about the world of business news. I've gotten to work on a whole variety of stories, including doing a lot of fast spot-news for the AP's financial wire. One of my favorite things I worked on was not actually my byline, but a story I contributed to. It was looking at the business/economic implications of the hockey lock-out. I got to talk to a whole variety of people (comapny CEOs, local business owners, people in sports marketing) and go through some SEC filings (which I think is fun, because I'm a nerd). Of course, one of the really exciting things about working for the AP has been googling myself and seeing where my stories have gotten picked up. (Like I said, I'm a nerd.)

Living in New York, of course, has been a blast. I've seen almost all there is to see including, but certainly not limited to: four shows on Broadway, the view from the top of the Empire State Building, the beauty that is Central Park, Coney Island and the Coney Island freak show, Hoboken, NJ (birthplace of Sinatra), etc. etc.

Today is actually my last day of work. I leave to go back to school early next week. But this weekend, I'll be turning 21 and this town won't know what hit them! I'm pumped.

Hope everyone is continuing to do well. I know you're all writing some great things out there.

*side note: if you haven't yet, I suggest reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - it's outstanding!*

No steak.

So the editors decided not to run my prison industry story as an A1 centerpiece. They said it's a good business profile but lacks the tension that an A1 story needs. It's being held to a later date for the business section.

Sorry guys. I let you down. I thought this was going to be the one, but it wasn't.

I'll keep on trying.

Adios.

You know what's awesome and hilarious?

I go out of my way and insist on being called Vincent, to a certain extent for the sake of other people's convenience (but mainly because I do not like the idea of having to listen to others butcher the name my parents gave me over and over again), and people still mess up.

Not by mispronunciation. But by calling me Victor.

W. T. F.

Back from La La land

Crap It's hot.

I swear it's hot everywhere. There is no reason why it needs to be 105 in Denver. It's bad enough your 5,000 feet closer to the sun but on days like this, even I start to get a tan.

Now that I'm done whining about the weather...

It seems like everyone is winding down on their internships. I think one of us for sure is done on the 5th and I might be one of the last to finish on the 19th. It seems like May was yesterday though...which is good and bad. Hopefully the school semester will go by that fast but we all know it wont.

Has anyone else had evaulations yet from their supervisors? I have one today...a lil nervous but at the same time, I'm confident in my work. I don't think I socalize enough with the other reporters but where they had me sitting, I was really unable to. That, and I'm a music type of guy who I always have headphones in my ears to drown out what's going on around me.

I made A1 today. Sorta. They had a tease about my story on the front page...that's the closest I will be getting to A1.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2881255

Gotta go, it's friday, so that means those one hour lunches turn into two hours.

Poor Nemo

Aloha everyone, hope you guys are doing well. The Times-News is is good. It's not too busy that I want to lose my mind, but it keeps me occupied enough that I don't sit here wanting to shove a pen in my eye. Speaking of poking things, I just worked on a story about this summer college program for high school science heads. (Yep, I've been helping out my mentor with her education beat from time to time.) Anyway, I got to interview them during their dissection lab. Now I'm not really grossed out by such things. I was a big science head in school and loved all that lab stuff. Well, lukily for me I guess, I saw they were dissecting fish but not just any fish, oh no, fish that with tumors. *shudder* And these weren't little gold fish, of course not, they had to be those huge 10-inch things. Anyway, I was able to observe the whole necropsy. I saw someone find liver cancer in a catfish. Another kid fileted a bass by ripping the flesh off the bone with his bare hands. And to top it all off, another bass' digestive system was cleaned out by the two fingers of some high school junior. Apparently the fish's last meal was not such a good one. That was definitely a fun time even though fish fluid was squirted at me and my sense of smell was paralyzed for the rest of the day. Otherwise, it was some good times. Well, it's three weeks and counting till I head back to NYC. Yay! Well, I should get back to work -- I'm leaving early to go home to Jersey today. Double yay!

Joke of the week...

A blonde who has dyed her hair brown gets a job doing work for two weeks on a sheep farm. She works for two weeks and at the end of the two weeks, the farmer pays her and tells her how great she did.

"If I can guess the answer to a random question you ask me about the work here, can I have a sheep?" she asks.

The farmer thinks about it and agrees.

"Okay. How many sheep do I have?"

She immediately replies, "100."

"That's terrific! Exactly right. Go and pick out which sheep you want."

The blonde picks her sheep and puts it in her car and prepares to drive off when the farmer asks, "Can I have a chance to get my sheep back if I guess something right about you?"

The blonde nods and agrees.

"Ok, you're a blonde, not a brunette."

The blonde is dumbstruck.

"How did you know!?"

The farmer points at her car.

"Bring back my dog and we'll talk about it."

/*ducks flying shoe thrown by Adrianna*

Almost There

Now that the editors are trying to get me to write the centerpiece stories, I have a lot more free time than I would like while I'm at work. Hence the increased amount of pacing around the newsroom.

I also will be working this sunday as a GA reporter. What do I get to do? Go to a milk carton boat race and write a story about it. I've been encouraging reporters to go to it and throw projectiles at the boats. If one sinks, then it'd be a good story. If not, perhaps not so much.

Not much else to report, except that I'll be counting down the days until I can go back on campus. Still need to get things order with the opinions desk, especially since one of them got charged with a felony. Damn kids.

Living Outside

Dual post! I posted this to my personal blog as well, so enjoy! This is the explanation for my going to prison...


WEST LIBERTY, KY - Over the past two days, I have visited three prisons. If I never have to go back to a prison, I will die a happy man.

The first prison I visted on Wednesday was not that bad. Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, Ky. is a minimum security facility. No walls, no fences, no razor wire. Inmates tend flowers and do stonework out front of the prison with no more than a guard in the nearby front gate shack watching them. All these men will be out within the next two years. Attempting escape would be stupid. They'd end up serving more time in a higher-security prison. Better to be patient.

Inmates are viewed as different people, but to make this work I can't really adopt that viewpoint. I change my stance. I treat them like people. Shake their hands, smile. Be respectful. They made their mistakes, sure, but they put their pants on one leg at a time in the morning, just like me. And like it or not, I'm just as human and just as prone to making mistakes like theirs.

As I depart the prison, a chink in what I call my "Mr. Professional Journalist" armor appears. When I put my pants on that morning, I didn't zip up my zipper. Human error rears its ugly head in a humiliating way.

The second prison I visited was the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. It's harder for me to talk to the women than it was to talk to the men at Blackburn. They're all suspicious of me. I simply smile and rely upon the same strategy that served me well interviewing and taking pictures of inmates at Blackburn.

On Thursday, I went to the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex. This is a medium security prison like KCIW. Fences with razor wire, high walls, guard towers and regular patrols. Same strategy. Treat them like people. Dignity and respect. It serves me well a third time.

I was never at one of these prisons for more than two hours. At the end, I packed up my camera bag and was escorted out. At Blackburn, I felt nothing. There were no iron bars or concrete walls to close me in. Leaving KCIW I felt a twinge of guilt. I felt it again at EKCC. I had waltzed in the prison and now was strolling out without a care in the world. I took for granted what it meant to breathe easy outside those walls.

Now I know why those inmates stared at me, openly envious. I was a free man in their land, but it will be a while before most of them are be free people on the outside.

Last night, I did not sleep soundly. I slept only a couple hours. I laid awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering if tomorrow, or the day after that, or next week or next month or next year, I'd still be as grateful for my freedom.

The sad part is, I probably won't. I'll forget my lesson learned this week.

Maybe that's the worst crime of all.

I shoulda listened to Rusty...

I think we all recall the thing Rusty said was the most important advice he'd ever give us.

Well, we'll see how well I apply it.

Going to prison Wednesday and Thursday.

Here's hoping I don't get shivved.

Countdown

About 4 more weeks to go. As much as I enjoy working here, I'm starting to look forward to going back on campus.
Work was slow this week. I guess the July 4th week tends to be quiet. I was literally begging for work at certain points, to no avail.
Supposed to start working on a long-term project this week. Hopefully that will go smoothly.

And thus was born...

MarcusV01: we should have the weekly dariush joke though, lol
kerneldashiki: we should

So here by popular demand, the weekly joke....



A duck waddles into a bar and hops up onto a bar stool. The bartender says, "What'll you have?"

The duck says, "Do you have any grapes?"

The bartender says, "No, we don't have any grapes."

The duck waddles out.

The next day the duck waddles into the bar and hops up onto a bar stool. The bartender says, "What'll you have?"

The duck says, "Do you have any grapes?"

The bartender says, "No, I told you we don't have any grapes.

The duck waddles out.

The next day the duck waddles into the bar and hops up onto a bar stool. The bartender says, "What'll you have?"

The duck says, "Do you have any grapes?"

The bartender gets pissed off and says, "I told you yesterday and the day before, we don't have any grapes. If you ask me for grapes one more time, I'll nail your feet ot the floor."

The duck says, "Okay," and walks out.

The next day, the duck walks in and hops up on a bar stool.

The bartender is waiting for it and says, "So what do you want?"

The duck says, "You got any nails?"

The bartender says, "No, we don't have any nails."

The duck says, "You got any grapes?"



*rimshot*

Going, going, back, back, to Cali, Cali

This will be the last you hear from me for a week as I am heading to Los Angeles for a conference. But please believe if Dariush has another corny joke, I will have to log on and let him know about it.

Work is well...work. Since I don't have an offical beat, I gave myself unoffical beat titles. A couple weeks ago I gave myself the Hispanic Business beat title but that has been replaced by the City Hall beat where I spent most of my week. By the end of the summer, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and I are going to be on a first name basis.

Adeel, I added you as a friend, let me know if you know any of my Berkely friends.

Donde es Rusty Todd? Don't let us young bucks run this board, feel free to share some wisdom with us.

Take care everyone and Vincent, I'm putting you in charge of Dariush.

Facepaint Pt. 2

It looks like I'm the only one not on dear facebook, but ya'llmark your calendars because according to Marcus my school will be added mid-August...and then we can all paint each others faces together....and I won't be left out anymore :(

Civil Contempt = Occupational Hazard

There's a lot of talk about the need for a federal shield law. And often it appears that shield law is supposed to be the silver bullet for the journalists who use anonymous sources.
News Flash: It's not.
Even in the 49 states (Wyoming's the only one that does not) that have shield laws, journalists are only granted qualified privilege. Most states compel reporters to testify before the grand jury if the information is a) considered vital and b) there are no other means to acquire the information. So when those conditions are met, the reporter is again met with the threat of jail and/or fine.
Don't expect the courts to give journalists slack anytime soon, either. The grand jury is one of the most important tool for the judiciary branch in the gathering of information, and civil contempt is its one and only way to compel testimony. The supreme court will protect its brethren. Unless 5 Hugo Black clones occupy the bench at the same time.
Bottom line is this: if you're going to promise unconditional anonymity, you better be ready to go to jail. Otherwise you will lose all credibility or will have to beg your sources to allow you to divulge their identity to the grand jury.

I'm Beat

Okay so I don't know if your papers do this to you, but mine just loves sending me out to random and most times far places to cover things. I had to cover this lecture up in Chautauqua, N.Y. Yep, I had to drive to something at least an hour away in a Neon with faulty air conditioning and no power steering -- definitely not the most pleasant ride. And on top of that I missed a turn which caused me to drive in circles around northwestern New York state. So after two hours, a florist and a bunch of bikers, I finally found my way to the place. When I thought things were going good, I found out that the venue was about a half mile from my parking spot. I normally like the walk, but running that with only a minute to spare before it started. Anyway, I finally got to the place -- out of breathe and frazzled, but I got there. That's all that mattered. The talk was interesting --a little out there but what other lecture wouldn't. The Chautauqua Institution, which was apparently where Clinton "collected his thoughts" before the Presidential debates, was absolutely gorgeous. I definitely would love to spend a couple of weeks to relax over there. That was pretty much my day, and guess what? I get to do it all over again tomorrow. Well, I guess I should get to bed. Gotta make an early start. Wish me luck!

Please don't hurt me...

I need some steak. Or rather, steak sauce.

A1. Get it? A story on A1? Like the steak sauce?

Okay, I'll stop now.

Happy 4th of July

God bless 3 day weekends.

If I ever needed a break, it would be right now. Even though The Post has a larger business staff than most papers (9 reporters, 4 editors), it seems like there is more than enough work to go around and I have been stuck with my share of it. On average, I find that I have 3 stories or so a week on top of the story ideas that I came up with.

I don't normally pimp my own work but here's the link to the Facebook story since 95 percent of us use the website (Sorry Ash!)

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2829829

After next week, I am actually taking a week off from my internship to attend a leadership conference back home in Los Angeles. I think in way it will mess up my flow, but a week back in Los Angeles never hurt nobody before...

How does everyone get along with their respective editors? Anyone have any horror stories...mine is OK. I just literally sit right on his lap, outside of his office, and he has a slow editing process but besides that, we get along fine. I like to think that I do my part to keep him hip and "down with the cause."

Saturday night and I'm posting on a blog...when does school start again?

Halfway Through

Home for the weekend, because my Korean passport is expiring and needed me to be in the Chicagoland area. And my dad's home, for the first time in almost 10 months.
It was a bit tiring to work a full day on Thursday and drive straight home for about 6 hours. The story I worked on was supposed to run on Friday, but it ended up running today because of the ongoing budget crisis at the Capitol (as in there's no budget, and therefore a partial government shutdown).
Work is challenging, as usual, but it's going well. I had a second A1 story on the Grokster case packaged with the AP Ten Commandments ruling story. And I recently finished off a feature story I worked on for almost two weeks about foreign students coming to the US to work at Minnesota resorts. That's supposed to run as the centerpiece on the business page.
I'm quickly approaching the sixth week of my internship. It's been busy and fast. But I've thoroughly enjoyed my experiences so far and hope to finish strong.
But it's certainly nice to be home to eat some good food and hang out with some of the high school friends, who didn't expect to see me last night at a party. Matches of beer pong ensued.
And I'm leaning more and more toward going to law school. I really do enjoy writing and reading about the Supreme Court. If I want that to be my beat, then I almost certainly need the degree. But I want to work for a couple years and save up some money before I make the leap. Nothing like a healthy balance.