week 6: Assignment #1 Real Blogging
THIS IS WHAT A BLOGGER DOES:
1) select a topic (actually, I am assigning it in this case)
2) read about it, get to know the whole topic, find the facts, become something of an expert by reading about the topic and the background, and gathering ideas from many different writers who have written on the subject – newspapers, on-line news, other bloggers, websites
3) keep track of all the information and usable quotes — and the URLs because you will be linking to them for your readers
4) form an intelligent, informed point of view / opinion about it, based on facts and good, clear critical thinking. Critical thinking is the most important thing of all.
5) write about it (blog about it.) Remember that yout goal is for the reader to gain a better and broader understanding of the topic.
6) include quotes and excerpts from your sources, with words linked to the URL of the original site
7) your blog post should make a strong case — so make it well written, well thought-out, and well supported by carefully chosen sources, quotes and excerpts.
Assignment:
YOUR BLOG TOPIC: How much truth / how much spin?
- In reference to the Mark Foley Scandal, Tony Snow said, “I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.”
Your job as a blogger is to take that little two sentence quote and analyze it in terms of truth v. spin. In order to understand it, you have to understand much more than those two sentences.
the assignment is to analyze Snow’s statement from the perspective of spin/propaganda. write out the 10 questions and write out your answers before you start constructing an essay. The essay is answering #11. Your thesis statement is your answer to the quesion implicit in #11: Did Tony Snow spin the Foley scandal? How? Why? And what difference does it make if he did?
What should you write?
Discuss this [Snow’s] quote, giving –
- the background and the context of the “scandal” Snow is referring to, is Mathew loraditch president of page alumni assoiciation warned congressional pages 5 years ago about dealing closely with foley. Foleys past role as an advocate for missing and exploited children, warnings to pages from the republican staff member, to house speaker Dennis Hasterts admission that he was told about the emails. citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington calld for a federal investigation into foleys actions. they have possion of the first set of emails . in july they say they forwarded them to the FBI, theyve asked the department of justice to look into why the FBI did not pursue the mater then, in july. you tube context ironists note this mark foley campaign ad which doughts him as a protecter of children. CNN interviewed house speaker Dennis hastert about his knowledge of foleys actions hastert claims that he did not recall any conversation about foleys emails pror to last friday. this contrdicts the recollection of other GOP leaders, including tom reynolds and john boehner, who havesaid they told hastert about the emails last winter foleys side in his blunt press conferance from his lawyer who told reporters that was both a victim of sexual abuse and that he is a gay man aswell as a “closet alcoholic”
- looking at who Tony Snow is, Robert Anthony or “Tony” snow was born june 1st 1955 he is the white house press secratary for george W. bush administration. becoming the third person to serve in that position under president bush. it is the second presidentail administration to which snow was employed he worked for president george w bush a chief speech writer and deputy assistant of media affairs between his two white house stunts snow was a broard caster and newspaper columnist, after years of regular guest hosting for the rush limbaughs show and providing news commentary for national public radio. he launched his own talk radio program called the tony snow show which went on to become nationaly syndicated he was also a regular personality on fox news since 1996, hosting fox news sunday, weekend live and often substitutly as a host of the O’reily factor.
- who he was talking to, he was talking to Soledad O’brien from CNN
- under what circumstances this remark was made, in the morning on CNN Soledad O’brien asked tony snow why, ” any communication between a 16 year old and a congressmen didnt raise red flags- major , massive red flags, with speaker dennis hastert and others who have known about the communication for months.”
- Snow’s possible intent, was to prove mark foley inicent or to hide somthing, also to draw peoples attention away from foleys scandel an to the other scandels on capital hill
- what message he was trying to send, was that they needed to look at all the facts and everything going on every where else, because ther is other scandals just as bad happening
- what he wanted people to think and feel as a result of his statement, was to think what the differance is between the scandels on capital hill and the mark foley scandal they should all be treated equally and mark foleys scandal is just simply naughty emails.
- the accuracy of the statement, this statement is in accurate because foley met with some of those boys, took them out to eat, maybe even had sex with them, it wasnt just naughty emails
- the ways in which the quote is true, the only way the qoute is true is that there might realy be some scandels going on on capital hill and its not always prety up on capital hill.
- the ways in which it may or may not be misleading — it could be misleading because he refers to foleys scandal as simply emails snows not defending foleys actions but hes not exactly donoucing them either.
- and draw a conclusion about the Truth or Spin factor. i think snow knew the truth about foleys scandel but he spun it to save the GOP leaders from haveing an empty seat to protect when foley has to resign.
How much spin/how much truth?
discuss snows qoute:
snow-” I hate to tell you but it’s not always pretty up there on capital hill. and there have been other scandals, as you know that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.”
The Mark Foley scandel is very complicated. every one had there own opinions on the scandal. most of them lies or false information, also known as propaganda Tony Snow knew the truth about the foley scandal, but instead of telling the media the truth he did somthing called “spin” which is that he pushed his interpratation of facts. The background of the foley scandel is about 5 years ago mathew loraditch, president of the alumini association warned congressional about dealing closely with foley. house speaker dennis hastert admitted that he was told about the emails. citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington called for a federal investigation into foleys actions.they had possesion of the first set of emails. in july they say they forwarded them to theFBI they’v asked the department of justice to look into why theFBI did not pursue the matter then , in july. CNN interviewed house speaker dennis hastert about his knowledge of foleys actions. hastert claims that he did not recall any conversation about foleys emails prior to friday. other GOP leaders including tom reynolds and john boehner claims they both told hastert about the emails last winter. foleys side in his blunt press conferance from his lawyer who told the reporter that foley was both a victim of sexual abuse and that he is a gay man aswell as a closet alcoholic. theres alot of different storys of the foley scndal but the proper context was the incriminating evidence on foley which was both the less disturbing emails and the highly explicit instant messages. that finaly forced him to resign. a document has details on an email exchange in which a page discussed foleys inappropriate dialoge with himand other pages. the chat between foley and one page, which includes suggestions of professional growth in exchange for sexual favors you can see a few emails in question at a blog entry from september 24th click on ” shocking emails ” to see some responses from other pages. foley was investigated by the house leadership, counselled and put on a form of private probation . when he violated that probation he was forced out of office. despite the political harm to the GOP leaders election prospects it was the right thing to do. Robert Anthony or “tony” snow is the white house press secratary which is the primary spoksmen for the adminastration. snow was a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. he provided news commentary for national public radio, so he has gotten some experiance with twist ing his storys to the media. when snow said the statement he was talking to Soledad O’brien form CNN the remark was made because in the morning on CNN O’brien asked tony snow,” why any communication between a 16 year opld and a congressman didnt raise red flags- major red flags- with speaker dennis hastert and others who have known about the communication for months.” snow answered ” i hate to tell you but its not always prety up there on capital hill. and there have been other scandals as you know that have been more than simply naughty emails.” snows possible intenttions are to tell people only what he thinks is the truth or give everybody alot of worthless information. because hes possibly useing the media to spread politacal lies in order to mislead the public, which is called propaganda. the massage snow was trying to send was that there are more scandals going on up on capital hill so why mess with foleys simple naughty emails. he was pushing his interpratation of the facts, trying to get the public to see things in his perspective. he wanted people to think that foleys scandal wasnt all that bad. so the GOP leaders whouldnt have a vulernable seat to defend when foley is forced to resign. the statement is in accurate because foley didnt only simply send naughty emails he also met up with some of the boys , took them out to lunch, and maybe even had sex with them. so it wasnt just simply naughty emails. the only way the qoute was true was that there might be more scandals going on up on capital hill, but not worst then foleys scandal. the qoute can be misleading because snows not defending foleys actions , but hes not exactly denouncing them either. snows remarks are those of someone who knows the truth and is attemting to down play it, not someone who is concerned and is hungry for the truth. in conclusion i think snow knew the truth about the scandal. snow did spin the foley scandal by giving the media only half the truth he spun the foley scandal because it was hurting the GOP leaders because the congressmens resignation doesnt just open up a seat for the democrats in florida, it could do major damage to the partys reelection hopes nation wide. it whouldnt matter if snow spun the foley scandal or not congressmen foley will always have the reputation of a pedafile.
