While the 2020 election is, in many ways, barely getting started, coverage of the current Democratic candidates is already dominating every news cycle. As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, many Americans consider climate change to be a significant issue that needs addressing in this upcoming election.

This focus on climate change is already having an impact on how candidates are campaigning. While the DNC rejected a proposal to host a debate solely on climate change, media outlets such as CNN are hosting climate change town halls with leading candidates to continue the conversation in more informal ways.

Just as the threat of climate change isn’t going anywhere, neither is the conversation. Media publications such as the New York Times and The Washington Post are regularly sharing both news and opinion/analyses on climate change and the Democratic presidential candidates’ plans to combat it.

Opinion: Do We Need the Green New Deal? — The New York Times

This opinion editorial speaks into the debate around a specific question:

Is the Green New Deal a left-wing wish list, a catalyst for crucial dialogue or our best hope for averting catastrophe?

Providing a thorough background on the issue, Bokat-Lindell breaks down the fears that were taken into account when the Paris Climate Accord was signed, as well as the details around the Green New Deal. While the author cites facts, he does so with the purpose to share an opinion on the matter.

Specifically, he argues that the Green New Deal may not be the answer to solving climate change, but rather is a political strategy. Citing the thoughts of other journalists, as well as solutions that people like Bill Gates have endorsed, Bokat-Lindell remains adamant that the Green New Deal has its flaws. He closes by stating that whatever the answer to the climate change crisis may be, the current presidential candidates certainly have their work cut out for them.

Analysis: The Energy 202: Bernie Sanders announces a $16.3 trillion Green New Deal — The Washington Post

Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal has been the topic of many news stories, analyses, and opinions alike. In this particular instance, Dino Grandoni dissects the details of Bernie’s plan through a critical analysis piece.

Grandoni addresses specifics such as the high price tag of $16.3 trillion and calls out the fact that under Sanders’ plan, many in the oil and coal industries will lose their job. Because of some of these hard to swallow realities, Grandoni even argues that this plan “has virtually no shot of being passed by a Republican-controlled Senate.” He does share, however, that the plan shows Sanders’ willingness to address the issue head-on through executive action.

News: Kamala Harris says she’d eliminate filibuster to pass Green New Deal — The Washington Post

This news article from The Washington Post reports on Harris’ call to end the Senate filibuster to address climate change.

Rather than offering an opinion on whether Harris was right or wrong, or even what implications her statement may have, this article is merely reporting on an event that occurred. In addition, it also goes on to share additional news of other candidates’ recent release of their climate change plans ahead of CNN’s town hall event.

While the previous two articles focused on opinions and analyses regarding the Democratic presidential candidates’ climate change plans, this story sticks solely to the facts.

News: Democrats Propose Trillions in Spending on Climate-Focused Plans to Restructure Economy — The Wall Street Journal

Climate change plans have been a major topic of coverage this past week, and this news article from The Wall Street Journal is no exception. Specifically focusing on Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, this story outlines these candidates’ newly released plans to address the climate change crisis.

Similar to the previous Washington Post article, this story from The Wall Street Journal focuses specifically on a high-level view of the details around each of the candidates’ plans. This article’s thorough overview provides simple facts without bias that ultimately can help educate voters and help them make an informed decision on which candidate to support.

Hello to Everyone Once Again and Welcome to Week 3 on My Blog!

If you have been following along, you will know by now that my chosen topic to focus on in MCO 425 is parental alienation and child custody laws/issues.  As I mentioned previously, this topic is near and dear to my heart as my husband has consistently been going through the hardest battle ever fought to see his son from the day he was born.  Now I fight this battle with him and research to see how the media treats news on this complicated topic.

For this week, the assignment asks for an analysis of sorts on 4 online items that discuss the topic at hand.  So, in my online search travels I decided to find a news and opinion piece that references the same story to make it a bit more interesting.  I wanted to see how the “black and white” news story would be reported as opposed to someone’s opinion on that same story.

For the first set of news and opinion pieces, I found what I consider to be a news story out of Harris County, Texas from 2004.  The news story was reported by The Houston Chronicle and it was an information riddled piece that spoke of a 10 year-old boy charged with the murder of his father, Dr. Rick James Lohstroh, with a gun that belonged to his mother.  The story reported on the fact that the mother and father had just gone through a divorce the year prior.  It also spoke of a discrepancy with a dosage of Prozac, not agreed upon by both parents, that could have led to the shooting based on reports from one side of the family.  These are the basic facts of what happened reported by The Houston Chronicle at that time, without an opinion from the journalist themselves as to what could have caused the shooting.

Around that same time, ABC News reported what I consider to be an opinion piece on this same story which was then picked up by The Canadian Children’s Rights Council.  In this piece, also from 2004, you will see the first mention of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as it pertains to the murder of Lohstroh by his son.  It not only defines PAS in laymen’s terms but also brings to the forefront the opinion that it could have actually been the cause of the shooting.  How the journalist references PAS, which is defined in greater degree on Wikipedia, along with giving an opinion that it could be the cause to the shooting is telling of the fact that this story is an opinion piece.

For the second set of news and opinion pieces, I chose a story many may remember about the actor Alec Baldwin and his issues stemming from a damaging voicemail to his 11-year-old daughter.  The news story chosen seemed to become a bit of an objective piece of news reported by Newsweek in 2007.  It did reference the facts behind the story in terms of the voicemail that was leaked to the press but it also brought PAS out to the forefront from the beginning of the story.  The opinion of whether this case fell under the issues brought on by PAS is not argued but rather the two separate viewpoints of father’s rights and advocating mothers were reported on.  While I do believe this news story could straddle the line of being an opinion piece, I think it more so follows the lines of an objective piece as it gives all of the information needed for the reader to further follow up and make their own opinion.

The opinion piece on this Baldwin news story is a bit more forthcoming with how the journalist feels about PAS and its implications on custody cases.  The Daily Newspaper from the University of Washington posted the piece in 2007, the day after the press leaked the actual news story.  It does reference the facts behind what the voicemail and it also talks about PAS, however, it grossly speaks about this psychological syndrome as nothing more than a ploy for an abusive partner to use court as the upper hand during custody issues.  It also does it’s best to use statistics to put a face with the label of abuser in most of these custody cases, which the journalist advises is usually a man.  I must say that for myself and my situation, it is a bit disturbing to read, however, it is an opinion piece that does shed light to the other side of the coin of PAS and how some can abuse using the syndrome as a way to hurt others.

I do believe this topic is a controversial and complicated one that has many intricate parts to it.  Depending on the situation at hand and how it is reported in the media, you may change your stance on a daily basis as I have in the past as well.  I look forward to continuing my journey of exploring the media coverage behind it and I hope you do as well.

Until next time…….

Why I Dread the Accommodations Talk
This article showcases one instructor’s opinion of the process of a student presenting an accommodations letter. While the byline only shows her name, Gail A. Hornstein, she does seem to have her own website. The website lists her as a professor and author. She speaks about a specific student while making generalizations about many students. This is clearly her opinion because she makes subjective comments about the student’s appearance and demeanor. She also makes comments about her own demeanor which seem to shed herself in a much more positive light than the student. She goes on to pat herself on the back for being dismissive of the student and for essentially disregarding the accommodations letter that more than likely took immense courage for a student (who suffered from panic attacks) to admit to needing, obtain documentation for, request, and present to their instructor. While this one experience is anecdotal, she uses it to comment on every accommodations letter that she receives, and even publishes an article hoping to shape the experience of every instructor who receives these letters.

OPINION: It’s the cheating that’s the problem, not the accommodations
This article is also an opinion piece. This is made obvious by the word OPINION in the title. This article is written by a college student, Donnie Denome, for a college publication. Denome’s profile is linked in the byline and from his profile it is pretty clear that Denome writes almost exclusively opinion pieces for this publication. This article shows the unfortunate ramifications of the so-called “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal which not only involved the wealthy paying for admission into college, but also paying for diagnoses to obtain accommodations which they did not qualify for, and then using those accommodations to cheat on tests. Aside from the journalist making it clear in the headline that this is an opinion piece, he also uses an anecdote from his own experiences as a college student receiving testing accommodations. He even quotes himself and refers to himself as I and us in the article. While he does reference facts in this article, he peppers them with his own opinions and experiences.

The Section 508 Refresh and What It Means for Higher Education
This article, by contrast to the others, is written by Martin LaGrow, an arguable subject matter expert, evidenced by the fact that his byline is a direct link to his biography which lists a large number of qualifications. Experts still have opinions and often write about them of course, but this adds quite a bit to LaGrow’s credibility. This article also links directly to multiple sections of accessibility law and other articles which it references, such as the General Service Administration’s Section 508 page, United States Access Board, and the Department of Justice ADA information page. LaGrow states the legal facts and backs them up with evidence, without injecting his own opinions. Because this article came out shortly before the new Section 508 standards were to go into effect, this article was also particularly newsworthy at the time of publication.

ADA Compliance for Online Course Design
This article is also an EduCause article and it is written by Sheryl Burgstahler, who also has a biography page byline link and has written or presented several times about online course accessibility for EduCause. Burgstahler also references many of the same pages that LaGrow references, strengthening the validity of both of their articles. Burgstahler’s articles focuses more on actionable items than LaGrow’s article, but it still pulls these items directly from the written laws and standards and expands on them a bit. This article is also newsworthy as it comes on the tail of a string of lawsuits and civil rights complaints against many institutions of higher learning.

That’s Like Your Opinion Man

After submitting my proposed blog topic, the media focus of the  2020 Presidential Election, it was suggested that narrowing down this broad topic would be more beneficial to effective composition (than you Agya Aning). Thus, I still intend to frame the blog topic under the same media analysis of the 2020 Presidential Election subject, but I will focus on a specific policy that will likely be presented or discussed by several candidates. In this case, healthcare is a key issue that will be argued about and agreed on by several of the potential candidates throughout the primary and general election process.

Here I will present 4 online news items referencing the aforementioned topic, both as analysis and as opinion. I will attempt to explain the justification for assigning the label to each news piece: