Committee to Protect Journalists:
I feel that it is an reprehensible action for governments and organizations to detain and murder journalists. What any of these peoples do, they would too feel violated if their freedom of speech and press were forcibly taken away. Yet, they will, seemingly without a second thought, do the same action to others. If anything, it is a futile effort as the article that they perceive as detrimental or treasonous is already published. The act of kidnapping the writer hurts the government more than any article ever would. In other words, these actions are lacking of any logic or reason.

Project Censored:
There is an interesting article on Project Censored that details the autopsy reports of several detainees in US custody that have died while in captivity. The US government has taken a very adamant stance against the torture and abuse of prisoners; this would be very hypocritical of its claims. Many of the victims were found to have died as a result of asphyxiation or severe beatings. Even one has died from hypothermia exacerbated by the methods of interrogation used. If this were to be more publicized, not only would the US government be criticized for committing crimes it strongly condemns, but it would also been seen as dishonest and secretive in its actions.

Nellie Bly was a turn of the century investigative reporter. Born 1864, she was one of the first immersion journlaists. Bly would not only deeply investigate her case, but she would also try to become involved with it in order to gain a better understanding from an insider's perspective. This was critical in her most famous expose where she faked insanity to be admitted into a mental asylum. There, she unearthed the deplorable treatment of the patients and sparked reform.

Radio and television are easy to gain knowledge as you don't have to be as dedicated to read. Radio you can listen to while doing almost anything, and TV is easy to watch and react. Newspapers require effort to read and thus with the advent of broadcast news reporting their circulation declined. They had to make their articles more friendly and less intensive to read. In short, they had to be more engaging and to the point in order not to lose to TV and radio.

Newspapers have had to print faster and be more brief and easy to use as a result of the Internet. With the Internet, updating a news sight is almost instantaneous. With a newspaper, it has to be printed and distributed which takes a greater amount of time.

Newspapers goals are to merely inform the population in a timely, accurate, and informative fashion of important events on a local, national, or global level. Bias and opinions should be limited in news article and saved for the op-ed columns.

The most important book of my life is may be What's Eating Gilbert Grape. It was a moving book and reinforced the fact that life can always be worse. Also, I agreed with the approach that being cynical is a great way to deal with things.