Reading Diary III: Sources

Article I: (NYT) “Hospitals Shift Smoking Ban to Smoker Ban” by A.G. Sulzberger

With New York banning smoking in city parks our discussion on smoking bans from last class comes full circle with this article. Hospitals around the nation are conforming to a new trend that dictates a ‘no smokers allowed’ policy. Sulzberger, the reporter, presents a very well rounded piece, going at the issue from many angles that all play an important part in the making of this ban and the overall reaction to it. His sources are very wide ranging and very relevant to the issue at hand, varying from workers unions representatives to health care insurance companies, from nursing school students to public health professors, there doesn’t seem to be a side of this story left unnoticed and if there is it was probably overlooked because it was nonessential. Those quoted and sourced in this story seem to be the right ones to look to when it comes to trying to make sense of this ban, especially the last quote from an elderly man who is glad the ban was put into motion at the clinic he helps out at because it help him quit an addiction he had struggled with for decades, which puts an optimistic outlook on this ban. The only problem with Sulzberger’s large array of voices is that some of the are not represented as clearly as they could be. Sulzberger paraphrases what has been relayed back to him from his sources instead of just straight up quoting them, so he is not exactly ‘putting word in their mouth’ but it seems not far from it. By the end of this article I realized that the reporter left out one potential (yet somewhat essential) side to this story that could have made this piece even better: those who have been effected by this ban, the employee’s who have been fired/terminated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11smoking.html?hp

Article II: (NYT) “Obama Unveils Wireless Expansion Plan” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Even though we take for granted that our lives are so easily connected to networks of all kind, we must realize that not all of the contiguous states are as fortunate as others. The U.S isn’t even at 98% high speed wireless coverage and that seems surprising for something (meaning wireless coverage) that becomes more and more basic in this ever changing day and age. So with that said this article on Obama’s new wireless expansion plan (which, personally, seems to be a very important story right now with the state of communication speeds growing faster and faster) appears to only cover one side and that is the side of what the President said in his speech in Marquette. Stolberg doesn’t have much journalistic reach in this piece, there are no quotes form the students to whom the speech was given to from Mr. Obama (these students being the obvious people to turn to for reactions on the speech and to see if they do indeed believe that Obama can go through with this plan). Stolberg for the most part is paraphrasing what Mr. Obama said in his speech and when she is able to display an external quote it comes from the associative director of the Media Access Project, a group that is never really clarified as to why it was asked its opinion. This journalist could have at least looked into what the Republican-conservative side of congress though of this unveiling, whether they were for it or if they thought it was working against their trying to cut federal spending. In summation, this article that deals with what seems to be a very important plan to the Obama administration, is not given enough representation from different sides and angles and ends up just being a rehash of what was said in Marquette University, Michigan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/politics/11obama.html?hpw