Keeping It Even Realer

In which John discusses his overwhelmedness, his confusion, his recent travels to Africa, and his health?!

If you are not one of John Green's hundreds of thousands of fans or blog followers,   you might not recognize him as the author of the best selling novel 'Fault In Our Stars.'

This shocking spoof stars Sarah Silverman,  who returned to host Saturday Night Live this week after being fired from the show more than 20 years ago. True to her controversial style, the sketch makes light of two sensitive topics:  a tearjerker about a teenager with cancer and ebola, a disease everyone is currently terrified of.  But is it funny?  Too soon?

Whats funny about the current ebola headlines?  Is the joke on the United States?

If Its Not Scottish....

....What is it?

The Scottish independence referendum, 2014 was a referendum on whether Scotland should be an independent country that took place on 18 September 2014.[1]

The independence referendum question, which voters answered with "Yes" or "No", was "Should Scotland be an independent country?" The "No" side won, with 55.3% voting against independence. The turnout of 84.6% was unusually high for a ballot in the United Kingdom.

The Scottish Independence Referendum Bill, setting out the arrangements for this referendum, was passed by theScottish Parliament in November 2013, following an agreement between the Scottish and the United Kingdom governments. To pass, the independence proposal required a simple majority. With some exceptions, all European Union (EU) or Commonwealth citizens resident in Scotland aged 16 or over could vote, a total of almost 4.3 million people.

Yes Scotland was the main campaign group for independence, while Better Together was the main campaign group in favour of maintaining the union. Many other campaign groups, political parties, businesses, newspapers and prominent individuals were also involved. Prominent issues raised during the campaign included which currency an independent Scotland would use, public expenditure, EU membership, and North Sea oil.

Could this happen in the United States?

Should we let 'secessionists' leave?  Why/ why not?

Who wants to join the United States?  Maybe we could swap?

WGOITP?

Whats Going On In This Picture?

Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?

Travel with Frontline to the epicenter of this ongoing crisis.

Rays Rage

The sordid Ray Rice scandal has opened a much-needed dialogue about domestic violence.

In February Rice and Janay Palmer, then his fiancée and now his wife, had an altercation at an Atlantic City casino that left Palmer unconscious. A tape surfaced of Rice dragging Palmer’s limp body from the elevator, hovering over her. At no point does he appear to attend to her, appear shocked at what he has done to her or appear to have much concern for her at all.

How was Rice able to avoid trial on the original charge? Why did it take the second tape for the N.F.L. to act more forcefully in the case? Did anyone at the N.F.L. see the second tape before it was made public? Could anyone have if he’d tried harder to find it? It seems that there were multiple failures here.

Is Domestic Violence only a US problem?

Should League Commissioner Roger Goddell lose his job as well?

What does the Commish have to say in his own defense?

If you died....

In response to the killing of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, and the biased media coverage of the victim that followed, young people of color on social media began wondering how they might be portrayed if the same happened to them. These pictures are powerful reminders of how stories get told in America.

How do we detect bias in the news?

Police and Thieves

On the final "Last Week Tonight" of August, John Oliver dove into what sadly has become the biggest national news story of the summer, the ongoing violence in Ferguson, Missouri.

"This whole story is depressingly familiar," Oliver began. "And there are so many unanswered questions regarding why an officer would shoot an unarmed teenager. What is absolutely clear is that the police have handled everything since then terribly."

From there, Oliver went on to criticize officials at every level in Missouri, from the city's police chief and mayor to the governor, for their tone-deafness, hostility and overt patronization of the citizens of Ferguson.

The comedian reserved his most pointed barbs, however, for the police themselves, not just in Ferguson but throughout the country. While Oliver made it clear that "not all cops are bad," he drove home the top-down problem of an increasingly militarized police force in the wake of the war on drugs and September 11 attacks.

Are the criticisms of the Police fair? Are they likely to bring about change? Why or why not?

Read the Ferguson Perspective from a Cop's Wife. Does this change your opinion?

Newsworthiness

What was NEWSWORTHY about your SummerVacation?

What makes something newsworthy?

Use the newspapers in class to complete 'Where does news come from?'

Is this story newsworthy?