Oz Jensen Blog

            William F. Buckley     I really liked Jacob's presentation and blog on William F. Buckley, a conservative commentator who ran for mayor of New York in 1965. Despite losing Buckley gave a hard fought campaign that would go on to be the inspiration for republican mayors in New York such as Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.       In 1966, Buckley became the host of the new talk show, Firing Line with William F. Buckley. The show went on to air for 34 years, the longest out of any public affairs program in history. A staunch supporter of free speech Buckley would often have controversial figures on his show. Following his death in 2008 Mayor Bloomberg said that Buckley changed the political landscape of the city.        

                                                                Muckraking and yellow journalism blog      While yellow journalism and muckraking are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two distinct types of journalism. While muckraking involves investigating powerful people for scandalous information, Yellow Journalism involves utilizing sensationalism and exaggeration over facts to get more readers and influence.      The fact that these two journalistic styles are responsible for journalists having more power, and the usual powerful people to have less, powerful people are usually not fans of Muckraking or Yellow Journalism.      While at times using sensationalism can be a bad thing, sometimes there are correct reasons. An example of this could be Paul Revere's cartoon of the Boston massacre.      While we are aware that this is not an accurate representation of what happened in the Boston Massacre, this type of journalism helped changed public perce

      Oz Jensen   Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward      Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward are the perfect example of why the 4th estate, as well as free speech are such essential parts of a functioning democracy. The journalists exposed illegal activities by an acting president, directly leading to his being the first President in history to step down from power.   What was Watergate?          In the morning of June 17, 1972 , several burglars were arrested at The Office of National Democratic committee. The next day, it was released that the men who were arrested had connections to Richard Nixon. In the immediate aftermath however, it appeared as though Nixon would get away with it. Even with the scandal, Nixon easily won 1972 reelection, earning a whopping 520 electoral college votes.      This all changed very quickly after Woodward and Bernstein released their book, "All the President's men" in which, with the help of a deep government source, referred to as Deep Throa

 Oz  Sam Harris On free will  Sam Harris is an atheist philosopher, neuroscientist and author. Harris's argument on free will is that it does not exist, and is in fact just an illusion. He explains that he believes understanding this is just as important as understanding evolution.      Harris says he thinks if humans understood the fact that they had no control over their decisions, our lives would be better, and it would be easier to forgive those who wronged us.    He explains that many people believe if you want to do something, you do it, thus free will exists, but Harris would you have no power over wanting to do that thing. Another example Harris gives is he will ask someone to pick a city, and when they do he'll explain why this seems to be as free a choice as possible but what about the cities you didn't think about? is it possible someone else with your exact genes and life experiences would pick the same exact city Harris says this way of thinking can improve you

 Oz Jensen      In 1897 when William Randolph Hurst got a cable that stated "There will be no war" he responded with "You furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war.", sure enough, in February of 1898 the USA declared war on Spain after The U.S.S Maine blew up.      Hurst took advantage right away, understanding that war with Spain over Cuba would sell more copies of his newspaper , Hurst started a public campaign falsely propagating that Spain had definitely blown to U.S.S Maine and that America should respond strongly. Thanks to "yellow journalism" from the media, and especially Hurst public sentiment for the war was at an all time high.  The role of a journalist is often referred to as the 4th estate , referring to the power journalists have over public opinion and ability to impact political issues. For the most part in cases such as watergate, this is an exceptionally good thing, but what happens when journalists, similar to Hearst, ignore the t