Campus BluePrint, October 2010 "Social Media and Politics"

BluePrint CAMPUS

Social Media &Politics

OCTOBER 2010

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

BluePrint CAMPUS

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ISLAM IN AMERICA 9/11 and liberalism; extremists and the American Muslim; a local mosque faces challenges; a conversation with UNC’s MSA

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TEA PARTIES AREN’T FREE

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THE NEW NEWS

The Koch brothers and the financial engine behind the reactionary movement; the roots of the xenophobia

Social media changes politics; narrowcasting and its implications; the history of blogs; Sarah Palin’s Twitter gets a new follower

PLUS: 6 7 10 12 13 17

Voter Registration Midterm Elections Still Daring to DREAM Act? Harnessing N.C. Winds The Rise of the Tea Party Education at Home & Abroad

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Narrowcasting our Generation Blogs, Then and Now Soft News, Hard News Small Press, Big World Sarah Palin’s Twitterverse India’s “Rule of Law”

acknowledgements erin becker editor-in-chief sarah bufkin, david gilmore, chelsea phipps managing editors sally fry creative director tyler tran photo editor laura arias-gomez, stewart boss, carey hanlin, jordan heide, troy homesley, molly hrudka, aamir latif, zak mathews, rachel myrick, brandon wiggins, kara williams, kelly yahner staff writers roy ellis, michael falero, carey hanlin, cassie mcmillan, ainslie perlmutt design staff anne brenneman, molly hrudka, will lambeth copy editors roy ellis, suzanne fleishman, caitlin graham, ainslie perlmutt, renee sullender, tyler tran photographers

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

FROM THE EDITOR We’re getting a little freaked out.

An uncooperative minority party is nothing new in Congress. But whisperings of Quran burning, a new third party founded ostensibly on fiscal conservatism but in practice on xenophobia and a strange mix of epithets labeling a president who fits none of them are all indicative of something more serious going on.

Somewhere along the line, liberals (“progressives” polls better, but let’s call a spade a spade) became the Unpatriotic Ones. Thing is, we like our country. A lot.

Enough to hold it to a higher standard than this.

We are patriotic. Patriotic enough to support taxes, when they improve our infrastructure and social services and make life better for all citizens.

We are patriotic. Enough to know that religious freedom means religious freedom for everyone: to practice or not practice, to believe or not believe and to construct houses of worship within constitutional and legal bounds.

We are patriotic. Enough to cringe at politicians who use their power to their personal advantage, who favor rhetoric over substance, who pander to the ignorant.

We remember President Obama’s campaign promises, and we see him trying to keep them in a political climate poisoned by irrational fear and shallow thinking. We’re patriotic enough to know that this isn’t okay and to tell our legislators so.

In this issue, we examine some of the reasons—political, emotional and financial—for the current state of ideological discourse. We look in-depth at social and online media’s influence on the way we talk about politics. We also analyze the disappearance of small press and the rise of Twitter, blogs and as legitimate news outlets.

Finally, a note on the new Campus BluePrint. Despite our ideological similarities, we knew all along Tar Heels and Blue Devils just couldn’t play nice. The partnership was crucial to the magazine’s inception in the spring of 2009, and we had a good run. Eventually, it was time to part ways. It wasn’t you, Duke; it was me. But really...

Happy reading, everyone!

Erin Becker Editor-in-Chief

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

IndexCARD U.S. Representative David Price Chapel Hill (919) 967-7924 Durham (919) 688-3004 Washington, D.C. (202) 205-1784 2162 Rayburn Building Washington, D.C. 20515 http://price.house.gov

U.S. Senator Kay Hagan Greensboro (336) 333-5311 Washington, D.C. (202) 205-1784 521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 http://hagan.senate.gov

U.S. Senator Richard Burr Winston-Salem (800) 685-8916 Washington, D.C. (202) 224-3154 217 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 http://burr.senate.gov

SAVE THE DATE Date a Dem Cocktail R&R Grill, 7-9:30pm Tickets available in the pit Oct. 11-15 $12 includes food

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NOVEMBER ISSUE:

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

50%

of adult social network users report they access their profiles at least every other day

100 million

registered Twitter users, 3.5 million of which are daily users

6 of the 10

top Internet sites are social media sites, none of which made the list in 2005

Over

210 Midterm Election Primer

billion emails sent daily

Sources: socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com; cnn.com; webdoctus.com; web-strategist.com

BY THE

Numbers

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

Get out theVOTE

By Chelsea Phipps

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AINSLIE PERLMUTT

lthough the excitement at UNC is not quite at the fever pitch of the 2008 presidential campaign, campus political organizations have already begun campaigning for this year’s midterm elections. The College Republicans and Young Democrats are making their presence known both on campus and in the community as they register people to vote and educate the electorate about candidates running for the Senate and House of Representatives.

“We are registering as many student voters as we can,” David Murray, vice president of YD, said. “We’re going in with the idea that, Democrat or Republican, no matter what you are, it’s important that UNC students’ voices are represented.”

YD is partnering with the Residence Hall Association again this year to host events designed to encourage people to register for voting. Murray said this was an enormous success in 2008, judging from the thousands of UNC students who voted in Morehead Planetarium.

YD is canvassing and phone-banking to support Democratic candidates, including Elaine Marshall for U.S. Senate and David Price of Chapel Hill for the U.S. House of Representatives. They plan to campaign in all parts of North Carolina, going door to door to encourage Democrats to vote in the elections on Nov. 2. Thirty-seven of the 100 seats in the Senate and all 435 seats of the House of Representatives are up for re-election.

Murray is expecting a much closer election this year than in 2008.

“We’re not as sexy because we don’t have Barack Obama on the ticket,” Murray said. “People were just fed up with how the GOP mangled our country. It was the perfect storm for progressives. We had this incredible candidate, and students on campus in 2008 came of age during the Bush years.”

The chairman of College Republicans, Anthony Dent, also considers this election environment to be considerably

A member of Young Democrats registers new student voters in the Pit ahead of November’s miderterm elections. friendlier to Republicans than two years ago.

“There’s a noticeable difference in the number of College Republicans,” Dent said. “I think this election is going to turn out to be in the Republicans’ favor.”

The CRs, hoping for a conservative takeback of the Senate and House, are making an effort to be in the Pit more often, to increase the number of people phonebanking and handing out campaign literature and to maintain the enthusiasm they had during the last elections, all while focusing more on working the campus as well as the surrounding community. Their goals are to keep Richard Burr in the Senate and to get William Lawson into Price’s

seat in the House.

“We can’t let an area like Chapel Hill just go,” Dent said. “There are people receptive to what we have to say. We need to seek them out and get them to vote.”

In addition to serving on several panels together to discuss pertinent political issues, YD and CR are also collaborating on working with the Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council to promote increased voter turnout amongst the Greek community at Carolina.

“Both [CR and YD] are politically active,” Murray said. “We view this as a common bond, rather than seeing College Republicans as another force.” •

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

STATE of theUNION

By Troy Homesley

State Seats

PHOTO OF RAYNE BROWN FROM RAYNE4HOUSE.COM

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emocrats hold a 30 to 20 majority in the North Carolina State Senate, which has been in Democratic hands since 1898.

The NC Republican Party, however, is making a concerted effort to win over six of the seven seats that are being vacated by Democrats in the upcoming election. Some of these seats lie in territory that leans Republican.

Republicans need to win nine seats in the House of Representatives where Democrats currently have a 68 to 52 advantage.

Hugh Holliman

Fourteen of the seats targeted by the Republican Party were carried by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in the 2008 election.

Among those up for re-election is incumbent Democrat and House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, who faces a tough race against Republican Rayne Brown in Davidson County.

The state races are particularly important because the next General Assembly will be in charge of redrawing legislative and congressional districts that will be in effect until 2021.

The party that wins will have a chance to redraw districts in their favor, thus making it easier for their party to win more seats in future elections. • Rayne Brown

National Seats

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he outlook is uncertain for Democrats in the Nov. 4 midterm elections, thanks in part to a sluggish economy, high unemployment and growing concerns about the war in Afghanistan.

Midterm elections are often viewed as a referendum on the president and his party, and polls show that Democrats around the country are struggling due to President Obama’s low approval ratings.

In the House of Representatives, where every member is up for re-election, each party has a strong hold on 168 seats.

In order to maintain their majority, Democrats must win 50 of the 99 seats that are up for grabs.

Of those contested seats,

47 are leaning Democrat, 33 are tossups and 19 are leaning Republican.

The most closely disputed House of Representatives race in North Carolina is in the eighth district, located slightly northeast of Charlotte, where incumbent Democrat Larry Kissell has a slight edge over Republican challenger Harold Johnson.

In the Senate, Democrats have a solid hold on 46 seats, compared to 35 for the Republican Party. Each party has five seats that are “leaning” their way, leaving nine that are openly disputed.

In the Senate race, incumbent Republican Senator Richard Burr has a stong lead over the Democratic Party’s candidate Elaine Marshall.

Current projections by The New York Times indicate that the Democratic Party will keep their majority in the Senate with 52 senators and lose their majority in the House of Representatives. •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010 the attacks cannot be taken as symbols for the entire Muslim community.

Which perspective carries more weight? Andrew Jones, a political science and dramatic arts double major at UNC, finds fault not with the legal or religious implications of the construction, but with the methodology of those in charge.

“They have every legal right,” Jones said. “But if you’re trying to build bridges with a different group of people – any group of people – you should probably try to cooperate with the group of people you’re trying to gain acceptance with.”

Jones argues that the easiest way for the Muslim-American community to be respected is for them to compromise with their opponents. But why would a compromise be necessary? An evaluation of the situation may give a more complete picture.

Contrary to the violent image the faith has acquired in recent years, the word “Islam” actually means “peace through submission to God,” while the word “Muslim” means “anyone or anything that submits itself to the will of God.” Islamic creed is based on five main points or “pillars,” including: a declaration of n Sept. 10, Wilson Library cast its faith in the oneness of God, formal shadow over hundreds of small prayer five times a day, fasting during RaAmerican flags, all planted on madan, giving money to the poor and a Polk Place. Nearby, pilgrimage to Mecca a student-run desk Islam actually means at least once in one’s distributed stickers lifetime. The reli“peace through that read, “9/11: Nevgion’s foundations er Forget.” Almost submission to God.” lie in faith and comnine years later, the munity, and those wounds of that day carrying out violence are still fresh in the minds of Americans. in its name are directly violating its prinIt is widely recognized that the attacks ciples. Indeed, the commonly misunderwere done in the name of Islam. But stood term “jihad,” which many take to where have we placed the blame: on the mean “holy war” actually means “inner few individuals who actually carried out struggle” and represents the countering the attacks or on Islam itself? of obstacles in one’s daily life.

The past few months have seen a In an attempt to demonstrate Islam’s raging debate over the proposed con- message of peace and community, Imam struction of the inappropriately labeled Feisal Abdul Rauf began working toward “Ground Zero Mosque.” The majority of the creation of Park51, the Islamic comthe dispute has focused on the proximity munity center in downtown Manhattan of the proposed site to Grounc Zero and that has lately been labeled the “Ground the far-reaching implications that might Zero Mosque.” The label is a misnomer in lie in the establishment of such a center. two ways. First, the building is actually a Those arguing against the building most proposed community center open to peooften cite issues such as sensitivity and ple of all faiths, complete with multiple courtesy, pointing at the fact that the 9/11 prayer spaces, a restaurant, a gym and a bombings were carried out in the name pool. Second, the center’s location is not of Islam. Supporters of the mosque ar- even at the designated Ground Zero site. gue that the Al -Qaeda extremists behind In fact, it is over two city blocks away, at

ISLAM in

America O

By Carey Hanlin & Aamir Latif As the “Ground Zero Mosque” stirs up debate in New York, local Muslims remain unphased in their decision to build a new mosque in Chapel Hill.

Campus BluePrint explores the roots of the controversy over Islam.

[Opinion]

Campus BluePrint | October 2010 the site of an old Burlington Coat Factory [of MSA],” Sakahuddin said. “It would be and out of view of the spot where the a great place for all of us to go.”

World Trade Center used to stand.

Salahuddin added that the new So does the debate simply stem from mosque will feature a common meeting an issue of sensitivity or from a deeper ground not only for students but also for issue of fear and intolerance toward the faculty members, graduate students and religion as a whole? Are many Americans local residents. holding all Muslims accountable for the “I think that the Muslim Student Asso9/11 attacks? Anti-Islamic sentiment has ciation and its prayer locations are cencome to the forefront of American me- tered around the undergraduate popudia. Reverend Terry Jones’ plan to burn lation, so having a [central] location in the Quran on the ninth anniversary of Chapel Hill for everyone is very importhe 9/11 attacks made nationwide head- tant,” Salahuddin said. lines, as have a number of mosque arWhile the society has encountered no sons around the significant opcountry. position so far, Anti-Islamic sentiment One of the some of the somain arguments has come to the forefront ciety’s members in opposition to are wary of the of American media.

Park51 is less conadded publicity cerned with relithat the location gion, but instead with Imam Feisal Abdul is receiving as a result of the “Ground Rauf ’s refusal to change to a different Zero Mosque.” Despite the extra attensite. Still, one has to ask: if the issue is tion, representatives of the Chapel Hill unrelated to religion, why should this Islamic Society repeatedly stated that “mosque” be moved in the first place? they have not faced any scrutiny thus far.

Such events demonstrate the negative “We have never faced any sort of disconnotation that the word “Islam” has crimination in the attempt to build the garnered among certain communities in masjid (mosque),” said Dr. Abdul Khan, the past decade. chair of the mosque’s establishment.

From threatening responses to MuSo what really is the core of the probhammad cartoons to France’s recent ban lem? The continued support of Chapel on overt religious apparel, such as the hi- Hill’s proposed mosque certainly adds jab traditionally worn by Islamic women, more weight to Jones’ argument that the it seems the religion will never escape issue is more about cooperation than rethe media spotlight. What few realize, ligion. Still, it is impossible to separate however, is that Park51 received very little the Park51 debate from the topic of relimedia attention until anti-Islam groups gion. Freedom of religion and the right such as “Stop Islamization of America” to own and utilize property are central began blasting the themes of American center. Such antidemocracy. QuesIt is impossible to Islamic sentiment tioning Park51’s lelegally should not separate the Park51 gitimacy is a direct have any effect on violation of these rights guaranteed debate from the topic principles.

Jones to all Americans. might not agree of religion.

This year, the Chawith the message pel Hill Islamic Socithe mosque sends, ety put together an initiative to open its but Imam Rauf seems to think it is exown community center here as a result actly the message the world needs from of the growing Muslim population in the America. In the end, though, the more area. The center has drawn great sup- important question might not be “what port from the area as residents currently kind of message is being sent if the have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest Park51 center is built,” but “what kind of mosque in Durham. message is sent if it is not?”• Taufiq Salahuddin, a member of the Muslim Student Association at UNC, supports the project.

“There are a lot of Muslims on campus – more than a hundred active members

[Opinion]

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

DARE TO DREAM An act that would provide a path to college for undocumented students fails in Senate

By Laura Arias-Gomez

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he recent controversy over Arizona’s immigration law has once again brought the policy battle to the national spotlight. When it comes to college campuses, the immigration debate focuses on whether universities should admit undocumented students, and if so, whether public universities should offer in-state tuition to these students.

Those in favor of a less strict immigration policy toward higher education took a blow on Sept. 21 when the Senate failed to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2009 in a 53-46 vote to block the military spending bill to which the DREAM Act had been attached as an amendment.

All 40 Republican senators voted against the bill, joined by the two Democratic senators from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and by the majority whip, Sen. Harry Reid from Nevada. Reid voted against the bill in a procedural move that allows him to reopen debate later in the session.

Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, introduced the DREAM Act in March of 2009. If passed, the act would have granted undocumented students who entered the country before the age of 15 “conditional permanent residency status” if they attend college or serve in the military. Upon the completion of two years of higher education or military service, applicants could apply for permanent legal residency and they would embark on a path to citizenship, provided they maintain “good moral standing.”

The DREAM Act would have alleviated the financial burden undocumented students face while trying to pursue higher education, as the current policy prevents undocumented students from applying for federal grants, loans and most financial aid offered by universities across the country. In North Carolina, undocumented students must apply as international students, and once accepted they have to pay out-of-state tuition.

Jazmin Garcia-Smith, assistant director of admissions at UNC, said the largest barrier to undocumented students isn’t getting into UNC but rather paying the tuition.

“North Carolina has one of the fastest growing Latino populations in the country,” Garcia-Smith said. “We have not seen the boom yet in applications. Few students get to the point of calling and applying because they feel intimidated.”

Under the UNC admissions policy, however, students are never explicitly asked about their legal status. Instead, they are simply

MARCH ON WASHINGTON: Undocumented students stop by a rally held in front of Wilson Library against U.S. immigration policy on the way to Washington D.C. last spring. asked to fill out an international student application.

“We find out their residency status from the information that is not provided in their application,” Garcia-Smith said.

Loida Ginocchio-Silva, an undocumented student who came to the United States ten years ago, knows the frustration felt by undocumented students in planning for their future.

“I felt embarrassed about my status,” Ginocchio-Silva said. “When I realized I couldn’t apply to schools because I had no Social Security number, [that’s] when my parents told me about my status.

It was difficult for a while. I worked so hard to learn the language and worked towards going to college.”

In high school, Ginocchio-Silva had not gone public about her legal status. She recounts it being difficult to answer her teachers’ and friends’ questions about why she wasn’t going to college.

Some of Ginocchio-Silva’s teachers even questioned why she would take AP classes and other college prep courses, given that she would not be able to attend college.

Community college presents one option for undocumented students in North Carolina. Like many students, Ginocchio-Silva attended community college for two years, pursuing a degree in sociology with the hopes of transferring to a four-year college after she graduated. However, due to high tuition rates she had to put her dreams on hold.

“When I finished my last semester [at community college], I started working with hopes that something would happen in terms of legislation or that I would be able to save up some money to go to school,” Ginocchio-Silva said.

After three years of working, Ginocchio-Silva was finally able to transfer to UNC-Asheville. She is currently taking only one class because, with out-of-state tuition $2,000 for three credit hours, that is all she can afford.

“I’m not eligible for federal financial aid, [and] many scholarships are not available to me,” Ginocchio-Silva said. “Private loans are difficult to get when you don’t have credit history.”

According to Garcia Smith, many undocumented students who

PHOTOS BY TYLER TRAN

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

YOUNG AND OLD ALIKE: A community member joins in with UNC students last spring to rally for change in the federal and state immigration laws concerning higher education. are able to find the means to graduate with time on American soil that the United Kinga four-year degree then find themselves in dom now considers her an international limbo. They have all the preparation and student as well. qualifications to contribute to the U.S. “I think about the amount of money my economy but are still barred from joining parents pay in lawyer’s fees and [about] all the workforce. the issues we have had with the system, “It’s sad. I’ve and I do not know been living here “There are people who how other people do ten years, pay taxit,” Crownshaw said. lose hope because es, volunteer and “People don’t underconsider myself an everything is stacked stand how difficult American. I want to the process is—even against them.” use my talents, but when you [speak] I’m not even given English.” that opportunity,” Crownshaw be-Abby Crownshaw, lieves the U.S. imGinocchio-Silva said.

UNC ’11 and a British citizen migration system is The issue of impartially to blame. migration as it “The way America’s relates to college costs and access is not system is set up perpetuates the cycle,” limited to undocumented students. There Crownshaw said. “There are people who are many students who are in the process lose hope because everything is stacked of getting their citizenship who still do not against them. They feel dissuaded from qualify as U.S. citizens and must apply as seeking out other opportunities because international students, which bars them the odds are stacked against them and from federal financial aid and most private they think, what is the point of trying?” scholarships.

Not all students see the situation as Abby Crownshaw, UNC ’11, a student from hopeless. Cendy Mogollon, a nursing maEngland, has been waiting for her green jor at Queens University in Charlotte, was card for 12 years and has spent so much in the process of applying and processing

her political asylum case when she was in high school. Her parents, however, were not able to support her college expenses as an international student. Mogollon attended Central Piedmont Community College for two years before transferring to Queens University.

“Last semester, I had three part-time jobs and went to school full time,” Mogollon said. “I usually work 30-35 hours a week.”

Even with such a full schedule, Mogollon maintains a 3.7 GPA. “When people tell me not to go to school because of how difficult it is, I get angry,” Mogollon said. “I’d die if I stopped going to school.”

Given the obstacles both undocumented immigrants and non citizens face in higher education in the United States, the DREAM Act could present a solution to a problem that affects students all over the country.

Despite the bill’s fate, the drive that many non citizens have to succeed will continue to propel them forward.

“All the obstacles I faced pushed me even more,” Mogollon said. “It was always my goal to finish school by December 2010.

I was always thinking, ‘[my citizenship status] isn’t going to stop me.’” •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

HARNESSING THE WIND

By Brandon Wiggins

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uke Energy recently announced their decision to cancel a project for building three wind turbines to explore the potential of coastal wind power as an energy source in the Pamlico Sound off the coast of North Carolina between the mainland and the Outer Banks. This project was part of a collaboration with UNC that began in 2009, but it proved to be too costly to complete. Duke Energy reported that the first wind turbine would have cost $88 million, while the second turbine would have cost $14 million.

According to Duke Energy’s website, this offshore wind project would have been among the nation’s first. Duke would have provided for the installation of the wind turbines and allowed UNC to use them to study the potential of wind energy.

“Given that the most likely turbines to be used were rated at 3.6 megawatts each, the maximum total generation would have been 10.8 megawatts. This amount of power could support many, if not all, of the homes on Hatteras Island but is not very significant in terms of the total energy consumption of the state,” said Harvey Seim, a professor of marine science at UNC who served as the lead for campus interactions with Duke Energy on the project.

Although these turbines would not have made a substantial difference in reducing the state’s dependence on coal power overall, the research data it provided could have been highly valuable for further wind power development. The cancellation of this project represents a setback for the development of a wind-power industry in the state.

Wind power is a promising energy possibility because it is renewable and does not produce the greenhouse gases that drive global climate change.

Recently, a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that North Carolina is among the top five states in the country in terms of its wind

energy potential.

The Department of Energy estimates that offshore wind power could generate up to 297.5 gigawatts of power.

Furthermore, a recent study released

by UNC stated that wind turbines off the coast could ultimately power up to 100% of the state’s energy needs without causing any significant environmental impact.

Given the state’s potential for wind energy, it is important that power companies begin giving serious attention to the development of offshore wind turbines. There are still questions, however, regarding the technology, including the effects that wind turbines might have on aquatic ecosystems and bird migration patterns in their area as well as how durable they would be in the face of hurricanes.

Ideally, this offshore project in the Pamlico Sound would have been used as a springboard for further development of coastal wind power, but with its cancellation the necessary research on wind power is now more difficult to come by. “[F]rom the perspective of answering questions about the viability of this technology in the face of strong hurricanes and having specific and detailed information of their impact on avian species, the demonstration project would have enabled research that cannot be answered in any other way,” Seim said.

“In the grander scheme of offshore wind energy development, the cost may have been justifiable if the answers obtained from the studies informed and aided subsequent commercial-scale development.”

Furthermore, Seim said there are no more plans on the part of Duke Energy to install offshore wind turbines, casting more doubt on the viability of coastal wind power.

The research opportunities from these three offshore wind turbines would have been valuable in terms of helping to further the process of building more wind turbines off the coast, possibly leading to a lucrative and clean windpower industry.

One cause for optimism is that Seim believes this news only represents a minor setback for coastal wind power. He is optimistic about the future potential of wind power.

“I feel offshore wind power deserves serious consideration because the wind resource is promising and the identified conflicts are thought to be manageable.

A project which demonstrates viability will be key to promoting vigorous development,” Seim said.

At this moment, however, the fight to build an infrastructure of clean, renewable wind power in North Carolina must go on. •

Wikimedia Commons

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TEATIME

By David Gilmore

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arvans from around the country descended on Washington D.C. a day after the ninth anniversary of 9/11, carrying thousands of members of the proclaimed Tea Party movement. The second annual march on the Capitol brought together a motley assortment of libertarians, evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, Republicans, constitutionalists, Glenn Beck watchers, busniess owners, hockey moms, farmers and others, all of whom gathered with the sole purpose of “taking back America.”

At its heart, the Tea Party is a reactionary movement, one born out of fear of change and progress, one that claims that President Obama and his “socialist” allies are purposefully ruining our country and that a drastic change of direction is needed to right the course.

To liberals, the movement embodies a sense of fear by an increasingly small demographic that is afraid of the cultural and political changes that are occuring in America. Darker elements within the movement hint at racism, divisionism and xenophobia. Although liberals dismiss the Tea Party and its proponents as ignorant, there is no denying that the movement encompasses an angry and significantly influential portion of the American population. And while the Tea Party’s platform has been lambasted, criticized and discredited,

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

its members still ardently believe in it. As the movement becomes stronger, affecting the core of the Republican Party and attracting more followers, liberals need to stop dismissing the movement as part of the fringe and start questioning what the Tea Party is, why its members believe what they do and how to change those beliefs.

The Tea Party movement encompasses a wide array of individual groups around the country which hold similar beliefs.

The movement started in opposition to Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Soon, the party took on other conservative issues, including most notably an absolute rejection of the healthcare reform bill, which most of its members saw as an egregious attempt by the Obama administration to “socialize” health care. In town halls across the country, Tea Partiers railed against reform, citing patently false statements about government-controlled “death panels” and “keeping the government’s hands off Medicare.”

The Tea Party’s staunch opposition to healthcare reform is representative of the movement’s overarching belief – that government is inherently bad and should be limited.

That feeling stems from decades of Republican rhetoric about the dangers of big government, but has been exploited by the movement’s de facto leaders, like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, who have likened the Obama administration to capitalism’s great arch-nemesis: socialism. Many Tea Party members seem to believe that Obama came to office with the ulterior motive of socializing the United States.

To that end, everything that Obama has proposed--including the healthcare reform

bill, which will provide insurance coverage for 32 million people, and the stimulus package which, according to many nonpartisan economists, kept the economy out of recession--has been misconstrued as an attempt to create a Soviet-style state.

But the Tea Party’s beliefs go beyond fear of big government. Polls by The New York Times, Gallup, Bloomberg and The Economist all found that the group is disproportionately white, male, wealthier than average, conservative, Republican and likely to have voted for John McCain in the 2008 election. Tea Party members are thus part of one of the fastest-shrinking demographic groups in the country. The studies also showed that, like the average American, Tea Party members tend to be poorly informed about the realities of American politics and often hold contradictory views about the role of government in society. In Bloomberg’s poll, for example, more than 90 percent of Tea Party backers said that the U.S. is moving more towards socialism than it is towards capitalism, but 70 percent they wanted more government involvement in job creation.

Combined, this means that members of the Tea Party have a fear about their changing place in America. They feel that their country is being taken away from them and given to illegal immigrants, blacks and a liberal urban elite who don’t care about them, the hard-working, small-town, white “real” Americans, as Sarah Palin put it.

The fear of a changing America has been ably exploited by the Tea Party’s leaders and turned into political capital. According to Palin and Beck and Limbaugh, Tea Partiers need to fear not only big government and communism but immigrants, homo-

sexuals, Muslims, Hispanics, city-dwellers, blacks, politicians and liberals, all of whom have secret plans to undermine their America. Tea Partiers have a fundamental duty, they argue, to “take America back.”

And for the Tea Party, there is no bigger threat to America than Barack Obama, that black man with the foreign sounding name, who according to many within the movement may not have been born in America, is a closet Muslim and secretly colludes with America’s enemies.

Glenn Beck went as far as saying that the President hates whites: “This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. [...] I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist,” Beck said on-air.

Beck’s comments about the president became part of a much larger debate about racism within the Tea Party itself. And while it is not fair to generalize and call the entire movement racist, studies by The New York Times and the University of Washington found that members of the Tea Party were more likely to believe that “the Obama administration favors blacks over whites,” that “too much has been made of the problems facing black people” and that Tea Party supporters are 25 percent more likely to be “racially resentful than those who are not Tea Party supporters.”

So why does the Tea Party matter? It is, after all, a movement whose members are not representative of the average American, who exhibit unfounded and irrational fears of the President because of his name and race, who tend to be poorly informed about political reality, who seem to be

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

scared of anyone not like them – why are people bring, but it’s been a pyrrhic victory they important? because they are causing candidates to The reality is that the Tea Party is not a win primaries that are going to lose genfringe movement, as eral elections,” many suggest, but Jason Roberts, an increasingly influof po“It’s a scary time to be a professor ential portion of the litical science at moderate American population.

UNC, said. “It’s Their fears and moa scary time to Republican if you’re tives may be irratioholding elected office.” be a moderate nal, but they exist Republican if nonetheless. you’re holding The distasteful but elected office.” apparently able leadership of people like It is in this sense that the Tea Party is most Palin, Beck and Rush Limbaugh have gal- influential. Although 63 percent of Amerivanized those fears into a massive political cans do not support the Tea Party, the 23 movement that parallels the army of vol- percent that do are loud and increasingly unteers of Obama’s presidential campaign. influential.

And the results are evident. Christine In defeating the national Republican O’Donnell, the Tea Party’s newest darling, picks in Delaware and New York, the Tea knocked off long-time representative and Party may have hurt its chances in the genGOP favorite Mike Castle in Delaware’s eral election, but it also signaled to the Senate primary, and the Tea Party nominee GOP that they are a force to be reckoned for New York governor, Carl Paladino, de- with. The strength of the Tea Party is likely feated the Republican establishment pick, to cause the Republican Party to move Rick Lazio. in their direction, adopting some of their The success of the Tea Party in elections platform points and integrating the Tea is far more likely to hurt Republicans than Partiers into the mainstream of the conserDemocrats. vative movement.

“The GOP likes the energy that these For Democrats, that means a Republican

Party that is more partisan and entrenched than ever before. Tea Partiers and other members of the far right have refused to cooperate on any major policy decisions and have thoroughly lambasted more moderate Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who have cooperated with Democrats on issues of the environment and health care reform.

Even if the Democrats don’t lose Congress in the November midterms, there is no doubt that policy-making will be harder than ever and that political compromise will be a rarity.

The Tea Party movement is the not the first of its kind. American history is littered with political groups – from farmers in the late 1800s to the xenophobes of the early 1900s to the followers of George Wallace in the 1960s and 1970s – who negatively reacted to change in American society.

But while the Tea Party may be a temporary movement that has grown thanks in part to the downturn in the American economy, there is no doubt that it has replaced the Obama campaign as the most powerful contemporary grassroots political movement in the country. •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

TEA PARTIES AREN’T FREE The many tentacles of the “Kochtopus”

By Stewart Boss

A

great deal of speculation and news analysis is circulating lately about who killed climate and energy legislation in Congress this year. Amidst all the confusion and disappointment, taking a look into the financial engine behind the Tea Party movement might give us a clearer picture.

Over the last year, the Tea Party movement caught widespread national attention and catapulted from its status of scattered grassroots anger to a powerful right-wing force, threatening not just Democrats but also moderate Republicans.

But who’s footing the bill for the protests? In Washington, they call it the “Kochtopus.”

Until a recent article by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker, almost no one knew who was pumping millions of dollars into the Tea Party, transforming its antigovernment rage to an organized political movement.

As it turns out, the donors’ names are David and Charles Koch.

If you have heard of them, it’s probably because they’ve been unwillingly shoved into the media spotlight thanks to new exposure surrounding their generous financial support of the Tea Party movement. David and Charles Koch have donated more than $100 million to rightwing causes.

The Koch brothers are longtime libertarians from Kansas. They are also two of the richest people in the U.S. Their combined fortune of $35 billion puts them with the wealthiest of the wealthy; their fortune is surpassed only by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

In New York City, David Koch is regarded as one of the city’s most esteemed philanthropists. In Washington, however, he is regarded as part of a family that has

The Libertarian campaign in 1980 has in some ways been regarded as a precursor to the Tea Party movement that arose in 2009. The platform called for the end of the CIA and FBI, as well as federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. It proposed to discontinue Social Security, gun control, personal and income taxes and minimum-wage laws, while also legalizing prostitution and recreational drugs. repeatedly funded stealth attacks on The Libertarian Party received roughly the federal government, particularly the one percent of the vote in 1980. The outObama administration. come was significant, however, in steerAfter buying out their other brothers a ing the interests of the Koch brothers number of years ago, David and Charles from direct action in politics to changing Koch now own virtually all of Koch Indus- America from behind the curtain, affecttries, a massive conglomerate headquar- ing policy ideas at their source. tered in Kansas.

As a result, the Kochs have used their Koch Industries, which is the second money to shape the conservative political largest privately landscape. owned comThe Kochs pany in the U.S., not only What’s not clear is why the has its hands funded the Tea Party is willing to follow in a little bit of launch of everything. Bea movement being the libersides operating tarian Cato bankrolled by oil refineries in Institute (a billionaires with their own Alaska, Minnedogged opsota and Texas, private agendas. ponent of and thousands environmenof miles of pipetal regulalines, Koch Intion), but dustries also owns Brawny paper towels, they have also given generously to the Dixie cups and Georgia-Pacific lumber, Heritage Foundation and the Indepenamong a variety of other products and dent Women’s Foundation — two organibusinesses. The annual revenue of Koch zations that question the reality of manIndustries has been estimated at $100 made climate change. They also provided billion. millions to create the Mercatus Center, Not surprisingly, the political beliefs a powerful conservative think tank at of the Koch brothers have much to do George Mason University that one Demowith their business interests. The Kochs, cratic strategist called “ground zero for like most Tea Party supporters, want sig- deregulation policy in Washington.” nificantly lower taxes, a massive scaling Most notably, however, the Kochs are reback of social services and considerably sponsible for founding the now infamous less government oversight and regula- Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the tion, especially involving environmental key organization linked with funding the standards.

Tea Party movement and training its activBut that’s just the tip of the iceberg. ists.

David Koch’s unsuccessful 1980 run on The Kochs certainly aren’t the only bilthe Libertarian ticket as Ed Clark’s vice- lionaires helping the Tea Party movement president sheds some light on their true right now. There is also Rupert Murdoch, political leanings. Koch, who was put on the wealthy mogul whose News Corp has the ticket in large part to get around cam- become an unrivaled media empire. Murpaign financing limitations, gave roughly doch, who owns a diverse range of busi$2 million to the effort. nesses including Fox News, HarperCol-

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

lins, MySpace and the Wall Street Journal, has used his empire to empower conservative media outlets that are now instrumental in spreading and promoting the Tea Party message.

As Frank Rich pointed out in a recent column in The New York Times, the Kochs and Murdoch are certainly not the first right-wing billionaires to fund the far right. As Rich observes, you “can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.”

As the Tea Party’s political clout continues to rise, Obama and the Democrats will have to do some hard thinking how to deal with the influence of the “Kochtopus” and find a strategy for fighting back. •

GOOD “ “ Mate A

By Kara Williams

T

here are 98,905 schools in the United States, but only 64,546 of them are making “adequate yearly progress,” as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act, according to the National Center For Education Statistics. Only seventy percent of schools are making adequate yearly progress, which means that thirty percent are not. By this logic, thirty percent of American children are being left behind in their education.

The NCLB Act is a controversial piece of legislation that was passed in 2001 to bring about wide-reaching educational reform in the United States public education system.

It included the unrealistic goal of having all American students “academically proficient” by the year 2014 and the requirement for all students in school years three to eight to take annual academic proficiency tests.

Based on these tests, schools have been “ranked.” If a child’s school does not meet the national standard as set out in the NCLB Act, their parents have the option of transferring their child to another school with transportation costs at the school district’s expense or hiring private tutoring. While the Obama administration has called for a number of changes to be made to the NCLB Act in their “Blueprint for Reform,” a drastic overhaul of America’s public education sys-

tem would need to take place in order to alleviate the current situation.

Similarly, policy for Australia’s public education system has implemented a “My School” website which publishes nationally comparable data on Australian schools.

According to the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, this will introduce a new level of transparency and accountability to the Australian school system. The My School website includes detailed information about the socioeconomic status of its students, the type of school and its location and educational achievements.

Both the U.S. and Australia talk about increasing transparency and accountability within their respective public education systems, but the standardized tests and measurements currently being used to assess these produce inconclusive results. Teachers feel compelled to teach testtaking techniques rather than curriculum to ensure that their school meets national targets.

Under the NCLB Act, schools that repeatedly miss targets face increasingly harsher sanctions which, after a period of time, can include staff dismissals and closures.

Department of Education officials have said they also want to eliminate the school ratings system built on making “adequate yearly progress” on student test scores.

Increasing numbers of educators contend that the NCLB Act sets impossible goals for students and schools and humiliates students and educators when they fall short.

Both of these ranking systems are inadequate because they use a huge amount of funding to highlight schools that are failing, so that there is little funding left to actually help them.

Accountability is central to both the NCLB Act and the My School website, but branding schools without actually instigating

change that would benefit those that are struggling is a fundamental flaw of both systems.

Wouldn’t it be better for national governments to allocate funding to assist inadequate schools in improving their academic and extra-curricular resources? This is preferable to putting money into initiatives that only serve to highlight problems rather than address them.

In 2008, the total funding put towards the NCLB in the United States was $24.4 billion, a 40.5 percent increase over 2001 levels when the Act was first passed, according to the National Center For Education Statistics. Comparatively, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia’s total annual spending on education is over $37.5 billion, of which a significant proportion was dedicated to the creation and implementation of the My School website and NAPLAN testing.

School progress reports, such as those required by the NCLB Act and websites such as My School, have the potential to taint public opinion of struggling schools without helping them and set the stage for eventual privatization of the public school system in the United States and Australia.

With privatization increasing dramatically in the Western world, it may be time to step back and question how future generations will be able to exercise their right to a good public education.

Anna Peterson, co-chair of the Educational Policy Committee of campus think tank the Roosevelt Institute, said, “I would expect to see a lot of changes in American education in the next few years and I think that some of these reform efforts will lead to significant privatization.”

Without significant educational policy changes in the United States and Australia, how many children will continue to be left behind? •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

;) ?

[Opinion]

THE NEW

By Erin Becker

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

NEWS

The general consensus is that nothing will ever be the same.

“The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet,” proclaims the September 2010 issue of Wired, explaining how applications and networks have achieved a coup d’état over traditional web surfing. The subheading of Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi’s book reads, “Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything.” The new movie The Social Network dramatizes the out-of-control snowball that was Facebook’s inception. Mark Zuckerburg’s character, back in his Harvard days, sends his nascent site Facemash to “just a couple of people.”

“The question,” he proclaims in the film, “ is who are they going to send it to?” The rest, as they say, is history.

And “who are they going to send it to” has, in many ways, become the central question of how we interact online. Whether it’s Jan Brewer’s gubernatorial debate disaster, the latest cute puppy video, a leaked single or that ludicrously inappropriate text from last night, the impulse is to share. Yesterday’s clipping and mailing of pertinent news articles is today’s two-click re-posting of that hilarious Onion video on your friend’s wall: “hey man, this is SO YOU!”

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised...

BUT IT MAY BE POSTED It’s all fun and games until our political system is irrevocably tions seem frivolous, given that the majority of communication altered. on Facebook (at the college level, at least) is of the “dude, we People usually trace the idea of online campaigning back were so wasted last night” variety. But the implications for our to Trippi’s work with Dean in 2004, and common sentiment is governing structure could be serious, beginning with the type that Barack Obama took that trend one step forward with his of person we are now more likely to elect. online community and Internet donation system in 2008. An In Cante’s opinion, some types of candidates come across Internet army of small-time donors turned into a machine that more favorably in online media. In 2008, Hilary Clinton branded the Republicans’ upscale dinners couldn’t herself as “the experienced one,” in contrast rival. What Dean began, we like to think, to Obama’s relative status as a political newObama perfected, and a new age of digital Two years ago is comer. But experience and wonkishness campaigning came to fruition. ancient history in don’t look good on Facebook, and can’t be But let’s think about 2008. In August of effectively conveyed in 140 characters (the 2008, Facebook celebrated its 100 millionth media technology. Twitter maximum). user. As of July 2010, however, there were There was another female candidate, howover 500 million unique Facebook profiles. One week last ever, who would become social media’s darling.

March, Facebook surpassed Google for the first time as the In the words of Cante, Sarah Palin has “short-circuited” tradimost visited site on the Internet, according to weblogs.hitsite. tional forms of media and found a niche in social networking, a com. Two years ago is ancient history in media technology. And, platform that fits her communication style. despite the online Dean-iacs and digital Obama donors of past “The very things for which Tina Fey mocked her are translatecampaigns, no one has any idea what this means for politics. able to Twitter, but they look ridiculous on the national media,” “However this plays out [in the midterm elections], it will tre- Cante said. mendously influence the strategy of the campaigns next time Why not cut out the middleman and go straight to the people? around,” Richard Cante, an associate professor of media and While traditional authority doesn’t work on these platforms, cultural studies at UNC, said. an “us-against-them” attitude and an idiomatic voice fits perSoon after his election, President Obama hired technology fectly. Policy points are out; catchprases are in. (One wonders czar Vivek Kundra. But we haven’t heard much from him outside how George W. Bush would have fared.) the 2009 launch and May 2010 re-launch of a rather clunky in“Obama had the short, sweet zingers, Palin had the colloquial formation website, data.gov. shout-outs, and Clinton had thorough four-pronged answers,” The question of how a president should communicate in a Cante said of the 2008 elections. “It seems to me the test case world where press conferences seem anachronistic is not yet would be how that kind of campaign with that kind of tradidecided. tional authority Clinton was going for would be translate-able Cante noted the difficulty of adjusting traditional styles to to social media.” technological formats.

Zingers and shout-outs make good Facebook statuses, but “The style of the press secretary that has been developed over they also make policy and political issues misleadingly simple. the years— it seems like there needs to be a whole change in Joe the Plumber was an ideological figment of our imagination. strategy before that kind of communication can be adapted to Wall Street and Main Street are interconnected, as the 2008 Twitter,” Cante said. downturn demonstrated. If wonky policy depth is lost in transIs Tweeting below a president’s dignity? Can a campaign con- lation, so are subtlety and nuance. vey its platform points through a Facebook status? These quesRuby Sinreich, UNC class of ’93, is the founder and chief blog-

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

ON

YOUR WALL.

ger of the local political site orangepolitics.com. She believes that partisan news sources play an important part in the political dialogue.

“People go there because they want information from people they trust, and they trust those people because they have similar values,” Sinreich said.

Money talks, and it tweets.

Then there’s the market aspect to all this. Although some call the media the fourth branch of government and journalists often style themselves as public servants of sorts, media is at its heart a business. An ad-selling business, to be exact. The Internet makes it easier than ever for companies to know how effective those ads really are.

In The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Trippi’s dedication reads, “To the 600,000 people of Dean for America who relit the flame of participatory democracy.” He argues that social media gave citizens a voice, reigniting democratic principles.

In the same way, it is possible to argue that the consumer feedback inherent in online media has a democratizing effect.

A New York Times piece published on Sept. 5 on online readership equates responding to consumer preferences with a kind of economic democracy.

Jeremy Peters writes, “[M]any newsrooms now seem to be reexamining that idea [of online readership metrics] and embracing, albeit cautiously, a more democratic approach to serving up the news.”

The question thus becomes: where will we click? “Softer” lifestyle news usually trumps economical or political analysis.

What’s sexier, a piece on the urban dating scene or the urban development scene? The Tea Party gets clicks, the Green Party not so much. If a democracy gets you the leaders you deserve, online media is getting us the reporting we deserve.

Sara Gregory, UNC ’11, the community manager for The Daily Tar Heel, analyzes traffic to the online site using three different platforms and works as the voice of the newspaper’s Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr blog. For example, she knows that

17 percent of the traffic to dailytarheel.com comes from social networking sites. The newspaper tries to balance those analytics with their role as a provider of information.

“You want to be writing about things people are interested in, but you also have a responsibility as a newspaper to inform readers,” Gregory said. “You want to give them what they need to know as well as what they want to know. We haven’t been abandoning the ‘need to’ in favor of the ‘want to.’”

You put the newspaper boxes where your readers walk, Gregory argues; why not put your online news where your readers surf? It gets your paper—and the ads—to the widest audience possible.

Fifteen minutes of fame.

Or was it 15 seconds?

In a world of instant clicks, then, it’s all about getting attention. But do we really know more?

“People will certainly talk about the decreased attention span for those of us who want to get our information in the form of a tweet,” Sinreich said. “But on the other hand, we’re constantly immersed in that information; we’re swimming in it all day.”

There is e-mail to check, photos to post on Facebook and The New York Times online to peruse. We’re also getting phone calls on Skype, chats on Google and Yahoo, and—it almost seems old-fashioned—text messages on our phones.

Sitting through a fifteen-minute stump speech is a lot to ask.

The political rally is like a ghost of a bygone era where politicians kissed babies and cut red ribbons outside new town halls.

Canvassing: is that a person knocking on my door? How quaint.

Where will we be in 2012?

It’s something worth tweeting about. •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

NARROW

CASTING

“They are giving their audiences information, but not giving the full nuance.”

By Rachel Myrick

A

t the dawn of news media, television stations ran objective programs to appeal to as many viewers as possible.

Prompted by the emergence of new forms of social media, increased competition and the Internet, news sources changed their tactics and began targeting specific groups of people. As a result, many members of the public repeatedly get their information from the same biased news sources--particularly cable stations, blogs or websites--leaving them with an incomplete, skewed perception of the world.

George Rabinowitz is a professor of political science at UNC. Rabinowitz teaches about narrowcasting in his introductory American government course.

“Narrowcasting is some type of production media targeted to a specific audience,” Rabinowitz said.

Narrowcasting, Rabinowitz said, is a more recent development in news media. In the past, broadcasting stations aimed to reach the widest audience possible. The first three major news networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) held the attention of over 90 percent of viewers. Later, with the advent of cable and the ensuing influx of independent stations, increased competition pushed stations to specialize and hone in on a target audience.

MTV and BET, for instance, were developed to cater to a specific demographic. “[Cable television and Internet sites] are more likely to target specific audiences and use this technique because their audience is more likely to look at it. As a result, they are giving their audiences information, but not giving the full nuance,” Rabinowitz said.

As the next generation relies increasingly on the Internet as their primary news source, narrowcasting has become associated with websites that target certain audiences. According to the Pew Research Center, 95 percent of adults between the ages of 18-29 regularly use the Internet, compared to only 42 percent of adults ages 65 and older. Furthermore, in a similar study conducted by the Center, 75 percent of those polled between the ages of 18 and 25 cite the Internet as their preferred news source.

“The younger generation is more Internet-oriented. They obtain information from sources they feel comfortable with. Students are not unusual in this regard. They [get] information from sources they have confidence in. Typically, these share the same ideological dispositions,” Rabinowitz said.

To attract readers, sites sensationalize news, producing media that is often biased. Narrowcasting, Rabinowitz said, can be polarizing. With political news, for instance, reading continually from the same sources can prompt students to favor one side of a political debate.

As an online editor of The Daily Tar Heel, Carter McCall, UNC ’12, can speak to the fact that more young adults are gravitating toward reading the news online.

“I too read most of my news online. As college [students], our generation has grown up as the Internet has expanded. With the advent of social media, I consume media not only through going to websites but also for the social media aspects,” McCall said.

McCall feels that working for The Daily Tar Heel online has af-

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

TOP 10 online news sources

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Google News The New York Times Guardian Unlimited Yahoo! Sports BBC

6. Yahoo! News 7. Washington Post 8. ESPN.com 9. MSNBC 10. Daily Telegraph -blogpulse.com, as measured by blog citations for September 21, 2010

forded him the opportunity to experience the future of the media.

“We actually started publishing [The Daily Tar Heel] online back in 1994. We were the first college newspaper to launch a website. I would say the impetus was accessibility. It was a new form of media, something they wanted to explore. At the time, it was a smart move because the Internet got so big,” McCall said.

McCall points out online news and media have evolved not only out of the ease with which students can search for specific articles or topics, but also due to the chance to share ideas and responses.

“I think students read the DTH online because it’s a discussion forum. It’s a platform where they can discuss the issues they read about. It’s one thing to pick up the paper and talk about the article with a friend; it’s another to discuss online,” McCall said.

Like many college students, Everett Lozzi, a sophomore majoring in business and history, uses the Internet as his primary source of news. He acknowledges the added advantage of an open discussion forum but also notes the disadvantages of reading news online.

“The positives are that it’s instant information. Students have access to all points of view because anyone can post or blog to the Internet. The fact that anyone can put up ‘news’ can also be a negative in that there’s no formal fact-checking for what’s posted,” Lozzi said.

Lozzi is aware of the tendency for online readers to go direct-

ly to comfortable sources. This is why he has identified some more innovative strategies to make sure he is getting a comprehensive look at news published online.

“I use an application called ‘Pulse’ a lot because it’s so convenient. It’s a mobile version of something that’s becoming very popular, newsreaders that aggregate RSS feeds. This way, people can bring multiple sources together into one place without all the other distractions like ads and videos and stuff,” Lozzi said.

While the effects of narrowcasting on the Internet can be polarizing, Lozzi believes that the younger generation is aware of this effect and is working to adapt accordingly.

“Though the Internet has traditionally been a liberal space, it does help to eliminate biases as a whole just because there’s so much information out there that every viewpoint is going to be represented. I think as a younger, more Internet-savvy person, I go site-to-site whereas people our parents’ age may still be going to specific sites to get their news.”

Rabinowitz, however, points out that because of ease and accessibility, people of all ages surfing the Internet for news too often focus solely on sources that share the same ideology.

“This will be a characteristic of this generation. It will be a problem to the extent that mass publics do better if they have a common understanding,” Rabinowitz said. “When the public doesn’t agree on a problem, it is much harder to come together for a solution.” •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

1990s

Internet forums called “threads� created to allow communities to share virtual messages

STAT EET

1994

133

million blogs indexed

by Technorati since 2002

First blog, Links.net, created by Justin Hall

1996-7 Some of the first major blogger engines launch: LiveJournal, Xanga and Blogger

500

Matt Drudge begins a gossip newsletter called the Report, launches Drudge Report the next year

1999

million active Facebook users

1.3 million dollars raised in one day for U.S. Senator Scott Brown through his blog

2004 Facebook launches

2006 Twitter launches

2003

2005 The Huffington Post launches as an alternative to The Drudge Report

Presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark become the first to use blogs and the Internet as a major focus of their campaigns

2010

5.4

million

people follow President Obama on Twitter

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

BLOGS

THEN AND NOW

By Sally Fry and Erin Becker

R

emember Xanga and LiveJournal?

We do too, unfortunately.

If you’re a college student, the opportunity to “blog” your every comment, question and complaint came around just in time for you to broadcast your pubescent drama to the entire Internet community. Don’t worry, though; unlike now, no one really listened or cared.

Today, chances are you--or someone you know--has a blog. According to Technorati, by 2007 there were more than 112 million blogs for your reading pleasure. That number increases every year.

Just think: millions of blogs on pretty much anything you could ever imagine and some you never would. For example, in Canada there is a self-described feminist hippie-redneck mother writing about politics, music and her love for the Grateful Dead. And we thought we’d seen it all!

It may seem hasty to reminisce about a concept that has only been around for a little over a decade, a la “I Love the New Millennium” on VH1. But the way we communicate has changed so rapidly already that it’s important to prepare for the implications-- most notably, in the world of politics.

Welcome to the Blogosphere At about the same time Internet went public in the early 1990s, techno-nerds began communicating online through virtual message boards called “threads” and listservs. In 1994, college student Justin Hall created the first online diary, Links.net. It was a comprehensive guide to the Internet and the first self-published, intimate description of everyday life.

Flash forward ten years and “blog”

was Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year.

In that time, over a dozen blog engines developed, including Blogger, which was acquired by Google in 2003. Also in those ten years, Blogads launched, making the professional blogs attractive to advertisers, which became important for political fundraising in recent years.

In 2004, the definition of blogging changed rapidly. Facebook launched that February, and blogging quickly reached out to the new medium of social media.

Status updates were introduced almost three years after the initial launch. Twitter launched about the same time.

Status updates made blogging easy for men and women of few words with a lot to say-- apparently, a larger population than one would assume. (There’s a Hemingway in all of us, it seems.) Writing a 500-word blog post is intimidating to some, but everyone can figure out how to tweet a quick musing. With Facebook and Twitter, a new form of communication was born.

For the Politco in All of Us Self-expression and sharing expertise may be the ultimate motivation for most bloggers, but political blogging is catching up.

According to bloggers from a recent Technorati poll, over 50 percent said politics has been and will continue to be the field blogging impacts the most.

Even though the majority of bloggers polled didn’t write about the 2008 U.S. presidential election

themselves, they did think blogs will be an integral piece of the 2012 campaign.

Polled bloggers felt that blogged news during the election was as accurate as traditional news media and often significantly more up-to-date.

Politics, it seems, is the new frontier in the blogosphere. Like in any industry, professional bloggers cater to the desires of their audience. Due to the growing demand, blogs are increasingly important in political, amateur journalism.

Last year’s protest of the presidential election in Iran exposed the international importance of political blogging. The Iranian government blocked Facebook, Twitter and various other online communities during the protests, demonstrating their concerns about its democratizing influence.

Even though these events were tragic for free speech, it showed the world just how important the blogosphere is as a vehicle for revolution and as a reliable media source.

Just like Facebook helps us find the nearest parties at a moment’s notice, blogs can be the impetus for rallies, protests and movements, with hundreds of RSVPs pouring in within a few hours. The continuing globalization of free speech and the call for revolution in countries like Iran and even our own gives us an opportunity to hold our governments accountable, reach millions with similar complaints and push forward the policies we actually care about.

The organizational power of the online community is still developing. It promises to lead us towards a more democratic and opinionated society. That’s something we should strive for-- even if it comes in 140-character bursts. •

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SOFTHard NEWS News

By Jordan Heide

“T

he Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” have revolutionized political media since their debuts on Comedy Central. However, when compared to their influence, their legitimacy as credible sources for unbiased political information is significantly more ambiguous.

“The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are “soft” news sources, providing politically-oriented news in a satirical and amusing manner. They present the fumbles of government officials and fellow pundits, underscoring the incompetency of our nation’s administration and the tendency of newscasters to erroneously interpret political insight.

Although captivating, the shows are a deviation from the objectivity that defines journalistic integrity. The purpose of these outlets is not to inform but to entertain.

Cynicism and discontent are the prevalent themes of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” and have been shown to negatively affect audience perceptions of politicians. According to a study conducted by Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris of East Carolina University in 2006, “Watching political jokes made at the expense of presidential candidates on “The Daily Show” … lowered viewers’ ratings of these candidates.”

Nevertheless, many Americans rely on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” as consistent sources of news. The shows draw an average of 1.6 million viewers and 1.2 million viewers, respectively.

Most notably, “The Daily Show” receives more male viewers in the 18-34 age range than bona fide news sources such as “Nightline” and “Meet the Press,” according to CNN. Yet Jon Stewart denies the pervasive effects of “The Daily Show” as an influential source of political information for the nation’s youth.

“When people say that kids are getting most of their news from me ... the truth is I know they’re not,” Stewart said in an interview. “If they came to our show without knowledge, our show wouldn’t make any sense to them. ... So, they’re not getting their news from us, they’re coming to us to find out what the funny is on it.”

“The Daily Show,” initially hosted by Craig Kilborn, originated as a commentary on popular culture and entertainment news.

Only when Jon Stewart replaced Kilborn in 1999 did the show develop a poignant political fervor. The addition of Ben Karlin, former editor of The Onion, as executive producer also helped shape the program as a political satire.

“The main thing, for me, is seeing hypocrisy. People who know better saying things that you know they don’t believe,” Karlin said in an interview, of his decision to adopt a political focus for the show.

Since the arrival of Stewart and Karlin, “The Daily Show” has won an impressive thirteen Emmy awards. The success of the show encouraged Comedy Central executives to develop a spinoff featuring Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert.

The intent of “The Colbert Report” is to parody radically conservative pundit programs by mirroring the format of “The O’Reilly Factor.”

The effects of the show have been remarkably wide spread; in 2006, Merriam Webster declared “truthiness,” a term coined by Colbert, as the Word of the Year. In 2008, the American Political Science Association reported that Democratic politicians who appeared on the show consistently experienced a 40 percent increase in fiscal donations for the 30-day period following their appearance.

Despite their influence, or perhaps because of it, “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” have been criticized for containing a recognizable liberal bias that arguably impedes their ability to deliver impartial news coverage. Indeed, prior to Barack Obama’s victory, Stewart and Colbert blatantly preyed upon Republican incumbents for comic relief.

“I think we consider those with power and influence targets and those without it, not,” Stewart said.

Similarly, Colbert said prior to the Obama victory,“We are liberal, but ... if liberals were in power it would be easier to attack them. ... Republicans have the executive, legislative and judicial branches, so making fun of Democrats is like kicking a child; it’s just not worth it.”

Yet Stewart has been an unequivocal critic of the Democratic Party as well. In an interview with Larry King in 2006, he lamented the ineffectiveness of the Congressional Democrats.

“I honestly don’t feel that [the Democrats] make an impact,”

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

“If they came to our show without knowledge, our show wouldn’t make any sense to them.”

Stewart said in an interview with Campus Progress. “They have 49 percent of the vote and three percent of the power. At a certain point you go, ‘Guys, pick up your game.’”

University of Pennsylvania communications professor Xiaoxia Cao found that “The Daily Show” can serve as a politically informative source for viewers who do not typically pursue political knowledge.

“Exposure to “The Daily Show” is positively associated with political knowledge on the part of audience members who normally do not consume traditional news,” Cao said in a 2008 article.

Cao’s findings indicate that consistent viewers of soft news outlets are equally as informed about politics as non-viewers who rely solely on traditional news sources for political information.

Still troublesome, however, is the degradation of political incumbents that tends to reinforce viewer dissatisfaction with the current political scheme. UCLA’s Matthew Baum discovered in a 2005 study that “exposure to candidate interviews on [soft news] programs… has led apolitical voters to favor the candidate of the opposition party,” which is consistent with the findings of Baumgartner and Morris.

With an air of irony, Stephen Colbert once exclaimed, “Jon always said ‘The Daily Show’ has no political impact...We’re going to go ahead and pick up that gauntlet and change the world!”

So far, “change the world” has been just about right, for both Stewart and Colbert. •

rallyTO RESTOREsanity October 30 in Washington, D.C. In response to Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in August, Jon Stewart will host a “Rally to Restory Sanity” on the National Mall in October.

The rally is billed as non-partisan, a gathering for “the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat,” according to the website rallytorestoresanity.com.

While Stewart has taken many a dig at

Beck, the event is meant to encourage reasonable dialogue on both sides of the aisle. Or maybe just provide a few laughs for everyone.

As of press time, there were nearly 170,000 people listed “Attending” on the rally’s Facebook page.

[Opinion]

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

SMALL PRESS

Big World Why big media may not be so bad

By Molly Hrudka

W

The current state of the economy has a direct impact on the newspapers’ income. Most of a newspaper’s funding, Bean estimates about 75 percent, comes from advertising. As other companies are forced to make cuts in their budgets, the advertising sections in papers are severely depressed. This has left local newspapers struggling to adjust.

“We’ve done a lot to change the way we sell advertising; [we’re trying to] make it more affordable for smaller businesses,” Bean said.

Unfortunately, this is not enough to cover losses. To make up for the lack of income generated from advertisements, most newspapers have had to make cuts to their staff. While cuts of up to 70 people may sound significant, Bean points out that, comparatively speaking, the number of layoffs was not as high as in other industries affected by the economic downturn such as tobacco processing, which sometimes saw cuts between 200 and 300 people. The Herald Sun has adjusted to a smaller staff by making more of an effort to share resources.

The Chapel Hill News has been forced to cope with staff decreases as well.

“We are using freelance writers and interns more often, and the editors are writing more,” Schultz said.

Even with cuts, both the Chapel Hill News and the Herald Sun are still devoted to local journalism above all else. Schultz, Warnock, and Bean all point out that if anything has to be sacrificed, it will be the volume of state, national and international stories.

“We’re trying to make sure we stay with the local community.

We want the people who are reading our stories to be the exact same people that are in the paper,” Warnock said. •

photo by Renee Sullender

hen you hear the phrase “corporatization of mass media” or “disappearance of small press,” you can’t help but picture giant, impersonal corporations tearing through small town America and taking over locally owned newspapers. Though it is true that the world’s media is being consolidated in the hands of fewer and fewer companies, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

Rick Bean, publisher of the Herald Sun, a daily newspaper published in Durham by Paxton Media Group, agrees. “Contrary to public perception, there’s not a lot of animosity against Corporate,” Bean said.

Each paper owned by Paxton Media group still operates independently, but with the added support of the Corporation.

“We are very decentralized. We expect people to run their papers like they would if they were a family business,” Bean said.

Mark Schultz, editor of the Chapel Hill News, which is published by the McClatchy Company, also sees corporate ownership as a benefit.

“When we have corporate support, it allows us to spread our expenses. There are ways to be more efficient with corporate ownerships,” Schultz said. Being one of many branches owned by the same company allows for distribution of staff and resources. While there are many benefits to corporate ownership, there are also a few downsides.

“When you’re part of a larger company that is publically traded, there are quarterly financial goals of the corporation that may not be the same as the goals of the individual unit. If the company has to make cuts to reach a quarterly goal, then those cuts may be spread across all parts of the company,” said Schultz.

In the past, Schultz explained, the Chapel Hill News has also been forced to absorb additional debts when McClatchy bought another company. Overall, though, the consensus seems positive.

“It’s a benevolent relationship; everyone who works for Chapel Hill News and the News and Observer are very happy to work for McClatchy,” Elliot Warnock, sports editor of the Chapel Hill News, said.

So if it’s not Corporate Ownership, what is reason for all the layoffs in the newspaper industry? Schultz, Warnock and Bean agree that it is the economic recession.

“In all businesses, the world is so different than it was four or five years ago; that’s the economic downturn we’re living in,” Bean said.

Campus BluePrint | October 2010

SARAH’S twitter verse

By Kelly Yahner

T

here comes a time in a woman’s life when she must strike out on her own in the world. You may call it growing up. Sarah Palin calls it “going rogue.”

Palin, a self-described “maverick” decided to “go rogue” when tweeting about plans to build a community center and mosque near the site of Ground Zero in New York City.

“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” Palin said in a now-deleted July tweet.

Minutes later, Palin changed the (non) word “refudiate” to “refute” in another tweet. Trying to make light of the situation, Palin followed up with a joking message about her error, saying “‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”

According to Merriam Webster, “refudiate” was its online search of the summer.

A Google search of “Sarah Palin refudiate” comes up with 912,000 responses, far surpassing the previous No. 1 search of “Sarah Palin breast implants” by about 600,000 hits. Over 50 different national and international news sources covered the “refudiate” bonanza, some criticizing her error, some criticizing her comparing herself to Shakespeare and some “refudiating” claims that Palin is and will be an unfit leader if she decides to run for president owing to her magical ability to make up words.

In the world of Twitter, @SarahPalinUSA really does not dominate. She has 244,972 followers on Twitter. Barack Obama has 5,319,063, and Lady GaGa takes the crown with 6,154,287. When it comes to Twitter, Sarah Barracuda obviously doesn’t win the popularity contest, but nevertheless she is one of the most mentioned Twitter accounts in mainstream media.

The real questions: Why do we care about Palin’s tweets? How does her use of social

media change her political dynamic? To answer these questions, I put myself in the place of an ardent Palin supporter, creating @sarahpalin4eva, my secretive outlet for my inner Palin-lover.

Hoping that Twitter would make Palin more approachable in her non-Mama Grizzly state, I attempted to reach out.

After tweeting such heartwarming things @SarahPalinUSA as “PALIN 2012!!!!1” “You are my hero! Want to be like you some day! Such a great role model!” and “Sarah Barracuda better be ready to eat Obama for breakfast in #Election2012!” I waited anxiously at my computer, longing for Sarah to acknowledge my existence.

While waiting for Sarah to reciprocate my feelings, I was surprised by @teapartynation, who began following me within 2 hours of my foray into Twitterverse. Feeling welcomed by my right-wing brethren, I began following such noteworthy names as @johnboehner, @karlrove, and, in the same vein, @justinbieber.

I began to notice that @SarahPalinUSA simply re-tweeted comments from Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren and conservative radio host Mark Levin, among others.

Very rarely does Palin tweet an original thought, preferring to echo the sentiments of Fox News, Tea Party candidates and other conservative news sources. Yet Palin’s re-tweets are still continuously picked up by mainstream media from both sides of the aisle, perhaps for being so Fair and Balanced.

America has some sort of odd fascination with Palin. Increasing curiosity over her possible 2012 presidential run, her resignation from governor and her incessant need to give herself nicknames are only a few of the many reasons why Palin is constantly in the news.

By using social media outlets, many candidates make themselves more accessible to the American people, casting themselves as average, approachable people.

Palin’s Twitter name even suggests her accessibility to all Americans. Although Palin does not hail from one of the contiguous 48 states, the USA at the end of her Twitter name suggests who is No. 1 in Sarah’s life: America. Other politicians,

namely the Governator of California, former Vice President Al Gore, and current President Barack Obama, try to reach out to constituents and improve communication between citizens and government using Twitter and Facebook.

Sarah Palin, however, tends to put her personal agenda before connecting with followers, preferring to promote her books, speeches and other paid engagements. It really is Palin first in @SarahPalinUSA, after all.

Twitter does not make Palin any more accessible to the American public, even though her tweets are regularly reported in the news due to America’s fascination with the USA’s First Maverick. Maybe instead of @SarahPalinUSA, she should become @SarahPalinForFoxNewsAndPeopleWhoContributeToMyPAC. After waiting one long, painful week for Sarah to acknowledge my existence, I was unfulfilled. While several members of my conservative family decided to follow my alter ego on Twitter and direct message me asking if I was actually Palin’s daughter, I decided to throw in the towel on Sarah.

Instead, I found a new role model, since being graced with the honor of @KarlRove following my Twitter account. As a longtime fan of his political ideologies and his personal divorce rate, I felt right at home.

His acceptance of my right-wing alter ego and his use of Twitter to plug his personal agenda led me to make a change. You can now tweet me @karlrove4eva. •

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

THERULEOFLAW: India’s Judiciary System

By Sarah Bufkin

A

lthough it is slightly comical and largely embarrassing to fices of the State Department of Labour, nursing my fourth cup admit, I flew off to India this May filled with a sort of mis- of chai as the assistant labor commissioner attempted for the sionary fire. I almost resonated in my cramped seat with fourth time to answer the question I had posed. idealism and expectation.

Finally, he headed for a cabinet, shuffled through a few hunFor the next two months, I would volunteer with an NGO in dred sheets of crumpled paper, and pulled free a packet. Tossing Rajasthan, India called the Mine Labour Protection Campaign, it at me, he nodded and said, “Look at the numbers. Maybe then working to promote the rights of the state’s marginalized mining it will make sense.” Sense being, of course, a relative term. population and, most specifically, to address the serious issue The numbers reflected the cases relating to child labor filed in of child labour in the industry. Fantasies of exposé journalism the Bundi district’s court system back in 1997. Eighty-five cases pieces and successful litigation and a flush of government offi- of child labor reported during the calendar year were in the hazcials newly converted to this conception of “human rights” circled ardous industries; 243 cases of child labor in the nonhazardous through my consciousness as I picked through the incomprehen- industries. Of those 85 cases, only 29 were ever prosecuted in sible airplane curry for vegetables. the courts.

How ignorant I was. I arrived in India cloaked in my sense of In 28 of the cases, the employers suffered no penalties, no conprivilege and in my intellectual arrogance to find that just be- sequences, not even a slap on the wrist. In one case, the court cause I could think and that I had studied India’s current predica- charged a fine of 200 rupees (US$4). Out of the 243 nonhazardment did not mean that I knew a thing about the situation on the ous cases, only three were prosecuted. The court did not penalize ground in the city of Jodhpur. the employer in any of them.

What in the U.S. would have been an investigative spread on The numbers astounded me. India’s court system redefines the the front page of every major newspaper or a lawsuit settled for entire conception of a case backlog; a recent government study millions out of court was simply an accepted social norm in In- cited by the India’s NDTV estimates that the high courts and the dia—namely, that child labor exists, that it is prevalent, and that subordinate courts face backlogs of 3.8 million and 26.4 million the government is not willing, or at this point even able, to re- cases, respectively. move children from its workforce.

According to the Times of India, a high court justice stated in As soon as I arrived for work at MLPC the first day, I had al- March of 2010 that it would take the Indian judicial system a total ready fixed my hopes on the judiciary system as the mechanism of 320 years to slog through all of the 31.28 million cases curby which human rights rently pending, without would prevail over extaking into account the A Western education cannot in itself ploitation and injustice. addition of new cases After all, India is lauded constitute a means through which to solve over that time period. as the world’s most popAs such, the indepenthe world’s ills. ulous democracy, as an dent, impartial and fair example for the rest of judiciary on which we the developing world to emulate, as the heroic foil to the nefari- Americans so pride ourselves has been crippled and rendered ous rise of its northern neighbor, China. pragmatically useless in the Indian system of governance. In fact, When my supervisor didn’t show the same level of enthusi- legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron has argued that the courts, asm about the idea, I sunk into confusion. Why not? Wasn’t the when kept impartial and fair, are more than just one of the pracpurpose of the court system to enforce and interpret the laws tical manifestations of a government that practices “the rule of created by the people’s elected representatives? law,” but that the courts are essential to the very conception of My confusion evaporated a couple of weeks later, however, as the rule of law itself. In his self-named “proceduralist model,” the I perched on a lopsided aluminum chair in one of the district of- judiciary is not incidental, not a by-product of a democracy, but

PHOTOS BY ALEX PAN

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Campus BluePrint | October 2010

IN THE MINES: (clockwise from top left) A child stirs in its makeshift crib in the courtyard of one of the mining settlements around Kota in Rajasthan, India; children play in one of the daycare centres run by a local NGO, the Mine Labour Protection Campaign, in Kota’s mining community; a boy cuts slag stones into cobble stones for export at the mine site. one pillar of the foundational platform upon which democratic government is built.

Waldron references two main roles that the courts fulfill in a law system: as the enforcer, one that can hold both the citizens and the officials themselves accountable for adherence to the laws and as a public forum, one in which citizens may come to argue the laws both as to their legal manifestations of the general societal norms and as to their interpretations in specific, individual cases.

In his paper, “The Rule of Law as the Theatre of Debate,” Waldron claims that “a society is ruled by law in this sense when power is not exercised arbitrarily, but only pursuant to intelligent and open exercises of public reason in institutions and forums set up for that purpose.”

But in the mining district of Kota, the

miners and their children have no such A Western education cannot in itself forum; they do not believe in the power constitute a means through which to of their courts. Neither did the assistant la- solve the world’s ills. Democracy cannot bor commissioner that served me chai and be transplanted into a soil so different spoke with me for an hour or so one af- from that of its origin and be expected to ternoon in July. From looking at Waldron’s grow into an exact mimicry. premise, one Do I see the inwould think that eptitude of the InThe divide between the dian judiciary as a the Indian government is curideal and reality is often deep flaw within rently a system its government? tremendous. that does not Yes. Do I wish that comply with the the Indian peorule of law. ple had a viable But one thing that India has taught public forum to air grievances and argue me, and taught me well, is that the divide their own legal regime? Yes. Do I think we between the ideal and reality is often tre- are too quick to preach where we should mendous. The rule of law is, after all, sim- instead attempt to bridge the divide beply another political ideal that we Western tween theory and practice? Yes; 1.15 billion thinkers bandy about in our exegeses on times, yes. • the state of world affairs.

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VOTE

Elaine MARSHALL U.S. SENATE

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