TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893
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Off to the NFL
After the bowl game, Myles Garrett, Ricky Seals-Jones and Speedy Noil declared they will leave college early for the NFL Draft. Garrett, who is projected by some to be the No. 1 overall pick, is one of eight players in SEC history to record 30 career sacks. His unique blend of size and athleticism should transfer nicely to the next level and he could be a force on Sundays for a long time.
Dat Nguyen named to College Football Hall of Fame
Russia says Aleppo evacuation is nearing completion After a series of obstacles and false starts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the evacuation of the Syrian city of Aleppo was finally reaching its completion Dec. 20. U.S. News reports that Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a joint declaration on Syria Dec. 20, an example of the greater cooperation between the three nations that Lavrov says led to a smoother evacuation process.
Carrie Fisher dies at 60 On Dec. 23, Carrie Fisher went into cardiac arrest. Four days later, she died at the age of 60. The death of Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, followed one day later on Dec. 28 due to a stroke. Her ashes were buried Jan. 7, 2017 at Los Angeles’ Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
DEC 27
Mariah Carey has disastrous NYE performance During the New Year’s Eve Countdown show at Times Square in New York City, Mariah Carey’s performance suffered technical malfunctions and she was caught lip-syncing. Carey later walked off stage midway through a performance of “We Belong Together,” ending her show altogether. A spokeswoman for Carey later said her earpiece was not working properly.
DEC 21 A&M partners with Facebook and other universities to improve web-based interaction for scientific projects Texas A&M was invited by Facebook’s new Building 8 — a hardware team focusing on merging science and product development — as one of 17 distinguished universities participating in Sponsored Academic Research Agreement. SARA will allow institutions to better engage and collaborate about ongoing research.
Dec. 28, the Aggies fell to Kansas State 33-28 in the Texas Bowl. Receiver Josh Reynolds exploded for 154 yards and two touchdowns on 12 catches, but it wasn’t enough as the Wildcats played turnover-free football, controlled the line of scrimmage and outrushed the Aggies 218144. The Aggies head into the offseason attempting to groom a replacement for quarterback as well as looking for ways to improve a defensive unit that ranked 10th in the SEC in total defense.
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DEC 28 Aggies defeated by Kansas State in Texas Bowl
Jan. 5, a controversial piece of legislation widely known as the “Texas Bathroom Bill” was filed, eliciting a variety of responses from across the state. According to KVUE, in some communities across Texas, local laws allow members of the transgender community to use the use the restroom corresponding with their gender identity. The goal of Senate Bill 6 is to prevent these local laws from being abused by predators.
JAN 5
DEC 31
DEC 20
Legislators file Texas’ ‘Bathroom Bill’
As of Jan. 10, another Aggie has found his way into the College Football Hall of Fame. KHOU reported “The National Football Foundation (NFF) and College Hall of Fame announced the 2017 College Football Hall of Fame Class which includes the all-time leading tackler in Texas A&M history and only Aggie to lead the team in tackles four consecutive years, linebacker Dat Nguyen.”
NASA selects Lucy and Psyche missions to explore the early universe NASA selected two missions that will provide scientists insight to early times in our solar system. Lucy is projected to launch in 2021 and will study six asteroids in the Jupiter Trojan group and the Psyche mission will launch two years later in 2023 and will travel 296,714,907 miles to explore a massive asteroid made of metal.
JAN 10 President Obama gives farewell speech Speaking from his adopted hometown of Chicago on Jan. 10, President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address to the nation. CBS reported that Obama spoke on the subjects of progress and inclusion as they relate to our nation and emphasized his desire for a smooth transition of power to President-elect Donald Trump.
SpaceX launches, lands rocket while sending satellites into orbit after 4-month hiatus Nearly four months after an unsuccessful rocket launch, SpaceX successfully launched and landed a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 communications satellites to orbit the earth. There will be six more launches carrying satellites into space to complete a replacement of communications network for Iridium — a Virginia-based communication company.
Staff Report PHOTOS VIA CREATIVE COMMONS, FILE
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST IN JOURNALISM Sam King
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@Sam_King372
his past weekend during our editorial spring training my staff and I had a discussion about trust. We talked about what trust in a newsroom looks like. What trust between a reporter and their sources looks like. And what trust between a paper and its audience looks like. There’s no question — it’s a difficult time for the media, both as a media consumer and a media producer. Facebook feeds are filled with fake news. Major news sources are
publishing unverifiable information. Speculation of gatekeeping, biased media and unfair reporting is rampant. Gallup, a polling service, has been polling the public on their opinions of mass media since the 70’s. This was a great time to be a reporter: Print was still dominant, the Watergate scandal served as the golden standard and trust in the media sat at 72 percent in 1976. In September of 2016 — before the election results rolled in, so vastly different than what most papers predicted — that number dropped to an all time low: Just 32 percent of Americans trusted the media. I can only speculate that number has since dropped further. And that loss of trust, for the most part, is
not unjustified, either. In this age, it’s hard to know what to trust. Anyone can post something on a blog. Many media outlets’ main goal is page views and flamboyant or misleading headlines garner those. Papers are a business and you can’t always trust the motivations of the corporations that run many of them. We aren’t blind to those realities at The Battalion. It would be incredibly naive and disingenuous of us, many of whom are working toward journalism careers, to bury our heads in the sand and say “Everything is fine.” Rather, we view those as challenges to overcome. We know we must be especially diligent in our reporting in order to over-
come the stigmas surrounding the business. We know that trust is very easy to lose, and very difficult to gain — as it should be. We know that just because we say we’re trustworthy it doesn’t mean that it’s so. While we may stumble, we will not lose our way. So continue to be critical. Let me know when we’ve done something to lose that trust. My email is editor@thebatt.com. Trust is earned and that’s the currency we’ve chosen to deal in this semester. We’ll be trying to gain your trust not through a sense that we’re entitled to it, but with the knowledge that we must work to receive it and work harder to keep it. Sam King is a communication senior and editor-in-chief of The Battalion.