Activist Journalism

A lot of what we're seeing online today is actually a return, full circle, to the way things were when American newspapers began; a mixture of advocacy and investigative in-your-face journalism. There is a long and distinguished history of such newspapers -- from the papers that were fiercely loyal to Jefferson or Hamilton, to the abolitionist broadsheets, to the activist newspapers at the turn of the century. As my partner Arianna Huffington says, the mission of journalism has always been "truth-seeking, not striking some fictitious balance between two sides." And anyway, who can doubt that it's always been important to give consumers what they want.

Kenneth Lerer delivered the following speech at the Columbia Journalism School Annual New Media Lecture Series on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

GM and Chrysler Bankrupt at Last

The last thing I want to do is to read ulterior motive into the looming bankruptcies at GM and Chrysler. Pretty well everyone on the planet realizes that these black smoke companies, once at the top of the heap of profit generating centres of wealth here and in the U.S., are mainly the authors of their own demise. What is sticking in my craw is that the Conservative government cabinet, filled with old Mike Harris men, is acting a tad too energetically about cutting auto workers wages down. Today In Washington, Obama introduced more funding for the ailing companies presumably to safeguard worker's job. Will some one convince me that Ottawa isn't engaging in good, old-fashioned union busting.

End of Massive Consumption Binge

By Vernon Smith: Professor of Economics & 2002 Nobel Laureate

"We economists were wrong. The events of the past 10 years have an eerie similarity t the period leading up to the Great Depression...In 1920 residential mortgage debt was 10.2 per cent of household wealth; by 1929 it was 27.2 per cent of household wealth. It appears that both the Great Depression and the current crisis had their origins in excessive consumer debt --especially mortgage debt--that transmitted into the financial sector during a sharp downturn...It appears that we're witnessing the second great consumer debt crash, the end of a massive consumption binge."

Admitting that economists make mistakes is a good first step. The next step would be to stop blaming consumers for over spending when the entire advertising machine was created to goad people into purchasing what they don't need. So what needs to happen now is that economic gurus and media pundits should stop pretending that Wall Street isn't in better shape than Main Street. By the end of summer the TSX will be up past 11,000. What will be destroyed are the lives of "ordinary people." Rescue packages have kicked in for the banks, but the devaluation of private real estate coupled with huge job losses means that hundreds of thousands of families will never recover-- not from lost income and lost savings that were cashed in when" little " investors lost their nerve. Pensioners from the automative industry will end up working at Tim Hortons in order to say afloat.

As Noble Prize Laureate in Economics, Professor Vernon L. Smith says: "We've had a real estate bubble, a technology bubble, then another real estate bubble to deal with, in just the past 20 years." I don't know about you, but all my so- called retirement and investment plans that high priced financial planners have sold me, are out the window. So much for Freedom 55.

What's Next?

Last evening I was teaching my Canadian Journalism for Internationally Trained Writers class. What an amazing bunch they are: literate, serious, dedicated.....

The class is small so I have time to pay attention to what I'm teaching and who I am teaching, That all made me think about the size of classes we are teaching today, the number of classes and the demands on the college professor. As SWFs are being maximized, I'm wondering about the concept of teaching with integrity at the post-secondary level. For me that means time to prepare for classes that are backed up by lots of online material, a welcoming Power Point presentation and lots of time for discussion and debate. If we water down what we do to cut every economic corner imaginable what happens to thinking and reflecting, staying abreast of the latest in your field, and getting to know the needs of your students?

Thanks everyone

I want to thank everyone who voted for me.  Your overwhelming vote of confidence is heartening--- to say the least.  Please stay in touch through this blog or by phone or email so I can remain aware of your concerns and ideas. Right from the beginning of my bid for the BOG, I hoped we could start a network of Sheridan faculty who are truly interested in creating a better teaching and learning environment at the college.

Don't forget to take a good long gander at the Ontario public employees Sunshine list for Colleges at www.fin.gov.on.ca/english/publications/salarydisclosure/2006/colleg06.html


And thank you again!