The World Will Know

How can you resist amazing music and lyrics, newsies dancing around New York and of course, the future Batman standing up to Pulitzer and Hearst? You can't.

Newsies takes place in 1899 and tells the incredible true story of the two-week Newsboys Strike. This was the only child-led strike in American history. Back then, newspapers were distributed by extremely young, poor and often homeless boys who were not employed by the newspapers. They bought their papers and worked hard to sell all of them because if they didn't, they had to eat the cost of the extra papers they weren't able to sell. This is where the phrase "Extra, extra!" came from.

"There are 10,000 children living on the streets of New York....The newsboys constitute an important division of this army of homeless children. You see them everywhere.... They rend the air and deafen you with their shrill cries. They surround you on the sidewalk and almost force you to buy their papers. They are ragged and dirty. Some have no coats, no shoes and no hat."  

- James B. McCabe, Jr.

Newsies, 1908, Brooklyn Bridge.

During the Spanish-American War, newspaper sales increased and publishers raised the cost of newspaper bundles so the newsies paid 10 cents more and the difference was offset by the increase in sales. However, when the war ended and most publishers decreased the cost, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst (publishers of two major papers) continued to sell their papers to the newsies at the increased rate.

Standing up to this unfair treatment of child workers, the newsies banded together by the thousands, refused to sell Pulitzer and Hearst's papers and demonstrated across the Brooklyn Bridge, halting traffic and hindering the distribution of papers.

The details of the story of the newsies coming together, beating up sell-outs, refusing to accept bail from newspaper publishers, defending their rights and standing up for what they believed to be right is truly amazing.

Despite sometimes violent attempts by Pulitzer and Hearst to break up the rallies, the newsies stood strong under teen-aged, eye patch wearing strike leader Kid Blink. Due to their union and strike, the newsies caused Pulitzer's paper to decrease to about a third of its regular circulation.

"I'm trying to figure out how ten cents on a hundred papers can mean more to a millionaire than it does to newsboys, an' I can't see it. If they can't spare it, how can we?" ;

- Kid Blink    

                                                                
After proving to newspaper giants that paper couldn't be sold without newsboys and that they were determined to stand up for their rights, the newsies won. While Pulitzer and Hearst did not lower the bundle price, they did agree to buy back unsold papers.

Religious Freedom

If you haven't heard, Elder Oaks gave a speech at BYU-I about religious freedom. Elder Oaks talked about what he says is the "significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion." With a background in law, Elder Oaks is certainly qualified to speak on this matter in a secular and of course spiritual context.

I really like where he talks about religious freedom being threatened by what some people claim are human rights. From a press release:

As an example, he referred to a set of principles published by an international human rights group which calls for governments to assure that all persons have the right to practice their religious beliefs regardless of sexual orientation or identity. Elder Oaks said, “This apparently proposes that governments require church practices to ignore gender differences. Any such effort to have governments invade religion to override religious doctrines should be resisted by all believers.”

I have never thought of the issue from this perspective. This speech has caused a stir among some members of the media and bloggers, and I agree with Elder Oaks' position and I think we should all remember that it is vital that we protect our religious freedom.

Here is a Q&A with Elder Oaks about religious freedom:

People or Fish?

I wrote another post for the Beyond the Universe Blog. Check it out. I would love to hear what you think about this interesting issue either here or on the Universe Blog. I won't tell you my thoughts here, since I think they are pretty evident from my post.

Commander in Chief

I recently discovered a great show called Commander in Chief. the show opens with the death of a president and the debate about whether his vice president, a woman, should take office. Geena Davis plays the role of the president beautifully and it's so fun to watch her stand up for herself and her country as she becomes president and at the same time raises her kids. She brings honesty, humility and old-fashioned American vales to the White House as she leads through acts of terrorism, hostage situations and media issues. The show also has Donald Sutherland in it as the speaker of the house. If you haven't ever seen this show, I really, really recommend it. You can see all the episodes on Hulu.

This clip is from the first few minutes of the first episode. I promise, you'll get hooked!

Thomas Paine on Health Care

Although this may be a little corny, I love the message and the idea of it.

Oh the Irony

So, I know this all happened a while ago and I remember hearing a little about it in the news, but, I just now found out about this particular story:

John Ziegler, a broadcaster in California showed up at the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism award ceremony at University of Southern California. Katie Couric was to be presented with the award for her interview with Sarah Palin for "extraordinary, persistent and detailed" reporting.

So, Ziegler shows up and a police man tells him that if he wants to film he needs to go behind the barricades because only members of the media that were invited by the winners were allowed at the event. This is a little strange: an event honoring journalism is denying admission to journalists. Multiple security guards, police men and event coordinators tell Ziegler that he doesn't want to cover the event, but he wants to "demonstrate and express your point of view" to which Ziegler replies "just like Katie Couric did during her Sarah Palin interview."

Before you know it, a police man is telling Ziegler he is not there "for a legitimate purpose" and Ziegler is being handcuffed. As the police try to escort the handcuffed Ziegler away, he is laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation is. He also comments that Couric's interview wasn't journalism, but advocacy. Ziegler is known for his documentary called "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected." However, that's a whole other story.

This is totally ironic. A member of the media is being arrested for trying to cover an event for "media excellency." While you could argue that Ziegler should have left when asked to, he did not do anything illegal. He was not causing a disturbance, trespassing or breaking any other law.

Near the end of the video the police ask the camera man to turn the camera off, he does, but leaves the audio on. The video then cuts back to Ziegler showing off the marks the handcuffs left on his wrists. Zieger's account and explanation can be read here. You need to watch the video below, it's extremly entertaining and ironic.

Anyway, whatever your political stance is, you have to admit this is totally ironic. If Couric's Palin interview qualified as "extraordinary, persistent and detailed," maybe Ziegler should be considered for the award. This story definitly fits that description.

David McCullough

A couple weeks ago David McCullough visited the Church History Library. I really like McCullough. For those of you who don't know him, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes and is the author of 1776 and other historical novels. I once heard him speak at a forum at BYU and wow, was it good! You can read the really, really good forum address called "The Glorious Cause of America: How a Course, Untrained Army -- 'rabble in arms' -- Stood Up to the World's Most Powerful Army here. I highly recommend it.

It's obvious when you hear him talk that McCullough has a deep respect for Latter-day Saints and he is not afraid to voice his feelings. This press release has all the details of his visit to the Church History Library. Here are a few quotes from the address he gave:

“You are truly doing the Lord’s work, because it matters. And if we don’t do it we are not fulfilling our responsibility as citizens. Not just as members of the Church but as citizens."

“You are caring for a national treasure here. The story of the Latter-day Saints, of Joseph Smith, of Brigham Young, and that incredible migration here is a great American story.”

TOTUS

If you haven't checked out Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog, you need to. It cracks me up every time I read it. It is so sarcastic and timely. If you're on Twitter, you should also follow it. Sometimes it is just links to the blog, but sometimes it is other stuff. This one totally made my day:

"Biden says his dog Champ is smarter than Bo. Big Guy agrees but says Bo is smarter than Joe ... and housebroken, too. #BOTeleprompter"

"Did we just break the law?"

"Nope. That's what you call dang fine reporting." I just saw State of Play with some friends over the weekend. Wow. What a good movie. Watch the trailer! It's intense and full of action and suspense. I loved watching the interaction between journalism and media and the government, and of course, some public relations.

The story is all about journalists working with the police to solve a murder. Of course, it's not as simple as that because everyone has their own agenda, especially when the murder is linked to a congressman. Between a journalist wanting to get the scoop and at the same time help his friend, the police wanting to solve the murder as more and more people get killed, a congressman trying to save his reputation and public image, and a corporation covering the truth, this movie has an incredibly intense plot. I would definitely recommend it!

Harvard Student vs. Barney Frank

I think this video is great! It's a Harvard student who simply asked Frank "How much responsibility, if any, do you have for the financial crisis?" Little did the student know, he was opening a flood gate and got Frank going on a defensive rampage. It's funny that a question like that from a student could get a member of the house so worked up.