Biased News Writing from Slate

The article I found for this lesson, “Obama’s Middle East Gamble” by Fred Kaplan, was biased in the sense that the author had no facts, yet he used his opinion and “knowledge” of the matter to portray it as if he did. This article talks about Kaplan’s view of President Obama involving the U.S. in the Middle East’s “primitive squabbles”. He goes on to speak, as if he interviewed the president (which he didn’t), to explain how and why our government is involved, “Obama seems to have made a calculation that beating ISIS is so important that it’s worth doing even if it means a slight expansion of Iranian influence.” The author ends his article with predicting how the President feels about all of this, “These leaders also see Obama’s moves as marking a retreat from the Middle East generally—to which, on grimmer days, Obama must mutter, As if.”

I think this kind of writing riles people up and isn’t fit for the news. The author should have backed up his points with facts instead of reasoning. But, I guess he didn’t have any facts to go with his writing because this is the only article of its kind with this sort of “information”. Anyone could find out the facts of what’s really happening between the U.S. and the Middle East, but if someone wants to know what the President thinks, they should interview him themselves. If there were facts, I would have believed it; for instance, “It’s happened before”; Back this up with facts so the reader doesn’t completely doubt you.  Usually I would disregard this sort of article, but it was under “News” in a search engine. If someone is going to be biased or be a know-it-all-with-no-facts about a subject it should be under a different category; maybe it should be an editorial. 

Source:

Kaplan, Fred. "Why Obama May Be Making His Biggest Middle Eastern Gamble Yet." Slate. The Slate Group, 26 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.

3.07 Free Choice Blog

For this lesson, I read chapters 2-4 of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children". These chapters are about what happens to Jacob after his grandfather's death. His grandfather and he were like father and son. They had a close relationship so Jacob was devastated as well as scarred from what happened. On top of all of this, nobody believed his stories about the creature who killed his grandfather. The police made fun of him and his parents took him to a shrink, thinking he went insane. His nightmares and belief that the monster was real did not help him in therapy; he was diagnosed with "acute stress reaction".

His therapist did encourage him to find closure and try to figure out what his grandfathers last words meant, "find the bird with the pipe. Emerson". The vagueness of the message did not help them. Jacob tries everything to figure it out and he was just about to give up when he found a note in his grandfather's copy of a Ralph Waldo Emerson book. In the note was a letter from Mrs. Peregrine, the lady in charge of the orphanage where his grandfather grew up, asking how his grandfather was doing and telling him someone named "E" misses him dearly. The letter was a clue and a glimpse of hope, but it was also dated 15 years ago. The orphanage was also on a small island off the coast of Wales, making it a slim chance for him to get his parents to let him visit. But somehow his therapist managed to help convince his parents to let him go with his dad, who needed pictures of exotic birds for his new book anyway.

The last chapter I read, chapter 4, takes place on the island of Cairnholm where the orphanage is. Jacob and his dad arrive and find that the island is uncomfortable with basic and kind of medieval living conditions. One phone on the entire island, the only bed and breakfast is on the second story of a bar, the island's electricity goes off every night at 10pm: seems luxurious huh? Jacob and his dad try to make the best of it anyway so they can get on with what they came there for and be done with it in 3 weeks. While his father goes out to beaches to take pictures of birds (and their feces), Jacob travels around the island to find information about his grandfather. After many people wondering if he was insane, he finally got directions to the orphanage only to find it empty and in terrible condition. When asking for further information, everyone said it had been bombed during World War II and that the only survivor was his grandfather. The chapter ends with speculation from Jacob; how did he not know the orphanage didn't exist anymore? His grandfather made him think it was still there and the letter was dated only 15 years ago.

The book is great so far; the mystery and sense of fear makes me excited to read what happens next. The book had compare and contrast organization to show the differences between certain things. For instance: the difference between the place they were staying in compared to where his family would usually vacation since they have the money or how the beer in the bar looked like tar. All I could find in these chapters were compare and contrasts. I think the author intended for this to be a mystery and horror fiction book. Usually a book would have cause and effect organization because when the character does something, it effects something else but this book doesn't. Not yet at least.

2.07 Free Choice Blog

 For this lesson, I read the prologue and chapter 1 of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. The main character is Jacob Portman who became deluded by his grandfather's "fairy stories" (tall tales) about his childhood in an orphanage. His grandfather believed in monsters who were out to get him and childhood friends who had super powers and the magic of the island he lived on; he was thrilled to share his happiest memories with his small and gullible grandson. Jacob eventually grew up to realize that he'd been lied to but discovered his grandfather's real past: his life was a horror story ever since escaping World War II. Jacob is 15 now and his grandfather is suffering from dimentia. His family knows this and is deciding whether to put him in a nursing home or not. Jacob is working at one of his family's drug stores when he gets an "apocalyptic" call from his grandfather about the monsters finally finding him. He and his friend drive over to his grandfather's house to find it looking ransacked and his grandfather laying facedown in the woods, half-dead. The chapter ends with his grandfather dying and Jacob feeling a presence nearby as he catches a glimpse of one of the monsters described in his grandfather's horror stories.

The end of this chapter was terrifying for me. This story started out innocent, but the author got his point across when he ended the first chapter like this; this is going to be a horror fiction to remember. If I had to create notes to help me remember the most important parts, I would use an outline to organize ideas in each chapter. Thought bubbles could have been about approach but so far there are too many connections between his grandfather and the monsters and super-friends. Any other style of notes would be irrelevant for this novel.

1.03 Materials and Free Choice

The result I got on the "What Kind of Reader Are You?" quiz is 1) fiction and 2) drama. I believe this is accurate because fiction has many of my favorite sub-categories such as horror, and fantasy. I like to be pulled into the story to the point where I actually care about the characters so drama is accurate too.

Despite what the results may say about what I like to read, the last thing I read and enjoyed was a news article. Well, I didn't exactly enjoy the news but it was interesting to read about. It's depressing to hear about a few people in China being killed by an accidental bomb drop. What was interesting was the response the country (or region) who dropped the bomb gave. If I remember correctly, they had said that they didn't mean to drop it. China had responded by giving them the benefit of the doubt, but warning them that the next time it happened would mean punishment. I was so intrigued that I shared the story with my friend to discuss it further.