A New Chapter on the Columbine Shooting

I found this article about Columbine saying that there were a lot of false information being given out at the time. The article stated that police were just talking to reporters without actually knowing what was going on. Also, the article gave more information about the shooters as well. According to the article, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold was never bullied. Harris was suppose to be this great student but the people that were supposedly his friends, never invited Harris to ever hang out with them. While Harris was a good student, Klebold was suppose to be sudicidal and depressed. It's great that this information, if credible, is coming out now. But my question is, why wait ten years later to release this information. The families that were involved in this tragedy deserves to know everything about the situation if they desire to. You would figure that since the Columbine shooting was on live television that they would have told us the truth around that time frame. It's a shame that the families involved in this incident have to be reminded about the shooting and that they were being lied to for the past 10 years.

Here is the link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm?se=yahoorefer

I want to take this time and say thank you all for taking the time and reading my blogs for the semester. I have enjoyed reading everybody's blogs as well.

Double Standard

Lately there seems to be a lot of National Football League players getting in trouble with the law. You really can't even turn the television to Espn without seeing someone getting in trouble. I know that it's Espn's job to report whats going on with the athletes but I think they tend to be unfair when it comes to how much exposure each athlete gets. I'm sure that all of you know who Adam Pacman Jones is. Jones has been in the news for almost 3 years now, after all those incidents he has had in the strip clubs. Jones has become the poster boy of the NFL. Jones have been arrested more than 3 times but he was just reinstated back into the league last year, which doesn't make sense. For the past 3 months, he hasn't been getting that much exposure. But before, you couldn't go 30 minutes without them talking about Pacman Jones. Next is Michael Vick, who went to jail for funding a dog fighting ring. Ever since he was sentenced, there has been pictures all over the internet with him training Scooby Doo to be vicious. Also, there has been several songs that have references about Michael Vick fighting dogs. And just like Pacman Jones, Vick stays on the television. Both Pacman Jones and Vick did some serious things but let's look at Matt Jones who was just released by the Jacksonville Jaguars not too long ago. Matt Jones was arrested by police for cutting and sniffing cocaine in his car I believe. Now we know that this is a very serious crime. But I can count how many times Espn did an actual story on Matt Jones. They barely ever talked about it. I love Espn but they should be fair when it comes to how long they cover a story.

A Deal Made in Heaven

For those of you who have a DirecTv, I’m pretty sure that you all are familiar with the Sunday Ticket. For those of you not familiar with this, the Sunday Ticket is a package that you can buy that will enable to watch all the National Football League games for the entire season. On Monday, the NFL and DirecTv extended their deal for another five years for 1 billion dollars. I was glad to hear this because I’m an owner of DirecTv and I’m a huge St. Louis Rams fan. I haven’t missed a Rams game for the past 6 years now. For my family and I, Sunday is not only a religious day but also a day to relax with friends and family, to watch football. I think that this was brilliant move by DirecTv because ever since they have added the Sunday Ticket package, they have gained more and more customers every year. If you love football, I suggest that you subscribe to DirecTv.

Sci Fi meet Syfy

The Sci Fi channel is officially changing its name to Syfy. I know that you’re probably thinking “WHOOPI Do!” I feel the same as well. The executive vice president said that the brand needed refreshing, I think the brand need a little more than that. To start off, the Sci Fi channel actually have a few good shows but it’s the movies that they be showing which brings it down. They be making movies that really suck. Their movies have unoriginal dialogue, stupid plots, and their movies probably have some of the worst actors I have ever seen. One movie that they show all the time is this movie called "BloodRayne", which is based off a video game. "BloodRayne" is prehaps the most horrible movie of all time, no lie. The main show that was particularly good to me was, Scare Tactics. The most memorable show was when they scared this person with a half man, half rat thing. Just google rat boy if you want a good laugh. If they start creating more shows and actually start showing movies that are actually good, than I think that they can be one of the top networks on television. I think that they have to do more than just changing the name to attract more viewers.

Watchmen

“Watchmen” was the big movie that came out this past weekend. “Watchmen” led the movie box office this week even though there are a lot of other good movies out there. “Tyler’s Perry Madea Goes to Jail”, was in second place. I found this kind of surprising because Tyler Perry’s movies reach across a broad audience with its life lessons and comedy. “Watchmen” is just the first big movie coming out this year. By the summer time we will have Transformers 2, Origins of the X-Men: Wolverine, G.I Joe, and many other movies out in theaters. I’m surprised that “Watchmen” attracted this big audience because this movie is based off a graphic novel. Then again, “300” was based on a graphic novel as well and they had good success too. When I first saw the preview of “Watchmen”, I had mixed emotions because the visual effects look awesome but the heroes looked corny as hell. But when I found out what the plot was about, I became very interested. There are mixed opinions about this movie. But whenever I get the chance, I’m going to the theatres to watch this movie.

Missing People

Four football players went on a boat trip early Sunday morning but never returned. Ever since then, there has been a search party looking for the players. Monday afternoon, Nick Schuyler, one of the football players, was found clinging to the boat that was over turned. Thankfully, Nick was just bruised and dehydrated. The search is still ongoing for the other football players. Espn, the Football Network and other news stations have been doing a great job covering this story. Espn and the Football Network station deserve the most credit because they have reporters down in the Florida Gulf Coast area everyday just waiting for information to come out. These stations also gives an update to what is going on every 45 minutes or so. Also, while the reporters are interviewing the loved ones, one reporter has yet to ask one dumb or terrible question. You know in situations like these that reporters may ask a question that may upset the person that is being interviewed. The thing that impresses me the most is that when you go on Espn’s website to check the National Football News, they have had this story in the number one spot for the past three days. That’s a big deal because there has been a lot of action going on in the NFL. Hopefully we will hear some good news regarding the football players.

Childhood Competition

Nickelodeon has been the dominate station for kids, ever since I was born. But recently Disney has been competing very well with shows such as Hannah Montana and movies such as High School Musical. These shows and movies have been so successful that Nickelodeon is trying to borrow from their competition. Nickelodeon started making sitcoms of their own using teenagers as well with good success. Nickelodeon’s revenue has increased significantly over the past two years. Basically this means that they still have more viewers than Disney do. The reason why Nickelodeon still has more viewers than Disney is because they appeal to more people. Nickelodeon runs a program called Nick at Nite that appeals to the older audience. Nick at Nite run shows like George Lopez, Family Matters, Roseanne, and many more. Personally, I feel that Nickelodeon is better than Disney with shows such as X-men and Spongebob Squarepants. I hate High School Musical. I don’t even know how my little brother got hooked on this movie. If I went to school telling my friends that I was watching Hannah Montana and High School Musical every night, my friends would just stare at me with no expression on their faces. But times have change.

Media Convergence on a Whole New Level

A lot of people like having the ability to watch their favorite television shows on the internet. But would people want to be able to surf the web on their television sets? Some industries are trying to find the technology to make this possible. While other industries such as Sony is against this new movement of media Convergence. "Consumers don’t want an Internet-like experience with their TVs, and we’re really not focused on bringing anything other than Internet video or widgets to our sets right now,” said Greg Belloni, a spokesman for Sony. I agree with the spokesman for a couple of reasons. One, when people come home from a long day, most people just want to relax and watch television with just a click of a button. Personally when I surf the web, it feels like work because the only time I really search the web is when I have a project or an assignment. Two, if you're able to access the internet on your television set than you're able to get viruses on your television set as well. People already get pissed when their cable goes out or if their satellite signal goes out. Just imagine if people start getting viruses on their televisions, it would be nothing but chaos. Finally, these televisions will be expensive because of it's capabilities. People will be better off buying a computer and a television seperately from each other. I know everybody isn't cheap like me but I'm sure that they will agree with me on this one.

Chris Brown

If you haven't heard, Chris Brown was arrested Sunday for assaulting Rihanna. But all the facts haven't been provided as to why he assaulted her. I'm glad that for once the media hasn't blown this out of proportion even though it is very cowardly for a man to assault a woman. A couple of radio stations such as 95.1 did a good job clearing up some of the rumors that have been floating around. There was a rumor saying that Rihanna gave Chris Brown a sexually transmitted diease, but 95.1 did good stating that there wasn't a source to prove this rumor true. All the media from what I have seen have just stated that Chris Brown was arrested and left it at that pretty much. It is surprising that Chris Brown did this because he was a good role model for kids. He was never in trouble and he was almost like the modern day Michael Jackson. Above all else, I really hope Rihanna is okay because she was hospitalized as a result of the incident. This incident may destroy Chris Brown's career and his image to the public. Chris Brown and Rihanna haven't spoken about the incident. I think this is very good, so the media won't try to put false information out there about them.

The Football Game of the Year

If you missed the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Arizona Cardinals for the Super Bowl Sunday, then you missed an exciting game. According to Nielsen Media Research, the Super Bowl this past Sunday was the most watched Super Bowl in history. I was surprised to hear this because the Steelers were heavily favored to beat the Cardinals. That’s exactly how it started out. The Steelers were beating the Cardinals 20 to 7 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. I was about to turn my television off and go chill until the Cardinals fought back with everything they had. I believe the reason why this Super Bowl will be remembered for a long time is because of the big plays. Steelers’ James Harrison set the Super Bowl record for the longest play with his 100 yard interception return right before the half. Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald who has been a beast this postseason, scored twice. One was a jump ball between him and Ike Taylor. The other was a 64 yard catch and run touchdown that gave the Cardinals the lead with a little more than two minutes left on the clock. The most talked about play was made by Steelers’ Santonio Holmes. Holmes made a marvelous catch in the back of the endzone that won the game for the Steelers. With all the big plays that were made this game, I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised that this was the most watched Super Bowl ever.

Media Convergence

Media convergence is becoming very popular these days. Media convergence is the combining of two different types of the amss media. Thsi is a great technique because it is very use ful and enertaining. Being able to watch your favorite tv shows on the internet is benefical for those who don't own a Tivo. Media companies are making a lot of money because people are watching vidoes with advertisments attached to them. The research firm, eMarketer forecasts a 45 percent gain in online video spending in 2009. this shows the sharp rise in video production for the web. Discovery is taking advantage of the media convergence between television and the internet. Discovery has countless footage of animal clips. Discovery's archive located in Sterling, Va., contains 1.3 million tapes of old episodes. So when the producer wants to clip something from from the tapes, the tape is taken to the editing center and a digital copy is created. Discovery allows you to watch certain shows from the netwrk. But they've been making profits by making video clips of animal attacks. I'm pretty sure for years to come, there willl be a lot of mass mediums combining.

Willis Mcgahee

The rivalry between the Ravens and Steelers has always been a sight for hard, violent hitting game and Sunday was nothing short of it. But during the excitement, there was a scary moment for everybody watching when Willis Mcgahee took a devastating hit from the safety Ryan Clark. I think the broadcasters and the whole network did a great job covering the situation. While Mcgahee was still on the ground, the network didn’t go to one commercial at all. There has been numerous times when the network will go to commercial while someone is unconscious on the ground. There also has been some instances when broadcasters will continue to talk about the down and situation, how much time is left in the quarter, what needs to be done, who might get fired after the game, etc.; all the while someone is seriously hurt. But the broadcasters for the game did a great job remaining people that this is just a football game and that someone’s health is far more important than a football game. Mcgahee was moving his arms and legs around slightly but wasn’t able to stand up. The medical staff had to cart Mcgahee off of the field. We still don’t know the severity of his neck injury but hopefully it’s not serious. The broadcasters and the whole network deserve props for the great job they did.

Donovan Mcnabb

No quarterback has been more scrutinized this season then Donovan Mcnabb. After getting off to a slow start, the Eagles follow that up with inconsistent play. Then there came the Cincinnati Bengals game in which the end result of the game was tie. That’s when the press started to heavily criticize the way Mcnabb was playing and for Mcnabb admitting that he didn’t know that a tie existed in the National Football League. Next week got no better when the Eagles went against the Baltimore Ravens. In that game Mcnabb was benched halfway through the third quarter only trailing by five points. Mcnabb followed that benching with some of the best performances in his career. The Eagles would go on to go four and one over the span of five games, to sneak their ways into the playoffs. In the wild card game, the Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings on the road to advance to the divisional playoffs. In the divisional round, they faced the Super Bowl Champions: New York Giants. The Giants were heavily favored to win because of the familiarity between the teams and because they were the champs. The Eagles went into the Meadowlands and outplayed the Giants in every facet of the game leaving the country in shock. Now the Eagles are only one game from the Super Bowl. There’s an old saying “the quarterback gets too much of the blame when the team loses, and the quarterback gets too much of the credit when the team wins”. This saying is especially true with Donovan Mcnabb.

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