Link to Obama Speech

Click here.

It's the third video down the page. The page also includes the text of his remarks.

The Diversity Gap

We'll focus on newsroom diversity in a week or two. Here's a link to a Washington Post ombudsman's discussion of that paper's problem in recruiting, retaining and engaging the minorities on its staff.

We'll talk about this piece during our discussion of the topic.

Quick writing sample

We'll discuss this piece in class today, just to point out a few examples of cluttered writing.

One more example of clean vs. cluttered

Here's an interesting piece about a music festival in Mexico.

What do we think about the first 4 or 5 grafs?

For Wednesday 3/24: Edit me

In addition to discussing the three profiles linked to previously, let's also talk about this Abq Tribune piece I wrote in 2007 about the band Alaska in Winter.

Note, the main story starts about halfway down, with the line: "It takes a while, but Alaska in Winter eventually warms up."

Think about theme, common threads and the use of quotes throughout.

NPR's Choice

A broadcast outlet takes the path of least resistance and succumbs to "pro life" and "pro choice":

In the Abortion Debate, Words Matter