Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Searching these magazines online was a new experience for me. I have never been the kind of person to pick up a magazine to read. I have always been the kind of person that got his information off of Twitter. I enjoyed finding these controversial stories.

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

On November 19, 2015 a news reporter for CNN by the name of Elise Labott, tweeted that the Statue of Liberty bowed its head in anguish when the Syrian refugee bill passed. This bill limited the number of Syrian refugees that would be able to come to America. CNN decided to suspend Elise due to the inappropriateness of the comment. Many people disagree with the decision that CNN made, including Fortune magazine writer Mathew Ingram who states that writers should be able to speak their minds.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

The most sympathetic character in the story is Michael Calderone, a reporter for the Huffington Post, was sympathetic to Elise. He says that the only reason Elise was suspended was because it was in opposition to a Republican bill. Elise has posted her political opinion before when she said she was opposed to one of Obama’s decisions and she faced no punishment for that. Michael believes in his fellow reporter when a major news business, CNN, does not.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

Jeff Zucker, the head of CNN, is extremely unsympathetic to Elise’s decision to express her opinion on social media. He believes that his reporters will get blamed for bias if they are tweeting their opinions at all. I think that Jeff needs to give his reporters some slack, the tweet does not give off a bias in my opinion and he is being too cautious. Even though CNN is a major corporation that has its standard rules, there should be some lenience.

Shaw, Phil. "Statue Liberty" 09/16/06 via Flickr
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1 . What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

In this story by Bloomberg Business, the dispute is over whether or not Facebook should change the nature of the like button. Chris Cox, who is the social network’s chief product officer, is contemplating changing the like button. The like button is the key symbol of the company and it would be an astounding change. The idea was first announced in Silicon Valley at the Four Seasons at an executive meeting.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

The most sympathetic person in this story is none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is quoted saying that he is fine with it and that he completely agrees with anything his chief product officer and the other board members decide to do. The reason that I evoke sympathy to Zuckerberg is because it is his company and he has made the decision to let someone else have control. He trusts that and that makes me trust Cox more.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

The least sympathetic person to the change is Cox himself. Cox is saying that it is something that needs to happen. He feels that the company has remained stagnant on their look and there needs to be a major change. The reason that I cannot sympathize too much with Cox is because he is changing the face of Facebook. He wants to adjust something that does not need to be adjusted.