I brought a diet coke to a meeting last week. I used to have a couple a day. Now I have a couple a year. This happened to be one of those times. Within 5 minutes three people started telling me that I was injesting poison and should be getting my energy from *insert your choice of expensive shake or kale smoothie. Being somewhat oppositional I said that I would take that under advisement, opened my drink and took a big swig. Tempted to bring one every week now. With a bag of Cheetos. And a bottle of HFCS to start doing shots of during the meeting.

Read this and snarfed my coffee on my son who is snuggling me right now!! 😂😂😂☕ï¸â˜•ï¸â˜•ï¸

Great advice. I am reading while snuggling so forgive me if this was mentioned. Diversify by purchasing an annuity. We also kept our home when we moved. It's in the dc area which is a bit more recession proof and is very easy to rent out. Now we own two mortgages. Currently the rent covers the mortgage and most repairs. We are still on the hook for the big ones like a new roof, etc. Our hope/plan is to pay it off and use the rental income to supplement our retirement savings. That has worked for my parents along with the other strategies mentioned. ETA: We also work multiple jobs. My husband has his corporate job and moonlights as an adjunct at the local uni. I work three part time, flexible jobs.

What you said about documentaries is so true. It makes me think of Food Inc. Very powerful but also misleading in some areas I think. I haven't seen it in years but I do remember when I was watching it that it was very obviously biased in one direction. And as you said, many documentaries are biased. As an aside, I found a great resource for studying bias in the media. It has sites that links to examples of word choice, omission, etc. http://umich.edu/~newsbias/links.html This is another site that deals specifically with undercover journalism. It's def pro-undercover journalism and gives examples of how it has had a positive impact. http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/political-social-justice/undercover-reporting.html

I love what was said in that that link. And way too many journalists do not do that! Instead they focus on building a narrative. Definitely think the media would be more respected if it was more just the facts and less here's the narrative. Narrative journalism reminded me of the UVA rape case. Interestingly the professional journalist in that case failed because she too was passionately trying to prove something she believed. It's hard. Of course journalists would prefer to write about something they care deeply about and yet that makes them much more vulnerable to skirting ethical lines (if not just outright crossing them) Sorry. I know this is a bit off the topic. http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/rolling-stone-and-the-temptations-of-narrative-journalism

Thank you for posting this. I think it is an excellent list for discussion. If we used that list there would be no undercover journalism. "To use only fair and honest means to obtain news, pictures and documents. Always to reveal his identity as a representative of the press before obtaining any personal interview for the purpose of using it for publication." So if we think there is value in undercover reporting, then we would have to change those. Eta: Sadie I have no idea what happened to your text in my quote. I did not intentionally change the font size to discount what you said. My iPad is just being weird.

I don't either. Clearly there need to be limits and some sort of definition or as the original article stated anyone could invade your privacy and call it journalism. What do you think are some practices and approaches that define journalism? I think it would be interesting to come up with a list.

I agree. That is a critical question. And it brings up the issue that a previous poster mentioned. Defining "doing journalism" narrowly could be used to shut down less mainstream outlets.

Interesting article from the UK "“It seems to me that it would be prudent to have a policy that sets out in one place the factors that prosecutors will take into account when considering whether or not to prosecute journalists acting in the course of their work as journalists,†he told the inquiry. The guidelines would apply to offences committed under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which covers phone hacking and undercover surveillance; the Bribery Act; the Data Protection Act, which covers the obtaining of medical records and other private information; and the Computer Misuse Act, which outlaws email hacking." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9070654/Journalists-who-break-law-to-expose-injustice-will-not-be-prosecuted.html Definitely raises even more questions.

Well said.

I only brought up the Ny case because a previous poster said that faking documents was always crossing the line. In the NY case, it doesn't seem like too many people thought reporters using fake ids was absolutely wrong. You are correct. The PP case was in TX. But I'd like to discuss the implications on journalism, not rehash the PP debate.

In NY having a fake id is evidently not a big deal at all. These reporters used fake ids to see how easy it was to get into bars with them. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fake-ids-reporters-served-13-18-bars-article-1.440704 I think this is a situation where reporters using fake ids are performing quite a good service. And since they weren't arrested even after this article came out, I'm guessing that the authorities didn't think what they did was obviously crossing the line. If it's ok in this instance, why not in another instance?

This is an interesting look at Watergate and the legality of Woodward and Bernstein's actions. They did have legal counsel but there are still questions about the legality of their actions - one even raised by the men themselves. https://verdict.justia.com/2012/05/04/revisiting-woodward-and-bernsteins-watergate-reporting

Mother Jones article on it too for those having problems with the video (betting it's just me. My internet/or iPad are weird today's) http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/01/planned-parenthood-sting-felony-using-fake-drivers-license I think it's interesting that the author of this also has concerns. It certainly makes for excellent homeschool research project fodder.

Excellent points. It's such a tricky issue.

But that is their point. Some undercover journalists do in fact engage in deceitful activities. Take the abortion issue and these specific people out. Say journalists/citizen journalists were investigating an organization that they suspected was engaging in human trafficking. Would it be worth it for them to fake I.ds, break confidentiality agreements, etc? Should there be different rules for professional journalists vs citizen journalists?

This is an interesting article written by two pro-choice law professors about the recent PP/undercover videos case. In it they raise concerns about how the indictment of the undercover video makers might have dangerous repercussions in journalism. Do you think they are right? How do we balance improtant undercover, whistleblower activities with privacy? http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/29/opinions/planned-parenthood-colb-dorf/index.html

Around here hippie is more derogatory. Either it's used to describe an actual aging hippie- skullet, tie dyed, pot smoking senior citizen or someone who embraces the hippie culture as described in this old Time article. "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture." The article described the guidelines of the hippie code: "Do your own thing, wherever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on, if not to drugs, then to beauty, love, honesty, fun."[59] It is estimated that around 100,000 people traveled to San Francisco in the summer of 1967. The media was right behind them, casting a spotlight on the Haight-Ashbury district and popularizing the "hippie" label. With this increased attention, hippies found support for their ideals of love and peace but were also criticized for their anti-work, pro-drug, and permissive ethos."

I like procon.org for a good jumping off point. http://gun-control.procon.org

Ahhhh. Ok. I thought it was other people who were wanting to use the facilities getting bunchy not people trying to boost ratings and stir up trouble.

That's good. Im glad they would be willing to accommodate. There are always so many issues that you don't even think will come up. In the swimming example, if you restrict the pool for certain groups, what happens to the swim instructors and life guards and janitorial staff? Only men could work during the male only time and only women in the women only time. That can become a staffing issue. Again, not insurmountable at all. I guess I just mention them to say that when someone says why don't they just do x to accommodate y group there are usually a whole host of other issues in the background that can make it harder than it seems to make things happen. And as I said, we are working to resolve the yoga/racquetball problem. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just moving the yoga to another studio. Wish it were...sigh.

Would you be ok with the community center having male only times to accommodate families that dont want their boys to see girls in swimsuits? I work at a gym and it is impossible to accommodate everyone. I can see both sides of the argument. It's wonderful to try to serve one population but when you do at the expense other members there will be issues. Not insurmountable but issues. One example: our raquetball courts are near one of our fitness studios. During really popular gym times (before and after work) we run into problems. Members get annoyed that people are playing raquetball loudly. Other members want to play at that time and don't think they are doing anything wrong. Both sides are right. Raquetball is loud, yoga is quiet. We are doing things to try to make the best of this situation. Won't bore you with the details. Just sharing to say that if we cancelled or changed the time of that yoga class, we'd have 50+ annoyed members. If we told the raquetball league that they couldn't play then we'd have 50+ annoyed members. When you limit the use of the facility to accommodate one group, another group will complain.

Now now. Can't be done venting yet. We just got started! Don't forget the "only 1% of people will care enough to repost this" or "if you care about anyone with x,y,z you must copy and paste this into your status" or my favorite, the chain mail "post this in your status or you will have bad luck"

I missed that. Now picturing which songs I would have used in that headline- Alive, Even Flow, quick interview with a student named Jeremy, Can't we find a Better Man to be in charge?

NPR and New York Times are liberal. My favorite place to go for news is Real Clear World or Real Clear Politics (diff tabs on same site). It gives a sampling of articles from different sources. It's fascinating to read the NYT take on a story vs Washington Times. It's helpful to read both sides to see which bits of data sway each side and also to try to get a clearer picture of what is going on.