Assignment for Tuesday, October 29

Read and annotate chapter 5 of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. In class on Thursday, October 31, you will write about the book.

Click here to read more about the Wall Street Journal reports on "janitors insurance." These reports are posted on the web site of one of its reporters, Theo Francis. These reports received the 2002 George Polk Award for Financial Reporting. The George Polk Awards are among the most prestigious in journalism; its judges "place a premium on investigative and enterprise work that is original, requires digging and resourcefulness, and brings results."

Click here to read a libertarian critique of these insurance policies that focuses less on their ethics than on the federal government's role in promoting them.

Assignment for Friday, October 25

Read and annotate chapter four of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. 

Assignment for Wedneday, October 23

Re-read chapter three of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. Pay close attention to how he criticizes markets. In addition, make a list of the five best gifts you've ever received, and a list of the five worst gifts you've ever received. Then, indicate for which gifts, good or bad, you would have preferred receiving cash. 

Narrative

Here are a few resources to help you with writing narratives. Keep in mind that stories can take many forms and, for the purposes of this class, you will be using them in the service of an argument.

The 22 Storytelling Rules According to Pixar 

Six-Word Memoir 

Your Brain on Stories 

Fox News Errs, and The New York Times Investigates the Shutdown's Origins

Here are a couple of items related to our reading and discussion of Blur. Reading and thinking about them in relation to Blur and Wag the Dog could help you think more sharply about the relevant issues you'll have to write about on Tuesday's in-class essay, but these are optional.

I just came across this piece about Fox News making just the kind of mistake Kovach and Rosenstiel take pains to discuss in Blur. The headline is somewhat amusing, but points to the all too real problem of rushing to broadcast and appealing to a narrowly focused audience. Because Fox News is in the business of the "journalism of affirmation," it makes a mistake typical of the "journalism of assertion." Don't just watch the video; read the article to the end.

This report from The New York Times reveals how the desire to defund the Affordable Care Act (pejoratively known as "Obamacare") became linked to shutting down the federal government. It's long and detailed. If you read it, think about how Kovach and Rosenstiel would assess its strengths and limitations.