What is happening to political freedoms, discussions and expression in the United States when the people who have been advocating for peace and respect turn violent?

Laura Hollis, teacher of business law and entrepreneurship at the Mendoza College of Business and the Law school of the University of Notre Dame, published an opinion column in The Daily Progress about the “peaceful” left and how they have turned violent in recent political demonstrations. Liberal Americans have advocated for peace and respect for everyone throughout the entire presidential campaign, often times acting as though they are morally and ethically more advanced or better people than those who don’t share their same beliefs. It is hypocritical and immature that crowds of protestors using peace and respect at the center of their movement have descended into violence on multiple occasions.

Trump’s recent tweets have officially crossed the line and journalists are not going to stand for it. The Washington Post’s Amy B Wang published a story last week describing the recent developments of our President, his relationship with Twitter and the American people. On February 17th, Donald Trump tweeted that the enemy of the American people is the media, while tagging The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN in the message. Twitter was an integral part of his campaign that drew a lot of support because of his unfiltered messages. Now that we are a month into the presidency Trump shows no sign of slowing his use of this social media platform. Journalism as a whole has come under fire recently for spreading fake, sensationalized news and not accurately covering the sentiment of all Americans throughout the election. With this recent tweet Journalists have been replying by using the hashtag #NotTheEnemy paired with pictures and stories of journalists who lost their lives while reporting in war zones or other environments that have tried to oppress journalists. Senator John McCain has also spoken out that history has shown us a dictator’s first objective is to shut down the free press and to completely control all information being circulated. He doesn’t believe that President Trump is actively trying to create a dictatorship, however, we need to pay attention to what history has shown us.

Hello!

My name is Riley McNulty and I am studying Advertising at the University of Illinois. I am from Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. The picture below is of me over the summer on my family’s boat which we keep in the Wilmette Harbor. When I am not busy studying for my classes, I enjoy going to the ARC and hanging out with friends. I am excited to take Journalism 200 this semester because I believe there will be a lot of skills and information that will be applicable to my future career in advertising. I am looking forward to exploring my interests, campus issues and national news to develop opinion columns and writing assignments for this class!

I watched the February 6^th episode of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. After learning about Craft’s 7 news values, I was able to confidently and quickly recognize which stories fit into those values. The first story was about an attempted raid in Yemen that failed at capturing the leader of Al Qaeda and killed a Navy Seal. NBC reported that after the raid this leader released an audio recording taunting President Donald Trump. I believe NBC chose this story to open with because it contains most of the seven news values we discussed in class. The story is timely, pertains to an ongoing conflict and includes prominent figures like the United States President, Donald Trump. As the program progressed, the news stories focused on how world issues were impacting the domestic United States, which is an example of proximity and impact. The last few stories of the broadcast had a feel – good spin on them. They ended the program on a high note by telling us about an after school learning center that was created as a part of a mother’s dying wish. The shift toward human interest and emotional stories towards the end left me feeling happy and content with the program that I just watched, which I realize is exactly what the producers are trying to do so that I will remain a loyal viewer.