Viewpoints
By Josh Rosenblut Recently I had the opportunity to speak with John King, CNN’s Chief National Correspondent. I asked Mr. King for some advice, one journalist to another. Mr. King related that, when he began his work in journalism the field was quite different from today. 25 years ago journalism was primarily disseminated on paper, the radio, and morning and evening news programs on the 3 major television networks. He noted that today people get their news from reading the paper (mostly online on one’s computer, tablet or phone),
By Natalia Terentiev Vladimir Putin has been the president for over twenty years. Putin is attempting to hold his name in history forever and expand Russia. He is doing so by unjustifyingly attacking an innocent country by creating a false narrative about Ukraine. Putin invaded Crimea, a small peninsula on the southern portion of Ukraine in 2014. He began threatening war on Ukraine in late 2021, with the goal of preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. As Ukraine is on the border of Russia, it becoming a part of NATO would interfere with Putin’s future plans of invading and controlling the mainland of Ukraine. During this difficult time, Ukrainians need our support. Many Blind Brook
From Our Editor: watching the news (again, on one’s tv, computer or phone), or listening to the radio/a podcast. People used to generally have one primary source of news, now it is multifaceted. Mr. King shared that he needed to learn to pivot to this new manner of fractured media. Now, to be a successful journalist, one must know how to write for all types of media sources whether it be speaking on television or the radio/a podcast, or writing an article for a newspaper, magazine or blog post. This makes the occupation of
more challenging. Journalist’s need to be able to have a viewer read their article while simultaneously being able to present it to them over a screen and broken down into soundbites. Mr. King also told me that he sees his job as a journalist not to mainly convey breaking news, but instead to help his viewers/readers digest the news and understand why it’s important, and how the news affects them. He noted that most days when people turn on his news show they already know what is happening in the world from seeing the headlines on their phones, crawls at the bottom of their television screens, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts. People watch his (and others’) show because they want to learn why what is happening in the world is important to them. As Editor-in-Chief I take this to heart, FOCUS is not a newspaper that comes out daily, so we are unable to convey breaking news. Instead, we
take relevant topics every few weeks, bring them back to life and dive deeper into what has occurred, as a way to help the Blind Brook community understand why it is important to have a deeper understanding of these matters. Speaking with Mr. King was an excellent reminder that as journalists, it is vital to remember we are not doing this work primarily to break news, but to help our readers digest the news and understand why it is important to them.
attack on Russian ground, and continues to defend themselves by military action on their own territory. No one expected Ukrainians to put up such an impressive defense to a much stronger enemy. The world unified rapidly in their response to support Ukraine by putting stringent economic and financial sanctions on Russia, as well as speaking publicly about the issue. Sanctions included a freeze on substantial Russian cash reserves, as well as cutting off Russia’s bank from the SWIFT messaging system. This has already resulted in a significant devaluation of Russian currency. Russia’s president attempts to evade responsibility
by making his actions out to be something other than what it is, an uncalled for invasion. Putin also fails to inform the young soldiers drafted to the Russian army the reason for their attack. His effort has grown beyond keeping Ukraine from NATO, his current mission is to reassemble pieces of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is an independent country which chose democracy, and has been violently attacked for this decision. Supporting Putin is the equivalent of allowing an aggressor to land grab and invade another independent state without incident. If you’d like to help support the people of Ukraine, contribute to the Ukrainian Red Cross at:
Ukraine-Russia Crisis students, including myself, have family in Ukraine, and spreading awareness of what is happening in our homeland is critical in order to show our support to Ukrainians. February 23rd is Russia’s national celebratory day for their military. Early morning of February 24th, 2022, the first attack with a missile was made at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Out of the twenty four oblasts (provinces), eighteen were attacked by missiles from Russia, in the first week of the conflict. Missiles have been bombing Ukrainian cities, as well as the personal homes of the citizens. The Russians conducted over two hundred fifty missile strikes on cities, as well as military units inland. At this time, Ukraine has not returned any
Josh Rosenblut Editor-in-Chief
https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/.
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