North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Page: 6 of 8
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Page 6 Wednesday, September 10,2008
o
Views
Andrew McLemore
Views Editor
ntdailyviews@gmail.com
Journalists rail to uphold high standard
Nation must con ront
obesity as disease
Editorial
Transplanting livers to save the lives of overweight
teenagers almost defies understanding.
In a disturbing development of a worldwide obesity
epidemic, many young people are facing heavy liver
damage from having too much body fat.
Up to 10 percent of children may already have a
disease that experts say will be the No. 1 cause of
liver transplants by 2020.
These figures are unacceptable in a country that
possesses the infrastructure and economic means to
educate the public about the real dangers of obesity
and the easy lifestyle changes needed to avoid them.
Recent years have seen a shift in attitudes toward
food as consumers demand more and better choices
for a low-fat diet. Even fast food franchises like Mc-
Donald's and Taco Bell are beginning to offer healthi-
er options and remove trans fats from their menus.
But 17 percent of American children are still over-
weight, and 5 million are obese. Private enterprise and
changing public opinion cannot be relied upon to take
the necessary steps toward insuring children do not
die needlessly.
Congress or state governments with a large percent-
age of obese residents should pay for ad campaigns
that will inform Americans of this very real menace
to the nation's youth so families can seek help to save
themselves.
Liver disease can start soon after adolescence with a
small number needing a transplant to survive. Others
don't realize they have a disease until 20 years later,
when a high percentage will suffer from cirrhosis,
liver failure or cancer.
Many factors contribute to the problem, including
sedentary recreation like TV, video games and the
Internet. Most of the children afflicted by the disease
have parents who are also overweight and feeding
them a high-fat, high-starch diet of pizza, burgers,
pasta and fast food.
The parents may even have the same condition.
In a world with too few livers for everyone to
receive a transplant, preventative measures that teach
healthy eating and exercise habits are the best re-
course to solve this problem.
The little research on the illness, called nonalco-
holic fatty liver disease, has shown only one effective
treatment beyond transplants: weight loss.
After 12-year-old, 179-pound Curtis Siegfried was
diagnosed with an advanced form of the disease, his
entire family changed its diet and cut out all junk
food.
With hard work on a nearby farm and his new eat-
ing habits, Curtis has shown vast improvement in
the latest biopsy of his liver, The Associated Press
reported.
Experts say the illness is silent and can grow more
dire for years without any symptoms. Doctors should
test patients every two years for liver disease, as the
American Academy of Pediatricians recommends.
Community outreach programs from hospitals could
target areas with a higher incidence of obesity and
teach parents to prevent future problems by encourag-
ing their children to exercise more and eat better.
As the most wealthy and powerful nation in the
world, the United States cannot allow mere igno-
rance to hinder it from working toward solutions for a
deadly affliction on its children.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP)
— Following in your father's
footsteps by attending the
same university is one thing.
But moving into the same
dorm room as your dad?
Mike Robell has found
himself in B310 in Emmons
Hall at Michigan State
University— the very same
room occupied by his father
in 1978.
What are the odds? The
East Lansing university has
about 8,000 rooms.
The freshman's father,
Rich Robell, 50, said he
suspected it was his old
Son lands
dads old
dorm
room
room. It has the same
floor and same wall color.
The phone number is the
same, too. The same broken
window latch offered some
key evidence.
The proof came from a
university archivist, who
located a 1978 student direc-
tory.
Housing complex manager
Tim Knight says it's the first
time in his 37-year tenure
that he's aware of a parent
and child having the same
room by chance.
"I guess it was meant to
be," Rich Robell said.
In the Sept. 9 issue of the
North Texas Daily, the
paper decided to publish
an editorial slamming
Hollywood for its unfair and
over-the-top portrayal of jour-
nalists in films.
I find it ironic that people
who are a part of the news
media are complaining about
how someone is portraying
them. But perhaps if jour-
nalists and the news media
in general wish to be viewed
differently, they should start
acting differently.
Perhaps the news media
should start publishing real
news rather than tabloid
junk. On page four of the Daily
yesterday is a story about how
the host of the MTV Video
Music Awards made fun of the
Jonas Brothers.
Who cares?
I'll be honest. I'm as much a
consumer of celebrity gossip
and entertainment news as
the next person. It's fun, it can
be entertaining, and some-
times it's nice to indulge in
the impulse to look down on
people who are far richer than
I ever will be.
But I don't look to the news-
paper for this kind of news; I
look to websites like tmz.com
or thesuperficial.com. These
are celebrity gossip sites,
not news sites. If I want real
news, I go to The New York
Times or The Dallas Morning
News. But even The New
York Times, that bastion of
journalistic integrity, will
sometimes sink to this level.
Unfortunately, celeb-
rity gossip mongering
is not the only crime
being committed
by the news media
today. No, there
is an even bigger
crime. The news
media today are so
focused on selling
newspapers and
selling adver-
tising air time
that they have
lost focus of what is really
important.
A democratic society is not
possible without an informed
society. To have an informed
society, we have to have a
news media that reports on
important issues and does so
in a manner that allows the
public to absorb the informa-
tion and then make impor-
tant decisions as to how they
are going to vote. This mean
the news media shouldn't
treat the presidential election
like a trumped up version of
"American Idol."
This means the news media
should be more focused on
candidates' experience and
voting record than on their
personal lives. This means
that the news media should
be giving us facts, not opin-
ions. I mean, how far through
Ryan Ferguson
when news organizations no
longer strive for objectivity
(something which is impos-
sible to achieve but
vital to aim for) but
instead market them-
selves on how liberal
or conservative they
are while calling
their biases fair?
As a consumer of the
news, my choices go
pretty much like this:
listen to one guy who
is so far to the
right that what
he says makes no
sense or switch channels and
listen to a guy who is so far
on the left that he is equally
nonsensical.
WThat this type of reporting
does is split the country into
three groups: the extreme
rights, extreme lefts and the
people in the middle who aren't
sure who to turn to. The people
on the right and left seem satis-
fied to bask in the glory of their
own channel while blasting the
other side for being biased. But
where is the channel for the
middle? Where do I go if I just
want to hear the facts? To be
honest, I'm not sure there is
a place like that anymore.
This is the reason the news
media gets a bad rap.
Even in the middle of this
mess, people know what the
media are doing. They know
the media is sensationalizing
the looking glass have we gone things to the point where they mac.com.
work the mob up into a frenzy.
So when we see a character in
a movie doing this, we recog-
nize the behavior and it rings
true.
When we watch a film like
"15 Minutes" and we see the
lengths to which a journalist
will go to get the bloody story,
the truth in that is self-evident
(even in an exaggerated form).
And when we watch movies
like "All the President's Men,"
we feel nostalgic for a time
when journalists did their job
and weren't afraid of telling
the tough stories. And when
I say tough, I don't mean
controversial -1 mean stories
that are complicated. Stories
that take time and nuance
to tell. Stories that require
readers to stop what they
are doing and concentrate.
So if journalists and the news
media want to be treated nicely
by Hollywood, they need to
stop whining and do their
job. Report the news, tell the
truth, be as accurate as you
can be and don't be afraid to
tell a tough story. And perhaps
the greatest piece of advice I
can give is one that is tried
and true:
"Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you."
Ryan Ferguson is a grad-
uate student studying radio,
television and film. He can be
reached at ryanferguson83@
GOP convention un ustly criticizes Obama
We really love
America. We
hate Barack and
Michelle Obama,
Democrats, liberals, and
anyone who doesn't look
or think like we do. Our VP
candidate is the hottest VP
candidate in history. And did
we mention our presidential
candidate was a POW?
Those are all things we heard
during last week's Republican
National Convention.
What we didn't hear, even
less than we heard George
Bush's name (and that's a
hard task, given how little the
current two-term Republican
president and current leader
of the GOP was mentioned),
was what the Republicans will
do to improve the lives of the
average American.
That's because Sen. John
McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and
the rest of them have nothing
to run on. They have an 8-year
record of failure under the
Bush administration, whose
policies they embrace (despite
all the "maverick" talk, this
convention adopted the most
conservative platform in the
party's history). All they can do
is attack the other side by ques-
tioning Sen. Obama's patrio-
tism, criticizing his supposed
elitism for going to Harvard,
his experience as a community
organizer and that he didn't
grow up in a "small town" (like
a real American!).
Most importantly, they lie. A
lot. The Associated Press had
to do several fact checks on the
various speakers, and it wasn't
pretty. McCain said Obama
voted for a "corporate welfare
bill" for oil and gas companies.
In reality, Obama supported a
bill that provided money for
of weapons of mass destruc-
tion. McCain praised Palin
for opposing earmarks.
However, in her very short
tenure as governor of Alaska,
she's requested $750 million
in federal spending for her
1
renewable energy and voted
for an amendment to strip
out the tax breaks the Bush
administration wanted. But
the Republican majority did
not join him, so the amend-
ment failed.
McCain said Obama doesn't
have a record of working across
the aisle, but he worked with
Sen. Richard Lugar on legis-
lation to curtail stockpiles
Courtesy of Columbus Ledger-Enquirer/ MCT
state.
Almost all of the Republican
speakers fell to old standbys.
They accused Democrats of
wanting to raise taxes, but
Obama's actual plan would
provide $80 billion in tax
breaks for average Americans
while raising taxes only on the
wealthy and corporations. The
Tax Policy Center concluded
that Obama's plan would
increase after-tax income
for middle-income taxpayers
by about 5 percent by 2012,
or nearly $2,200 annually,
whereas McCain's plan would
raise it by just 3 percent.
Disingenuous Republicans
also accused Obama of wanting
to establish government-run
healthcare, but anyone who
remembers the Democratic
primaries knows that Obama
disagreed with Hillary Clinton
on this issue.
Obama's plan would allow
anyone to keep their current
private healthcare plan if they
like it (and offer a $1,000 cut in
premiums) but also allow the
45 million uninsured in this
country to buy into the same
healthcare plan that their
members of Congress enjoy.
It would appear that cheap
talking points trumped any
"straight talk" at their conven-
tion. It is also clear that
Republicans are the opponents
of change in this election.
Anyone who is on the fence
has a simple question to ask
themselves: Do you want to
continue on the road we've
been on these last eight years
or change course? That is
the only real choice between
McCain and Obama. More
of the same, or a chance for
something better.
I know what I'd choose.
Adam Silva is a graduate of
the political science depart-
ment. He can be reached at
adamrsilva@yahoo.com.
Students should investigate 9/11 tragedy
Letter to the Editor
Dear editor:
The events surrounding
Sept. 11, 2001, are the most
censored, yet the most critical,
issues of our time. You had
better ask yourself why you
have not seen all of the videos
surrounding the collapse of
Building 7. These have been
deliberately censored.
More than 450 engineers
and architects cite unim-
peachable evidence that
explosives were used to
bring down all three build-
ings on 9/11. "Architects and
Engineers For 9/11 Truth" at
AE911Truth.org even present
the forensic and physical
evidence of unexploded mili-
tary-grade thermite, and also
its residues, found in the dust
and r ubble.
Thousands of first-
responders and families of
the victims of Sept. 11 have
been stonewalled by our
government and censored in
the media. They have been
screaming out for help, but
you have not heard their pleas
due to censorship.
Don't muff this. Too much
is at stake. Thoroughly inves-
tigate 9/11 truth. It is one of
the most important things
that you will ever do.
Tom Theimer is a senior
majoring in environmental
science. He can be reached at
tomtheimer@aol. com.
NT Daily
Editorial Board
The Editorial Board includes:
Rachel Slade, Matt Goodman,
Hailey Persinger, Shaina Zucker,
Jessica Harp, Andrew McLemore,
David Lucio, Brooke Cowlishaw,
Kyle Phillips, Bailey Riley,
Sophia Shah and Stan Ascher.
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 92, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 10, 2008, newspaper, September 10, 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145601/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.