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Topic: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing! (Read 671 times) |
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Philosopher King
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Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« on: Feb 18th, 2003, 1:59pm » |
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Don't know how long this will remain up, so check it out as soon as you can. I, your site admin on "the Gridiron", just had a letter published in the local newspaper here. It is admittedly off-topic (it regards potential war against Iraq), but I make this post/thread in the vein of "getting to know your fellow Gridironers" and if someone here actually goes ahead and puts in the effort to get something published or has done something (great) to make the news, particularly if it is viewable on-line, I say it is something that should be shared. Hence, the creation of this thread! In any case, here is a link to the piece I wrote; it is not long at all:
http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,691057,00.html.
A note to all of our aspiring or part-time writers, keep this thread in mind!
Now, feel free to discuss...
By the way, the piece is the one by Steven A. Stegeman of Ocean Township! 
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Philosopher King
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Re: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« Reply #6 on: Feb 20th, 2003, 10:11pm » |
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on Feb 20th, 2003, 9:55pm, Keyshawn Johnson 76yards wrote:Did you get payed anything for it? If you don't mind me asking of course?   |
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It's the comedy club gang!
  
 They take it that they are doing you a favor (kind of like people take it at another place that I have written a substantial amount of articles for... ingrates). In any case, it was just published as a "Letter", like a "Letter to the Editor". I am just happy that mine was published so quickly as it is time-sensitive. Many have to wait up to four weeks.
In any event, are there any thoughts on the piece? Did you guys know about what I point out in it?
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Philosopher King
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Re: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« Reply #8 on: Feb 28th, 2003, 2:15am » |
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on Feb 28th, 2003, 12:05am, bgsgfan wrote:Props on being published.
As far as commenting... I am generally completely happy to be a mindless ant marching without regards to current events. It appears I may need to crawl out of my ant hole with regards to current Iraq situation, but as yet I am blissfully ignorant. In fact I believe I may be missing some hidden sarcasm??? Maybe I'll "get it" if you help with 2 things:
1. Could you clarify this sentence?
Is there a typo - I can't quite get that sentence to make sense.
2. Being out of the loop, I have no idea whether the statement you reference in the article was eventually made or not.
If we believe our people are the standard, would we not take all statements at face value - which doesn't work since they are contradictory??? Or perhaps by "making believing" it infers that this is obviously not the case?
Anyhow, I am clearly clueless.  |
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Thanks, bg...! 
First off... COOL... commentary to respond to! 
Now, regarding the "sentence" you quote, it is technically a sentence fragment, written on purpose as a response to the question I posed right before it. I just wanted to mention that in case that is what was causing you confusion or that is what you were asking.
As far as the meaning, I am NOT saying that we should believe that "our people" are (setting) the standard/we have to believe that what "our people" are saying is "the standard." My point is more about predisposition/attitude. I am saying that we should make "believing our people/belief in our people" the standard, i.e. avoid the tendency to (unduely) scrutinize what "our people" are saying/claiming by putting them under a much stronger microscope than we do those who do not have our best interests at heart.
Case in point, the one I cite in the piece... I have to admit this is where I am a little disappointed in you, bgsgfan. Do you think I would actually make up stuff, LIE, moreover in a newspaper? Also, do you think the newspaper would not do their homework and allow that to happen? Heck, in a way, your not quite getting my article is ironic because you end up kind of doing to me what I say many of us are doing to "our people," i.e. each other, so to speak. I mean you know me, more or less, relatively speaking. I would hope that you would be predisposed to believing (in) me rather than predisposed to scrutinizing me and potentially having a knee-jerk bad attitude towards me (WHICH YOU, I KNOW, DO NOT, bgsgfan  ). "Me" here, in the bigger picture, is a metaphor for "our people." Or, maybe, you planned it that way.  Now that would be highbrow! Moving right along, YES, the statements I quote were made. The quote is from The Associated (f'n) Press for goodness sake! Anyway, in the case I point out in the article, "our guy" Colin Powell said there was a tape while Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite station "who has provided al-Qaida and their jihad with a continuous pipeline to the world" claimed they had no such tape. As we all now know, there was a tape. Powell was telling the TRUTH; Al-Jazeera was LYING. This just slips by/under the radar. If, e.g., Al-Jazeera made a claim that the Bush administration was hiding some kind of tape from the American people, there would be a tendency, perhaps even a rush, to believe them and the people/our media would be down our government's throat with accusations. Funny thing, Al-Jazeera IS the "free" media over there. When your media is lying, where the hell do you go then? Just another representation of the ills that people exist amongst over there. Point: let's just take more things presented to us by "our people" at face value rather than be poised to scrutinize (more conservative stance) or, at least, take everything we hear from "whomever" more at face value rather than be predisposed against anyone, no less "our own" (more liberal stance).
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Red Zone Master
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Re: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« Reply #9 on: Feb 28th, 2003, 10:04am » |
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Quote:| I am saying that we should make "believing our people/belief in our people" the standard, i.e. avoid the tendency to (unduely) scrutinize what "our people" are saying/claiming by putting them under a much stronger microscope than we do those who do not have our best interests at heart. |
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That cleared it up totally. I wasn't seeing the word "making" as the entire verb with the word "believing" being a phrase in the predicate (I kept seeing make-believe like Peter Pan, Sata Claus, and the Easter Bunny). I was trying to force the word "believing" into service as part of a verb phrase.
Quote:| As we all now know, there was a tape. Powell was telling the TRUTH; Al-Jazeera was LYING. |
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I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say I avoid current event, "news". I had no idea whether or not it had come out that there was a tape.
I "get it" now! 
On the whole I agree with what you are saying, however, as a counterpoint and to play devil's advocate, the scrutiny and skepticism applied by the media helps us take our leaders' words on face value - we and they know it will be investigated. Hopefully the media applies that same diligence when it comes to the "bad guys" - as well as some common sense (Powell told the truth, Al-Jazeera lied - next time they should be more skeptical of Al-Jazeera than Powell).
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11/20/04 - Buckeyes salvage season by stomping that team from up north. (Posted 11/14/04)
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UFF Primetime Prophet
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Re: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« Reply #10 on: Feb 28th, 2003, 10:16am » |
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When push comes to shove, I always believe "our" people over "their" people.
I do take issue, however, with your closing statement. I think it is naive and irresponsible to believe everything that "our" people are saying.
Nearly every government issues 'misinformation' (read propaganda) in order to confuse the enemy, promote nationalism, and, moreover, cover their own collective posteriors. This reminds me of a funny story from a few years back. It became known that the CIA was establishing an official Department of Misinformation. There was a great deal of public criticism over the issue. The CIA then issued a statement that in light of the opposition to such a department, plans for said department were being discontinued. (I hope everyone caught the irony in there.)
Was there a tape of Bin Laden? Colin Powell says yes, Al Jazeera says no. I'm certainly inclined to believe that there was a tape.
In the Gulf War, the media constantly showed the satellite tapes of missiles being so precise that they could enter an air vent from hundreds of miles away. It sure looked good and it seemed ludicrous when the Iraqis indicated some of the missiles hit residential areas, hospitals, schools, etc. Can I blindly believe the US govt. when they say that is an outright lie?
Now that we are facing a war with Iraq, a country who poses little threat to the US right now (aside from possible/probable ties to terrorist groups), we are, essentially, ignoring North Korea, who has stated that they have nuclear missiles with a long-enough range to reach the US West Coast. Why the disinterest?
The US govt. would like you to believe that a war with Iraq has nothing to do with their oil reserves. Should I take that at face value?
All I'm saying is that nationalism is important, but don't get duped into believing everything the government wants you to believe.
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Philosopher King
of Fantasy Football
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Re: Gridironers in the news, making it or writing!
« Reply #11 on: Apr 19th, 2003, 11:28am » |
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Well, I just had another article published in the "Opinions" section of my local paper here in Joysey, and, yea, again, it is a piece about the war. This time, though, I am quite disappointed with their editing, or should I say chopping up, of the piece. I understand whence they are coming as they are receiving a deluge of letters these days. But, the choppin' was quite excessive. My piece went from 903 words to 563 words to 172 words! Talk about my point's not getting hammered in Steggie-style the way I intended. Well, I have learned my lesson. In past pieces I have done, the topics were VERY narrow and they were not much over 250 to 350 words and they basically were not "edited" at all. This topic was just too broad and actually my original article was probably too labyrinthine and too long. The 563-word version was really good, though, and I have seen articles of such length published before, although, in all fairness, not at such a busy time as now. The published 172-word version will seem good from the reader's perspective, but from the writer's, i.e. my, perspective, it is disappointing in that I know that A LOT of my point(s) and premises were lost in the cut down. Oh well! Anyway, without further ado, the URL for the article follows; it is the fourth piece down by yours truly Steven A. Stegeman of Ocean Township:
http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,724381,00.html.
Now, for those of you inquiring minds out there or if you are interested in observing the editing process in action, I have posted the two other aforementioned versions on the net myself. They exist at:
563-word version -
http://www.internetstitute.com/Anti-protesters2.htm;
903-word version -
http://www.internetstitute.com/Anti-protesters.htm.
I hope you enjoy it all! Any comments are welcome! 
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