Woodward and Bernstein in front of the White House.

Fellow writers: Remember when you were a naive Intro to Journalism student who thought the rest of your career would be as easy as covering that one student government event? And then remember how you felt after your semester at the Washington Journalism Center? Well, I’m somewhere in the middle of that, locked in Apartment 3 reading “All the President’s Men” and wondering if someone is watching me do it.

Before I came to WJC, I felt pretty good about my knowledge of the government, the news, and the relationship between the two. I mean, being a registered voter among the under 25 crowd outside of Washington these days is about as rare as being an 80-year-old lady claiming to be part of the Taylor Gang. You feel like you know things. But then, the hypothetical grandma hangs out for a few hours at the local high school and realizes she had no idea what she was saying when she wrote “Taylor Gang or die” on her grandson’s Facebook wall. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, there’s a new batch of Washington Journalism Center students in town for another exciting election fall, and yes, we did send them off on the traditional scavenger hunt just 24 hours after they arrived in D.C.

(And yes, there is only one guy this semester. Props to Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s Zach Snider for bravely presiding over WJC’s first One-Male Semester!)

Y’all remember how it works: Vote for Team 1, 2 or 3 by commenting at the end of this post. Each team’s assignment is posted along with its video, so you’ll be able to judge how creatively, quickly and in some cases amusingly WJCers accomplished and documented each task.

Oh, and see if you can spot a few brand-new tasks sprinkled in there — as well as two homages to alum Chris Moody’s (Fall ’06) recent storytelling time in class.

 Voting closes Friday, Aug. 31.

ALL GROUPS: Find the front door of the office of the senior U.S. Senator
from the state of the oldest member of your team.

Do four of the five tasks assigned to your group. The meal is mandatory (and
lots of fun). If you do all five of your tasks that will really be seen as a plus
in the competition for the coveted first-place prize.

Read the rest of this entry »

WJC alums: remember Kenny’s? That smoky-smelling BBQ joint of questionable quality across the way from 7-11?

Guess who affirmed its Capitol Hill legacy by eating lunch there yesterday, to the audience of many locals — including yours truly — who watched from the patio of Jacob’s Coffee House (as far as the swarming Secret Service would let us get!). Thanks to D.C. Programs’ Abigail Linsner, who called in the tip!

The DCist has a grainier but better shot than I could get with my iPhone.

As a journalist, I was always taught to double-check spelling, attribution and grammar before ever submitting anything to an editor for publication.  One would think that the general rule is applicable to all journalists at all media outlets, yet in a blog post done by Washington D.C.’s Politico, an editor clearly did not check spelling or grammar before posting.

In a blog written by senior political writer, Maggie Haberman, about Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comments on Ann Romney’s choice of being a stay at home mother who “never really dealt with the kind of economic issues that a majority of women in the country are facing,” Haberman was clearly more concerned with getting the story published rather than being accurate in her copy. Read the rest of this entry »

The entrance to the Washington Post on 15th street Northwest DC / Photo courtesy Dion Hinchcliffe

Throughout my internship at the Washington Times, my editor kept telling me that every story I wrote had been written before. Search long enough on the internet, he told me, and I would find my story already written by someone else.

It’s a biblical principal that no article is ever quite new, and one that this Easter showed itself on the Washington Post’s front page.

On Easter Sunday, the Washington Post covered the Trayvon Martin story once again. This time, the paper focused on the rise of justifiable homicides after the Stand Your Ground legislation passed in Florida. This was the law that had, until recently, kept George Zimmerman from being prosecuted for shooting Trayvon.

Search long enough on Google and you will discover the story the Tampa Bay Times wrote two years ago about the rise in justifiable homicides in the state. Both stories share many of the same facts — and most notably — the same anecdotes. Read the rest of this entry »