What Really Grinds FSU's Gears

By Michelle Queen

During an impromtu sit down about current news events with 3 members of FSU, I found that what really interests them is the imbalances in journalism coverage.

My trip first started in the 3rd floor of Dunkle Hall; roaming around, rubber-necking in open offices to see if anyone was able to talk.  I found Mary Anne Lutz, a professor of English in the English department.  I asked her what current or recent news story most interested her and after some thought she stated the debate about contraception.  She stated she was "shocked as a woman" that in this day and age people are still arguing about a woman's personal use of contraception.  When asking her about what news story deserves more attention she stated the lack of news coming out of places like Syria and stated that the headlines were not reported in depth.

Next I found myself in the almost always buzzing Lane Center.  I saw that the woman working at the information desk was not busy so I decided to get some information from her on current news .  She was Judy Abbott, the information desk manager.  The recent story that most interested her was the Obama health care plan.  She stated that he "introduced a Muslim word" in his plan for healthcare that was part of the Muslim lifestyle.  After conducting some research I found the word "Dhimmitude" on FactCheck.org, which states:
[Dhimmitude: Muslim system of controlling non-muslim populations conquered through jihad. Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to islam]
Then reading further I found:
[In our article "More Malarkey About Health Care," we wrote that some religious groups may indeed be considered exempt from the requirement to have health insurance. The law defines exempt groups using the definition from 26 U.S. Code section 1402(g)(1), which describes the religious groups currently considered exempt from Social Security payroll taxes. Eligible sects must forbid any payout in the event of death, disability, old age or retirement, including Social Security and Medicare...through the Freedom of Information Act of all the groups that have successfully applied for exemptions from payroll taxes. The overwhelming majority of them are explicitly Anabaptist — that is, Mennonite, Amish or Hutterite. Those that don’t specify their denomination are still explicitly Christian. Having gone through the list, we can say with certainty that no Muslim group, and indeed no non-Christian group, has ever qualified for an exemption under the statute used to define exempt religious groups in the health care law.
Nor are they likely to want to, says Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which opposes discrimination and defamation against Muslims. "I’ve never even heard it brought up as an issue," Hooper told us. "I have health insurance. We give health insurance to our employees. Every Muslim group I know of does the same thing." Hooper told us that he has seen some Muslims raise religious objections to life insurance, but not health insurance, and that, in fact, providing health coverage is very much in line with Islamic ideals of social justice.]
Information above from FactCheck.org
When asking her about a story that seems under-reported she mentioned the soldier that shot woman and children.  She stated that he was cleared to join the military despite having past "head issues" but "what normal person kills woman and children?"

Lastly I decided to make my way into the Fine Arts building where I found Nicole Houser, assistant professor of Spanish, in the foreign language department.  When asking her about what current news story interested her she initially stated the republican debates.  She said she was hearing about that the most although she didn't want to.  Then she stated that what really interests her is Invisible Children since she is an advisor to the amensty group at this school.  She stated that it's interesting how before charities were known to be good things, but now there are so many variables and controversies like Susan G. Komen pulling and un-pulling funding for Planned Parenthood, and the Kony 2012 controversy: things are not that simple anymore.  She also stated that social media is also a new big factor in presenting the news to people as well, but people "only know about 20% of what's going on."  When asked about what news story deserves more attention she stated broadly just the world news.  "I use 4-5 newsources," she said as she showed me the New York Times webpage.  Then she points out on the upper section of the page you just see personal interest stories like a celebrity rehabing out of drug use, but then she showed me a spanish news website and I saw a picture of some structure burning and Murdock's arrest front and center.  She states that it seems like from foreign news "you learn more about the world," as opposed to U.S news that seems more centered on personal interests.