There is a mandatory internship meeting for all first year and transfer students.  You must attend this meeting in order to move on in applying for an internship.

The meeting will be held in the TV studio (Basement of Main 006) on Wed. Sept 26th from 12:30-1pm. Please contact Lou Pozantides to confirm attendance at professorlou@aol.com.

See you there!!

Name: Dr. Haydar Badawi Sadig

Title: Associate Professor of Communication.

Last Book Read: “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a brilliant Somali-Dutch who became a member of parliament in Holland after just 10 years of setting foot in the Netherlands (fleeing a civil war in her native land of Somalia, Africa). In this wonderfully written memoir, Ayaan Ali talks about her journey from Islamic faith to atheism (to becoming an unbeliever, an “infidel,” in the mind of fanatic Muslims). She describes the horrendous experiences she had been through as a little girl, an adolescent, and as a young woman, before she decided to leave God (and after experiencing life in the Netherlands, the most liberal of all liberal societies). Her rise from a refugee to a being one of the most influential members of parliament -in record time- is one of the most fascinating socio-political narratives ever told.

Last movie watched? The last movie I watched was “Elegant Universe,” a documentary that describes the basics of String Theory (a new construct in physics that tries to explain new dimensions of the universe, building on, but going beyond, relativity and quantum physics).

Favorite TV Show? My favorite TV show is 60 Minutes.

What do you enjoy most about the start of the semester? What I enjoy most about a new semester (especially Fall) is meeting new people, especially new students, who come beaming with enthusiasm, curiosity and inquisitive minds.

Listening to NPR last weekend, I heard an interesting story about journalists trying to cover war crime trials. Journalists were trying to cover the trials, but information wasn’t being made available to them in the same fashion it would be if it were a civil trial. For example, instead of documents being read aloud and made available to journalists, lawyers would ask a witness “Can you verify that the statement on page 23 paragraph 5 is your swore testimony?” When journalists pressed for information they were told to go through the Freedom of Information Act.

I asked a colleague of mine, former lawyer and current adjunct here at Medaille, Tracy Kacher, for her thoughts. Kacher agree with the lawyer interviewed for the story: that it is going to take a lawsuit for the military to change their ways, and she clearly stated, “Journalist should not have to request info through Freedom of Information Act.”

Future and current journalists, what are your thoughts? Listen to the story, (it’s brief), and comment on how the situation should be handled.
–Sarah Whitehead