British press

British press is under fire. The Leveson inquiry was not kind for the British press. The phone-hacking scandal made the Leveson inquiry needed.

Back to the phone-hacking scandal: News of the World hacked many phones to get influence en get their news. Many celebrity phones were hacked. There arose a great public outcry when it was revealed      that News of the World hacked the phones of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. In response of the scandal News of the World quit. And the PM David Cameron announced a public inquiry about the ethics of the British press. This inquiry is the Leveson inquiry.

The inquiry is a good thing. Hacking phones has nothing to do with journalism. That is spying. Let MI6 do that, not the tabloids. But even if MI6 was hacking Milly's phone it would be public outcry. News of the World shouldn't have done this. But it happened, and now the question is how the society have to reponse to this.

The Leveson inquiry proposes a press watchdog. That would be a big chance. But the tabloids screwed up. I don't think a press watchdog is a bad idea. It is a good idea. But how much power should it get. The coalition between Cameron and Clegg disagree with each other. Cameron thinks the watchdog isn't a good idea. But Clegg thinks it is. He has the public opinion with him. And I think that if the most of Britian wants this watchdog it is worth trying.

Young and strong America

Max Westerman is a Dutch journalist who has been the America reporter for many years for RTL Nieuws. He delivered a guest college for the future journalists of Windesheim University. The guest college was very inspiring and full of truths.

America is in a downward spiral but it will get better for the U.S.A. according to Max Westerman.
That's because in America they don't know the Dutch word' allochtoon' which means immigrant.

America is still very tolerant against immigrants because they build the nation together. Without immigrants there would be no America. And there will be more immigrants, much more. And that is good. And that is because immigrants are mostly young people. They bring knowledge and the new American economy. An economy where they will break out from the downward spiral. Due to Max Westerman is that, the immigration wave that never stops, what makes America so strong and always recover from economic downtimes like these.

I agree with Max Westerman. In Europe we don't like immigrants so much. They are annoying, steal are jobs. That is a very different attitude. And Westerman thinks that this attitude is bad for Europe. Many countries will have to deal with an aging population. And because of the stricter immigration rules in Europe, these old people will not be replaced by immigrants. Meanwhile the population in the United States will stay young ánd strong.

Immigrants are far more welcome in the United States than in Europe and if you live in Europe you should wonder if the strict immigration rules are such a good idea. According to Westerman United States will recover due to these immigrants.

P.S: Obama is re-elected. That is great news. Like many other analysts Westerman predicted that Obama would win. And so it happened.

Popular Vote

We need a National Popular Vote system in America. Firstly, because every American vote should count, not only those in the swing state. Secondly, because of this system presidential campaigns are only focused on a few interests in American society, because a small amount of people has these decisive votes. Thirdly, with election results getting closer and closer we will get more and more presidents that we didn’t choose by majority.

How can America say they are the holy democratic country if the vote of so many people of the U.S.A. doesn’t even count? Both the Mitt Romney and Barack Obama campaigns are focused on 9 swing states that will decide these elections. Why even vote if you live in one of the other 41 states? A National Popular Vote bill will make an end on the importance of only these 9 states. The president with the most votes throughout the nation will win the elections. Every American vote should count. That is the most honest way to elect a president.

In 2008 Obama campaigned in 14 states after he was nominated. This is a lot. Most of the times campaigning in about 9 swing states is enough. The current system should be there for geographical spread throughout the nation. But it causes that there will be only campaigning in a few states. If there would be a National Popular Vote system then the candidate should visit more regions in America, because every American then could make the difference.  

The election results are getting closer and closer. Obama won simple in 2008, but this time the results could be so close that the candidate without an overall majority could win. It happened 4 times that the candidate without the majority of popular votes won the elections. Last time this happened in 2000, when George Bush won the elections controversially in Florida. His democratic opponent Al Gore had the majority of votes, but still George Bush entered the White House. America cannot afford this to happen again. Then the presidential elections will lose its credibility.

The National Popular Vote is a must-have for America. It’s the most honest way to elect the president. Every American vote should count, not only the votes in the swing states. A presidential candidate in a National Popular Vote system should listen to the whole of America, because every vote could make a difference. America cannot afford that a situation like in 2000 could happen again. The cradle of democracy is losing it’s credibility. The National Popular Vote system is the best way to choose the president of the United States of America.  

The White House

The America presidential elections are a big show. Last night the first of the television debates between Romney and Obama happened. The whole world wants to know who will win the race to the White House. Is it president Barack Obama or the Republican Mitt Romney. Most Americans think that Mitt Romney won the first television debate. Obama was too nervous to defence himself properly against the attacks from Romney.

Romney is now more popular by the voters of the ‘Swing States’, the nine states who will decide these presidential elections. As a presidential candidate you have to make those people vote for you. The other 41 states already decided if they will vote Republican or Democrat. If you are a Democratic and you are living in Texas, you can stay home. Your vote won’t even count because most people in Texas vote for the Republican Party and the ‘Winner takes it all’.

The eye of the world will be on Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. The most important swing states. If Obama or Romney will win these three states, then they will win the presidential election. And that’s where the television debates are about. Convincing the people in the swing states to vote for them. The citizens of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, they will decide the presidential elections of 2012.   

Journalism

Hey there,

My name is Ids Nicolai. I’m eighteen years old and I’m from Leeuwarden. The capital of ‘Fryslan’, a province in the North of the Netherlands. In Fryslan we have our own language. I find it kind of funny, because outside Fryslan few people understand you when you talk Frisian. Further about me. I went to primary and secondary school in Leeuwarden. But then I left Leeuwarden behind me to study at Windesheim in Zwolle. But I still live in Leeuwarden. I travel every day by train. Now I study Journalism and that’s what this blog is about.

I knew I want to become a journalist since I was 13. I didn’t know why, but I knew. So I started college at Windesheim. I still don’t know which way to go in the world of journalism. Working on a newspaper is a exciting thing to do. Especially when it is about football. Also research journalism should be an interesting thing to do. Discover things that aren’t discovered yet. The American journalists who discovered the Watergate scandal, they are real heroes to me. That’s the function of journalism to me. In the future I’ll know what kind of journalist I will be.