February 9, 2010

Hey news media, stop ignoring human rights abuses!

Hey, remember back when human rights violations used to be a big deal?

Sure you do! China would do some crazy thing like execute a defendant without giving him a trial, and the U.S. would be all like, “Oh no, you did NOT just do that!” And then all the relatively sane countries in the world (as well as Australia) would agree with us and maybe impose a few sanctions.

No, it didn’t necessarily change anything, but it established a precedent: You do crazy human rights-violating stuff and you’re gonna get called out.

Well, apparently that’s not happening much anymore.

Last week’s issue of Newsweek has an interesting little blurb in the Internationalist section titled, “Giving up on human rights in China and beyond.”

The author, Joshua Kurlantzick, writes, “The age of global human-rights advocacy has collapsed, giving way to an era of realism unseen since the days of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon.”

Evidence?

Countries throughout the world are shutting up about China’s flagrant human-rights abuses, mostly because they are lending money to the rest of us. When the offending country is needed to rebuild the global economy, leaders are going to be a lot more polite and willing to discuss prisoner abuse, governmental kidnaps and the Gmail-hacking in private.

But the most alarming part of all this is that the public doesn’t seem to care that their leaders are letting corrupt governments off the hook. Kurlantzick wrote, “With unemployment skyrocketing, citizens have turned inward, and are paying far less attention to what happens in Sudan or North Korea.”

And typically, when the electorate doesn’t care about something, neither do the elected.

Of course, the upside to all of this for a young, idealistic journalist like me is that it presents a new problem that could be solved (at least partially) by good, solid watchdog journalism. After all, if news oulets relentlessly covered the abominations that were taking place in these countries, the public might sit up and take notice.

I know we’re all worried about our jobs, our bills and our mortgages, but if the Haiti earthquake has taught us anything, it’s that even the most down-and-out American still wants to help when he is confronted with international turmoil. A lot of it depends, though, on how fiercely the turmoil confronts them.

Cue the journalists of the world.

February 6, 2010

MormonTimes.com: Why do they hate us? Try asking.

If there’s one thing a BYU religion professor likes to talk about, I suppose it’s the gospel. But if there are TWO things a BYU religion professor likes to talk about, you’ve got to add his son’s mission to the list.

The instructor for my religion class this week told us about an e-mail he recently received from his son, who just arrived in the Missouri St. Louis Mission. He was treated to some good ole’ fashioned Southern hospitality as soon as he got on the airplane when a man sitting near him asked the flight attendant if he could change seats.

He had been eyeing the missionaries’ name tags.

When they landed in St. Louis, the new elders had barely met their mission president when a complete stranger approached the group and began berating them for their faith…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST

January 30, 2010

Mormon Twentysomething: Archives

Included here is a link to the archives of my Mormon Twentysomething column at MormonTimes.com. In the future, a comprehensive archive may be constructed on this Web site, but for now, the link will have to do.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE MORMON TWENTYSOMETHING ARCHIVES

January 29, 2010

MormonTimes.com: No ‘mind-blowing’ testimony needed

While watching NBC’s Thursday night sitcom lineup last week, I almost missed a rare nugget of wisdom spoken by Joel McHale’s character on “Community.” “The biggest truths aren’t original,” he said. “Truth is ketchup. It’s Jim Belushi. Its job isn’t to blow our minds; it’s to be within reach.”

Indeed, it often seems that today’s search for truth — be it in the world of philosophy, science, academia or even religion — focuses far too much on discovering something new and unique, rather than delving more deeply into time-tested principles.

Political and social analysis is too often reduced to crafting creative, eye-catching theories, whether or not they are based in reality. Same with much of academia.

And while there is, of course, much to learn in the various fields of science, too many gifted minds are committed to drugstore psychology and scientific hackery simply for the sake of making a small splash in their discipline.

But what worries me more than anything is the search for brand new, mind-blowing religious truths.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST

January 28, 2010

In which I enter the 20th century

If I’ve learned anything as a BYU journalism student, it’s that the news business is sinking fast and if would-be reporters don’t want to drown in a sea of free online news aggregates, they’d better grab hold of the first blogging life preserver they can find.

Yes, I beat that metaphor to death. Just go with it.

First, an abbreviated resume: I’m the Mormon Twentyomsething columnist for the Deseret News and MormonTimes.com, as well as the editor of BYU’s The Daily Universe. I freelance for various print and online publications, and this spring I will be interning at Newsweek Magazine in NYC.

In addition to weighing in on issues of faith, politics and media, I will use this site to post links to published pieces I’ve written.

But more importantly, I’d like to use this site to interact with readers. Those who follow my Mormon Twentysomething column have probably noticed that the message boards on deseretnews.com, while interesting and even thought-provoking, can sometimes get a little out of hand. I have, therefore, made it a policy not to participate in the discussion there.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear your feedback, answer your questions or field your article ideas. On the contrary, I would encourage you to use the comments section liberally here.

That’s all for now, but check back again soon.