The Speech that Launched a Thousand Bloggers...

It feels a tad repetitive to talk about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks at Columbia University (since it would seem that everyone is speaking up about this topic) but I wanted to begin today's blog by examining the journalism community's reaction to this event.

NYT's Stanley Fish took a critical look at Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's address prior to President Ahmadinejad's speech. In his opening remarks Bollinger criticized President Ahmadinejad, a tack that Fish found inappropriate because "a university president doesn’t have the luxury of choosing whether to speak as a citizen or as a faculty member or as an administrator. Everything he or she says is received as the utterance of the university’s leader." Fish may criticize Bollinger for not maintaining a neutral tone, but what kind of reaction would Bollinger have elicited had he not acknowledged the growing tension between President Ahmadinejad and the US? Click here to view the entire column and tell me what you think.
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Another interesting reaction came from The Huffington Post's Joe Cutbirth, who focused on President Ahmadinejad's assertion that Iran doesn't have any homosexuals. During this "unscripted moment," said Cutbirth, "it became crystal clear that Ahmadinejad is either dangerously removed from reality or he is a lying despot who will tell the world anything he wants it to believe about his country." Check out Cutbirth's blog here.

Finally, even though this is a political rather than journalistic reaction, I was dying to hear what you all think about this story from The Politico's "The Crypt." Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter wants to cut federal funding to Columbia University because he believes "by hosting President Ahmadinejad, Columbia University openly insulted the thousands of servicemen and women serving in Iraq." This effort is so obvious an indictment of the First Amendment, it scares the freckles off my face. Thoughts?

Moving on from current events, I'll update you on my recent projects. I've fallen into some good fortune as of late and was able to write a small piece for a daily newspaper here in Boston and am hoping that this will lead to some more work in the near future. Opportunities to write are not always plentiful, but I've come up with some tricks for getting my foot in the door. These may or may not help you, but I'll list them here with the hope that they might prove useful:

1. Submit your resume, even if there isn't a job opening. When a position does become available, they'll start looking at the resumes they already have.

2. Apply to every job you want, even if some of them seem out of your league. Some of the most rewarding jobs I've had were the ones for which I almost didn't apply. Enthusiasm and potential go a long way--don't let your self-doubt keep you from a great opportunity!

3. Literally get your foot in the door. If the office is a 15-minute subway ride from your home, why not drop your resume and cover letter in person? I once did this and received an assignment on the spot because one of the paper's other writers had flaked at the last minute.

4. Don't give up. If you're a freelance writer, I can't stress this last piece of advice enough.

With that, I'm off. I hope to hear some of your comments soon. Have a great week!