A Sign of the "Times"

This week in the New York Times there were a lot of very interesting stories. I read about the economy (of course!) and warnings about a computer virus that could be coming our way. These are just a couple of the stories I read in the Times this week.

Monday- Today I read all about the chairman of G.M. quitting in a deal with the Obama administration. Supposedly, Obama’s auto task force asked the chairman, Rick Wagoner, to step down as a condition for continued aid for the auto industry from Obama’s administration. This personally worried me because I feel as though it shows that the government clearly has a great amount of power over private industry. I feel like even though the Obama administration did not technically force Wagoner to step down, they still used their power and their influence (by using the continued aid for the auto industry as a bribe in a way) to control private business. I believe that in a country like America, private industry should be separate from the government, and while the government does have some rights to regulate businesses, I think that Obama overstepped his power here.

Tuesday- Today I read a story online about how North Korea was planning on trying a few U.S. journalists. The two journalists have been detained in the communist country and will be tried on charges of perpetrating hostile acts against the country, a crime that in North Korea that is punishable by years in a labor camp. The two journalists were detained when they were caught illegally entering North Korea from China. This story really caught my eye since I want to be a journalist someday. This story is very frightening, as these journalists are trapped in a foreign country where they have virtually no rights. This story also really made me think about how lucky we are in America as journalists. Here, we have the freedom of the press, and while we cannot tell blatant lies about someone, we are totally free to write whatever truth we please- no matter what it says about anyone, government or not.

Wednesday- Today I read about the conficker worm, which has spread around the world very quickly in the past few months. According to the article, the software made an apparent attempt to download commands from a server at an unknown internet location a few days ago. The program would aggressively send out spam e-mails and “denial of service” attacks on Web sites or networks. Recently Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Conficker’s author or authors. This really worried me as it seems as though this virus could really harm a lot of computers and basically shut down internet sites. Seeing as our society depends so much on computers and the internet today, this article really made me nervous and I will definitely be paying closer attention to the e-mails I receive.

Thursday- Today I read a story about a former University of Colorado professor who was fired after he wrote an essay that called September 11th victims “little Eichmanns”, after the Nazi who was called the architect of the Holocaust. His essay also stated that the United States brought the attacks of September 11th upon itself. Today a jury found that he was wrongfully fired and he was paid $1 in damages. For the professor, Ward L. Churchill, it was not about the money but about his right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I personally think that the jury made the correct judgment in this case. Even though the things that Churchill said were clearly awful and offended a lot of people (and rightfully so), this is America. And in America we have the right to say what we believe and to state our opinions without fear of persecution.