Let me get a little Brechtian on you for one second: A good arts section is, in my humble opinion, about more than just telling you what to spend your lunch money on this week. Sure, it’s handy to know whether or not a new movie like “The Kingdom” is any good, but what’s really worthwhile is to take pieces of culture we’re handed and then pull them apart—to examine what values and ethics they’re really presenting us with, reconciling it within a wider context and cultural climate and then finally deeming its worth.I use “The Kingdom” as an example because Daily Cal writer Ryland Walker Knight recently used most of his 12 inches of newsprint to focus on the troubling racial politics that had been slipped in under the big Hollywood sheen in that particular film. If you’re looking for a simple, thumbs up or down kind of rating, this may frustrate you, but a good review section will put a bit of dignity back into that colorless term “consumer.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 59%

Everybody and their mother may have blogs now, but it’s still hard to integrate the blog vibe with a professional newspaper. Many major newspapers–such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle–boast multiple blogs. Besides this blog, we have the Clog, and it’s not even a year old. We’ve struggled to fit in this step-child of journalism and often irreverent whining, to make it a part of the paper, to box it into some sort of ethical code.

Hence The Daily Clog’s correction policy, which stipulates all incorrect facts must be corrected in a timely manner. Corrections usually involve strikethroughs, notes at the end of a post or a parenthetical citation. It is also policy to leave evidence of the previously incorrect statement to preserve transparency and honesty. Our most recent correction, however, did not leave in the original text–this was partly due to miscommunication between blogger and editor. Normally, the error would still be visible in the post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 69%