Good News for Once…

According to CNN, not only have the overall birth rates in the United States declined over 2% since 2008, but also teenage birth rates have declined by over 2%. This could be because of a number of factors including the economic downturn we have faced since 2008, or maybe, just maybe, sex ed in schools is actually making an effect on kids. Now seeing as I love getting feedback from all of you WLTL lovers, what do you guys think is the better way to go about sex ed? Teaching pure abstinence or teaching methods of safe sex and contraception?

-Tom Moran
Assistant Program/News Director

“And the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize goes to…the Internet?”

When President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, it sparked an extremely heated debate throughout the world, and to be honest, deservingly so. Yes, he was the first African-American president, and yes, he promised change, but a promise is much different than actually doing it. Especially when he hadn’t even been in office for a full year. He didn’t really do anything in that first year deserving enough of the Nobel Peace Prize and I think plenty of people will agree with me on that one. So, you would think that the Nobel judges would have learned from their 2009 decision and nominate people actually deserving of the prestigous award. But it turns out there is a chance that a thing may get the award over a real person. Yes, the internet is up for nomination for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Internet. Hell, I’m using it right now. But there is no way it deserves the award over an actual person who has probably worked a lifetime to accomplish a major feat which contributes positively to society, like working to preserve the environment or helping solve the clean water crisis in third world countries. The argument for supporters of the internet’s nomination is that it helped spark the massive worldwide response to Haiti relief efforts in an extremely short amount of time and helped organize protestors in Iran. These things may not have occurred if it weren’t for the internet, but the internet is run by the people. The internet itself isn’t the one doing all the great things it does, it’s the people using it.

The internet is also a source of evil. Porn, websites for hate groups, racial and religious, and more, all exist on the internet. For every good thing the internet has and can do, there’s a bad thing to counter it. The Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to a PERSON who accomplished something which actually helped move the world forward. The Nobel committee definitely dropped the ball on the 2009 award by giving it to someone who had promised peace, but hadn’t done much to actually get us there. Now it’s time to get it right. If it should go to anybody, it should go to a PERSON.

- Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

That charismatic lady with the notes on her hand

Everyone knows that everyone in television works off of pre-written notes. It’s a no brainer. Of course they don’t adlib everything that they say that’d be ridiculous, so don’t get my following criticism of Sarah Palin wrong.

First, watch this video…http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/02/08/lemon.palin.cheat.sheet.cnn?hpt=C2

It may not be the end of the world, but is it just me, or does it bother anyone else that Palin criticizes Obama for being that “charismatic guy with the teleprompter” when she’s using notes written on the bottom of her hand like a high schooler with little chance of passing their exam. First off, as I said before, all people in television, especially politicians, use teleprompters to help them with speeches. Does she expect Obama to not use one? Get real. If you’re gonna criticize the president for using a teleprompter, just like all presidents use, you shouldn’t be writing cheat sheets on the bottom of your hand. If you’re gonna do that, use a teleprompter like everyone else.

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

News about the new News Show

As you very well may know, WLTL’s second semester tryouts are over with and we have an all new lineup in place featuring brand new DJs and returning ones as well. Music shows aren’t the only ones that changed this semester though, the News Show has as well! We have a new cast of news virtuosos to report and discuss the weekly news with you every Tuesday from 7-8 pm. News veterans Andrew Karas and Katherine Mcmillin have returned this semester and will be joined by new comers to the show Christian Holub and Jeremy Tennison. Be sure to tune in to your #1 High School Radio Station in the Nation this February 9th from 7-8 pm to listen.

The News Show also has gotten a bit of a schedule change as well. No worries though, it will still air at the same time every week on Tuesday from 7-8 pm, but only for the first 3 weeks of the month.

-Tom Moran
Assistant Program/News Director

Only a suspension?

Gilbert Arenas, an All-Star guard for the Washington Wizards, was just suspended indefinitely without pay from NBA commissioner David Stern for bringing guns to his Washington Wizards locker room. The incident took place on December 21st when Arenas allegedly threatened one of his teammates with his gun over a gambling debt. Arenas claims he was joking around and that the guns weren’t even loaded anyways. (Funny joke…) Even if he was joking around and wasn’t seriously threatening his teammate, why is he not kicked out of the league? If anybody in any other profession or workplace had brought a gun to work, they’d be fired on the spot…and probably arrested. Why is this guy only suspended? Ok sure, he’s not getting paid for awhile too. Well, I’m assuming he’s got atleast a little bit of money in his pocket considering he just signed a six year-$111 million contract. Does anybody else find it a bit annoying that this guy is just going to come back and play and make all his money when if anybody else had done that they’d be without a job? I don’t know…maybe it’s just me. It’s time to stop treating athletes and celebrities like they’re above the law and start treating them like the rest of the population

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

WLTL News: Top Stories of 2009

Hey everyone sorry it’s been awhile since I last posted something. It’s been really busy around the station lately with all of the preparation for our sketch comedy show Walk the Plank, which aired on Wednesday, December 16th. Anyways, 2010 is almost upon us, meaning almost every media outlet from Time magazine to CNN will be airing their 2009 year in review shows. Well, the WLTL News team has decided to jump on the bandwagon and make our very own year in review show seeing as 2009 was stocked full of important events, people, and stories (good and bad) On December 29th, WLTL News Presents: Top Stories of 2009 will premiere at 7 pm. It’s going to be a pre-recorded year in review show, highlighting the top news stories of the year, with analysis by the News show staffers. So remember, TUNE IN ON DECEMBER 29TH AT 7 PM! Oh, and if for some reason you’re too busy to listen in during the premiere, it will re-air the next day, December 30th, at noon.

Happy Holidays,

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

Disapproval of the Approval Ratings System

President Obama’s approval rating has just dropped below 50%. The poll was released just after he announced his plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and that he would start to pull troops out in 2011. Now, before all the right-wingers start saying, “I told you so!” and all the liberals start throwing back references to previous President George W. Bush’s dismal 22% approval rating when he left office, lets stop and think this over for a moment. Any time a president makes a major decision like this, his ratings will be affected in some major way of course. And most of the time, not for the better. Obama was bound to lose support no matter what decision he made on this because people are on such opposite ends of the spectrum on the wars in the middle east. If he decided to pull all troops out now or not send anymore of them after General McChrystal asked for at least 40,000 more, the conservatives would’ve flipped. He also would’ve lost support from the left if he decided to send more troops, which is what he did do. The approval ratings system in America is a load of garbage. I mean yes, it’s useful to President Obama and his administration so he can see how the country thinks of him, but his approval ratings are going to change in a couple of months when he makes some other major decision. All the approval ratings system does is it tells people how to think of their president based on how everyone else thinks. “Ohh, President Obama has a poor approval rating. Since everyone else doesn’t think he’s doing a good job, he probably isn’t…right?” The only truly important approval rating is the one that comes out at the end of a president’s term because it’s based on the job they did overall. And that’s what’s important. One more thing, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both finished their presidencies with a solid 68% approval rating. Each of them had a low of about 40% at some point in their presidencies. So let’s not all freak out about President Obama’s ratings quite yet. There’s still a lot of important decisions to be made and a lot of time left in his presidency.

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

If only all celebrity scandals were this impressive

Michaele and Tareq Salahi, two aspiring reality TV stars (as if we need any more of those), somehow managed to slip past the Secret Service into President Barack Obama’s state dinner on Tuesday night, which was held to honor the president of India. It turns out that the two of them are under consideration to star in Bravo’s upcoming series, “The Real Housewives of D.C.” and Bravo was filming the Salahi’s that day. Obviously, these two want to land the part so bad, they were ready to impress the network by willing to test the Secret Service by sneaking into the state dinner and risking getting arrested…and probably some much worse scenarios. The sad part is that it probably worked. Hmm…I’m trying to think of some other scandalous reality TV star wannabes who got in a whole heap of trouble for “getting their kid flown away in a homemade balloon” OH WAIT, I remember now, Colorado’s very own, the Heene family. It’s almost pathetic how hard some people will try to land a role in a reality TV show. (The only reality TV show that I will watch is Flavor of Love, because come on, who doesn’t love watching less than classy women hit on a man with a grandfather clock around their neck) Anyways, you gotta give it to the Salahi’s. I mean, if you’re gonna try to land a reality TV show with some outrageous scandal, at least do something impressive like sneak past the Secret Service and hang out with Vice-President Joe Biden. The Heene’s attempt at fame was all but impressive, it was almost shameful. Faking that your kid is soaring hundreds of feet in the air and getting the whole country all worked up with worry is sorta low. I mean sure, the Salahi’s made the Secret Service look like complete idiots, but at least they didn’t make a 10 year old kid look like an idiot on national television. And hey, if you’re telling me you don’t give the Salahi’s credit for getting in and chilling with the Vice-President, then you’re lying. They’ve set the bar extremely high for all crazy reality show wannabes. It’s almost scary what people are going to have to do if they want to beat the Salahi’s stunt. I can tell you one thing though, Bravo would be crazy to not give them a reality show now.

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

Racism at Walmart?

If you were listening to the News Show on Tuesday, November 23rd from 7-8pm, you probably heard our story about the high profile court case between a Missouri woman and her local Wal-Mart. As I promised during the show, here’s a clip to some of the security tapes which were able to document what really happened. Were the police acting discriminantly towards her because of her skin color like she claimed? Or do the tapes show she herself was just acting out of line and Wal-Mart and the police were the real victims here? Watch and make your call.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/19/walmart.trial/index.html

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director

“Sorry kids, Santa’s on vacation this year…”

Every year, thousands of children send letters to North Pole, Alaska, where the residents of this tiny Alaskan town come together every year to write a response to their letters. Every single one of them signed, “Santa Clause”. (yes, there is really a North Pole, Alaska…not to mention a Hell, Michigan. Why would someone name their town that?) Anyways, for the past 55 years, children eagerly await a reply from the big man himself. (No…not God, Santa.) But it seems that this year none of these children will be receiving a merry Christmas greeting from Santa as the Postal Service has dropped the program all together. Why would they try to ruin Christmas like this? Well, tune in to 88.1 FM, WLTL-LaGrange this Tuesday November, 24th at 7:00 pm to hear the full story, as well as opinions and commentary on it from the WLTL News crew.

-Tom Moran

Assistant Program/News Director