Personal site of journalist, baker, and storyteller Tony Ganzer.
Blog posts on media, introspection, society, and more.
The good folks at Deutsche Welle’s “Money Talks” ran my story about Southern Arizona foreign investment today. To read the script, see pictures, and hear the story just click here.
Deutsche Welle is Germany’s national broadcaster, sending news from and about Deutschland to the far corners of the globe. DW in Bonn, Germany will also be my home while I’m abroad for the Arthur Burns Fellowship.
Most people know this, and that makes indoor activities all the more important. Movie theaters, malls, pet stores, etc, all fill to the brim on warm Arizona days. Another option for those who like to wager, is the casino.
I struggle with devoting mental energy to time when countless people through history have already done so, though to no sure conclusion. I can say for a fact, however, that I revere few things more than my reverence for time.
I’ll begin by saying, “I have good news,” and I’ll spare you a Geico joke (though I did save money by switching car insurance.) The really good news, though, is: I’m a Burns Fellow! The International Center for Journalists accepted my proposal to look at immigration issues in Germany as compared to the Southwest United States . With the Arthur Burns fellowship I’ll head to Germany for two months, beginning in July, and I’ll act as a member of a host organization’s news team.
Details on where I’ll be, and specifics on host organization are soon to come. I’ve requested to be based in Berlin (near the Turkish enclaves of Kreuzberg and Neukölln.) My second choice is to be stationed in Bonn or Cologne , the hub of Deutsche Welle’s radio operation—DW being the national broadcaster of Germany .
I’ve been mulling a post about the role of digital media, and how bloggers, online video, and similar devices should be infusing journalism, instead of causing it’s slow stagger toward the respirator, and a ready-to-be-pulled plug. While that sour jolt of professional pride may still be forthcoming, I thought I’d share instead a small victory in another quest of mine: learning German.
Depending on your perspective, the “Mainstream Media” may be part of either a vast left-wing, or equally vast right-wing conspiracy. These judgments are often based on a person’s own sense of injustice to a certain cause. If a news outlet passes over, or offers inadequate coverage of a subject held dear, said outlet must be serving its own agenda.
I don’t wish to defend or explain the perceived lack of neutrality of certain outlets, but in the same breath I can talk a little to what a news story should contain.
Continue reading “Finding Fairness”
Die-hard football fans already know this, I’m sure, but the New England Patriots failed to reach “Perfection,” as color commentators had labeled it, instead falling to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl tonight.
For this post, I’ll resist the temptation to focus on the use of “perfection” to describe richly/over-paid athletes. I have many problems with professional sports, notably among those problems is hero-worship, and the mind-boggling amounts of money thrown at a game in salaries, advertising, etc.
Today, however, being the biggest game of the season, takes this show of capitalistic prowess to a new level. This level happened to be above the call of God, according to one Phoenix-area church.
Continue reading ““And Jesus wept…””