This article was interesting but also confusing. Barstow and Stein wrote about Pat O'Leary and discussed how the editing crew cut out the part where he mentioned he was "reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture". the executive producer explained that they have the right to cut and air whatever they want to,which is why the segment was cut to say "I'm Pat O'Leary reporting". Now I might be wrong but I think that the producers are the ones in charge of what is said on air. I don't think that reporters are hired by the government to say certain things. Sure they always have people telling them what to say and when to say it but that doesn't really have a huge impact on me. What difference does it make if O'Leary tells the audience what he's reporting for? I honestly couldn't care less if the producers didn't cut out "for the U.S. Department of Agriculture". Most of the time when I watch the news it's in the morning before school and most of the time I don't pay much attention to what they say, which I'm sure is true for most Americans.

On the side of the article I noticed some picture with captions under them. The first picture is of a "public relations person, using a false name to report on airport security". Is this true? Call me crazy but I don't think someone would go to such extreme lengths to create a false segment on security.

I think that the government does control what we are exposed to but so does school, towns, cities, and other countries. If the world was completely honest there would be no need for the CIA and spies. The school has dress codes which does effect our speech because it prevents students from expressing certain, unwanted messages. The towns are more honest with their population but they do hide things like budgets. Cities do the same thing. I am convinced that they pay certain people to approve things and to ease the worries of the country by saying good things.

Even though Barstow and Stein write that the contractors in Memphis are hired by the government I don't believe so. Recently at our school there were a few lock downs due to the presence of bullets in the building. News reporters interviewed several people and they certainly weren't government officials. When people from Milton High skipped school and were interviewed at the beach they clearly weren't hired by the government.

I do believe that after natural disasters or attacks on countries due to terrorism, reporters do say things to reassure the public that they are safe and that conditions will improve. To respond to Lucas I do believe that people ask you to change heights and names. I also believe that they ask you to mention certain products. In all writing there are things they are forced to put in their work. In order to be a successful writer you have to write things that will interest other people, not just things that interest you. Unfortunately if you want to be published to gain recognition you must change things that editors want you to write, which is similar to Karen Ryan's situation. She wanted to be successful so she did reports fir the government which didn't always contain the truth.