Ortiz Profile

As a 2003 Sacramento State journalism graduate, Sacramento Bee's business reporter and columnist Jon Ortiz has had much luck in starting his career off on the right foot.

Prior to his journalism pursuits, Ortiz had come down with a serious stress-related sickness from working at and eventually owning a part of a medical supply company. Ortiz decided it was time for a change and went back to school.

Ortiz was hired onto the Bee's staff a couple of weeks after he graduated from the university. Before he applied for the job, he interned with the Los Angeles Times. His passion for the subject comes out very strong within his determination for the career.

In his stories, columns and blogs, Ortiz seems to say what everyone is thinking but no one wants to express. And he does it in a way that doesn't inject a heavy dosage of self-righteous opinion. He seems to grab the thought that floats around in everyone's head and, without killing it, nails it down with words.

A good example of this is a story that he did at the beginning of the year on the ever increasing gas prices:
"They're playing with us. You suspect it every time you fill up your tank or look over at the numbers on the gas station sign.

You notice that the price always goes up like a rocket but drifts down like a feather. You swap conspiracy theories with friends, family, neighbors.

Still, you always, always return to the pump and pony up for your high-octane fix."

The great thing about the story is that it's actually interesting to read. It isn't just another plug-and-chug sort of story that we hear all the time. You know, those stories about the impending doom that we seem to have trapped ourselves with? Ya, thanks for the reminder, couldn't notice that filling up at the gas station last night or anything.

He goes out and interviews a gas station owner, an oil industry consultant, a UC Davis historian and a representative from Chevron as well as an associate from an independent refinery. The spectrum is broad and his sources seem to hit all the major points along the way.

What I respect most about Ortiz is not his direct, concise yet clever way of writing, but his way to do what I believe the heart of all journalism is. He gives a voice to the voiceless in what seems for most to be a detached form of writing and news.

In his blog, "The State Worker", Ortiz seems to have hit the jackpot for those who have been long since undermined and overlooked. The blog is, obviously, about state workers, and he uses it as a way of keeping those to whom do the grunt work of the state up to date without having to follow every little move the government makes, some affecting them and others not.

He seems to play the translator for all the jargon that can all to often be associated with government and informs state workers on what they need to know. He lets them in on how it will affect them or why something has happened.

In a recent "State Worker" column, Ortiz responded to the outrage some Californians were feeling over recent pay raises to California state engineers. He received an email from an electrician in North Hollywood that was outraged over the ordeal, and Ortiz began to explain why it happened in a calm voice of reason.

Overall, Ortiz is one hell of a writer and one to defiantly watch. I'm not even a state worker and the stuff is brilliant.

To find more of Jon Ortiz's stories or to read the "State Worker", follow this link:
http://localsearch.sacbee.com/sp?keywords=Jon+Ortiz&aff=1100

Presidential Debate Review

Tonight, the two presidential candidates bucked heads and words in Nashville, TN for their second presidential debate. Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain battled it out for a little over an hour and a half while moderator Tom Brokaw tried to corral the two long winded politicians to under a minute per response.

Almost every response from each of the senators ran over, and quite frankly, I think they spent more time using other questions answer time to rebuttal the opponent than to actually answer the question at hand. Which is troublesome, but when the issues came down to it, both had a lot of finger pointing to do.

And now, for the subjects at hand.

As far as health care goes, McCain believes that Americans should get a $5,000 check for health care and that it is a requirement. He believes it is on the shoulders of the government, small businesses and businesses alike to help provide for health care.

While Obama believes that those whom already have health care will get an improved plan and those that do not will be put on the same type of health care that himself and McCain are being provided through the government. Obama believes, however, that health care is a right and that no American should be denied it.

The biggest issue, and of course the first covered, was the issue of the economy.

McCain believes that the economy will stabilize through buying out the houses that have triggered this house mortgage crisis, and this will help partially to stabilize the economy. He also has linked this to nuclear energy (I failed to see the quantum leap to this subject) by saying that through becoming energy independent on nuclear energy (and of course, drilling off shore) we will create jobs and therefore help to stabilize this shaky economy that we are now facing.

Obama believes that we are living in the twenty first century with a twentieth century health care policy. He wants to reform health care completely.

All in all, it wasn't exactly what I would call a successful night. There was quite a bit of jargon (language specific to a certain industry or culture) that a lot of these "middle class" people that they talk so much about don't really understand.

I personally have no idea what "ear marks" are. And I heard McCain through around "cronies" and "cronyism" quite a bit. I personally believe that it was an attempt to try and separate himself from the current Commander in Chief and crew, whom a lot of people call "Bush and his cronies".

McCain actually stumbled after what seemed like a well plotted accusation thrown in at Obama, "...Obama and his cronies - uh, colleagues..."

It was hard to follow, and I got lost in a lot of the back and forth between the two of them. We'll see if they can focus in for the next round.

The finale included both Senators walking right in front of Brokaw's teleprompter, and Brokaw had to stop and ask them to move before he could continue the sign off.

Here's looking to the future of America.

Review of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"

When most people think of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", they don't think of substantial news. Generally speaking, people think of it as it is intended, a satirical piece of comedy (given it is on a network called "Comedy Central").

But with the way that most news networks are perceived these days, it's hard to take any news station serious. So why not go for a show that at least admits to its purposeful lack of integrity and objectivity and makes news just plain hilarious.

October 2, 2008 was a big day as far as news goes and Stewart definitely had his hands full. Stewart covered for the most part the bailout plan and Senator John McCain's response to it.

He started the show talking about the Vice Presidential debates that happened earlier in the evening between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. He, however, made more fun of the people expecting Palin to choke then Palin herself.

The next topic of satire was over the bailout bill that was passed by the senate. Stewart focused primarily on McCain's contradictions during the same interview over him saying how proud he was because he suspended his campaign, but also saying this will not solve everything, that "this is a tourniquet, this isn't a cure". Stewart went on to compare Golum from "Lord of the Rings" to John McCain with his impersonations and facial expressions.

And with all of this joking, Stewart and the crew at "The Daily Show" still have managed to inform us on what is going on in the nation today.

Julia R. Fox from Indiana University did a study of the show's coverage of the 2004 presidential election. The study, which was published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
in 2007, concludes that "The Daily Show" is just as substantial to news as any other network broadcast, despite the fact that Jon Stewart calls himself a comedian and not a journalist.

"Thus, the argument could be made that while the amount of substance per story was not significantly different, the proportion of each story devoted to substance was greater in the network news stories than in stories from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", said Fox in her study entitled, "No joke: a comparison of substance in The Daily show with Jon Stewart and broadcast network television coverage of the 2004 presidential election campaign"

All together, Stewart's Emmy award winning show is a funny, substantial source of news information, even if it is biased. Take that, Katie Couric.

The show is on Monday through Wednesday night at 11pm Pacific time on Comedy Central. "The Daily Show" is followed by it's republican counterpart, "The Colbert Report" which is hosted by Steven Colbert who used to be a news correspondent on "The Daily Show" until he branched off onto his own and debuted in October of 2006.