ITiePifet Friday, May 2, 2003 News Pape 5 Feeding the needy CMU aids in Iraqi food project Helping out Anyone interested in volunteering may contact Amber Inscore at ext. 4004. Erin Boyd Pilot editor For over a month now, the whole world has been subject ed to images of war-torn Iraq via newspa pers, televi sion and the Internet. G W U students wanting to help these victims may have thought there was nothing they could do. Think again. Campus Ministries United (CMU) has recently joined with the North Carolina Baptist Men and the Greater Cleveland County Baptist Association to collect food as part of an Operation Iraqi Freedom relief work project. Led by junior Amber Inscore, the Gardner-Webb stu dent representative for the pro ject, CMU has collected money over the past several weeks. “Because the [food] speci fications are so strict, we only asked for money [from GWU students],” said Inscore. During exam week. Inscore and other students will use the money to purchase and box food for the project. “We will need help buying the stuff and loading the boxes,” said Inscore. Various churches through out North Carolina are partici pating in the project. The Cleveland County community is hoping to fill 1,000 boxes. “A box company donated 1,000 boxes,” said Inscore. The food will be collected throughout North Carolina until May 17. It will then be sent to Iraq as soon as possible. “This is a great opportuni ty to provide for these people’s [the Iraqi’s] needs in the name of Jesus,” said Inscore. “They see America as a Christian nation, and this will give them a good example of that. This is a non-threatening way to por tray Christ to them.” Inscore noted that each box will have John 1:17 writ ten on it: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Anyone interested in vol unteering may contact Inscore at ext. 4004. The Pilot wishes everyone a great summer and good luck on exams. Be sure to keep up with The Pilot online over summer to get all the latest news. War 101 — Part 3 The media in war time Emily Killian Pilot copy editor Every good journalist is taught to avoid letting opinion seep into their stories. Opinion, the journalist’s worst enemy, may come in the form of biased or incomplete reporting. And for some, opinion may be the one thing that ruins an otherwise sterling career for a journalist. For journalists in Iraq, it is hard to avoid opinionated reporting, said Robert Raiford, a journalist during the Vietnam War, who speaks from personal experience. Journalists are spending months of their lives in a foreign country with perfect strangers. As people, they will want to develop friendships. More than likely, Raiford said, these friendships will be formed with the people who are phys ically close to them—the soldiers. Because reporters are making friends with their sources, they have a very high potential to be biased in their portrayals of the war in Iraq, said Raiford. Faced with the pres sure of being in the field, as well as the pres sure of the business side of journalism, they will be faced with the pressures of potentially having to portray their friends in a bad light, he said. “The media business today is entertain ment driven,” said Chad Raymond, assistant professor of Political Science. “The reporting from Iraq is what will grab viewers’ atten tion.” For Raymond, the media is not necessar ily doing a good job covering the war, although he believes the situation with embedded reporters is better than the Persian Gulf War of 1991. “The media today are show ing firefights without an explanation of the events. This gives viewers incomplete information, and they rush to judgment without knowing all the facts. ” Chad Raymond Having correspondents giving reports from the field “gives reporters less chance to put a spin on things,” said Raymond. “Reports are more accurate and more direct because they [the media] do not have to rely on the chain of command for information.” Raymond also said that viewers now can see what is going on during the war as it is happening, and they can compare the things they are viewing with the things that the mil itary leaders are saying. This allows viewers to make their own decisions about the war, he' said. He did not say, however, that the mediai situation in Iraq is perfect. “The media today are showing firefights without an explanation of the events,” said Raymond. “This gives viewers incomplete information and they rush to judgment with out knowing all the facts.” More Inside ❖See the editorial on the War on page 1; Want a professional looking resume? isional 2141 St. John’s Church Road Conover, NC 28613 Contact Jill Willers at (828) 464-1979 Resumes are our specialty and start at $30 Other services include interview counseling, job services and online resume posting. www.professionaIresiimes.org