20,118: the number of trees U2 would need to plant to offset the carbon emissions for its 44 concerts this year

341: the number of days since Virginia football last won a game

11-0: the record of Virginia’s field hockey team, ranked third nationally and off to its best start since the 1979 season

4: number of days left to register to vote in the Virginia governor’s race next month

750,000: the daily overhead cost in dollars of U2’s tour (regardless of whether the band is playing a concert that day)

33-13: the margin Virginia men’s soccer outshot its opponents by in its last two games, a 0-1 loss and a 1-0 win

2: how many inches thinner today’s Cavalier Daily is than yesterday’s

247.6: the percent increase in journalistic power packed into each remaining square inch

39-7: the number of points for and against Virginia field hockey this season, respectively

62-93: the number of points for and against Virginia football this season, respectively

189: the number of trucks and buses used to carry personnel and equipment for U2’s tour

14: the percentage point lead for Republican Bob McDonnell over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Commonwealth’s gubernatorial race, according to a Survey USA poll conducted from Sept. 26-28

5: the percentage point lead for McDonnell over Deeds, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted from Sept. 25-28

0: percent of the time that political polls are even remotely close to the parameter being predicted

310: total cases of influenza-like illness among University students since Aug. 22

1,000: the number of puns newspaper editors must restrain from using when writing headlines about swine flu

Conservatives have been bemoaning the liberal media bias for a while now. And, as much as I hate to admit it, even I can see that it exists. Now, I love watching Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC just as much as the next liberal, feminist, environmentalist hippie, but sometimes I’d like to watch someone who at least pretends to be objective. So I figure I should turn to the channel that touts “fair and balanced” journalism — Fox News. But let’s be honest; within the first five minutes of Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck, I’m irate.

The truth of the matter is plain and simple; I can’t watch Fox News or MSNBC and expect “fair and balanced” reporting. It takes a little more than the opposable thumb to find the truth about what’s going on in our world. Instead of relying on these inevitably biased news sources, we need to do more in-depth research to find out the truth ourselves.

Maybe not all of the other forms of mass media have been taken over by the left-wing. But, as the right is so keen to point out, National Public Radio most certainly leans to the left. And what about the New York Times? Clearly the Times’ OP/ED section is overrun with liberal bias. And of course we can’t forget all of those left-wing blogs that spew nothing but hate and falsities (The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, etc).

But the liberals can’t be the only ones to blame. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and a myriad of other conservatives host radio shows that do not even attempt at objectivity, and often times make erroneous, offensive claims. And the Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages are rife with right-of-center opinions and writers. Furthermore, Hot Air and The Drudge Report represent some of the many conservative blogs available on the internet.

So it seems pretty clear to me that objectivity falls by the wayside in favor of appealing to what viewers, readers, or listeners expect to hear (and want to hear). To be truly informed citizens, we must break out of our comfort zones of MSNBC or Fox News and question the veracity of our favorite news personality’s claims. But even gaining more than one perspective is not enough; we must also find objective media sources that provide citizens with accurate, non-biased information on political events of the day.

It’s quite clear that the way that MSNBC presents news stories is extremely different than the way that Fox News presents the same story. Take the Healthcare Town Halls for example. Rachel Maddow’s reports paint the protestors as crazy, irrational extremists. Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand, portrays these protestors as citizens concerned with the future of our nation. No matter which side you fall on politically, watching both of these personalities can prove beneficial. It’s important to know and understand opposing viewpoints to better elucidate your own views, and keeping an open mind to the opposition will not only further educate you on some subjects, but may also, in some instances, change your opinions on certain issues. Finding out both sides of the story before you make a judgment is usually a pretty good policy, and this goes for political opinions, as well.

We must also research beyond opposing viewpoints to figure out what the truth of the issues really are. Web sites such as factcheck.org, politifact.org, and ontheissues.org all provide non-partisan ways to research the veracity of candidates’ statements, internet rumors, and politicians’ stances on important issues. Factcheck.org does the hard work for you — they fact check the president’s speeches, claims (and ads) made by the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, and other political organizations with clear agendas. Politifact.org has these same features, but also holds President Obama accountable for his campaign promises. The “Obameter” tracks which of Obama’s campaign promises he has kept, broken, compromised on, taken no action on, stalled on, and which promises are in the works. This feature provides citizens a great way to judge Obama’s progress in the White House and make informed decisions on how much they approve of the job he is doing. Ontheissues.org is yet another non-partisan Web site that provides the people with politicians’ stances on hot-button issues. This Web site uses quotes and the way politicians vote on these issues to create profiles of hundreds of politicians. These sites are less biased than the average media outlet because instead of having well-known personalities putting their “objective” spin on the news, they stick to the facts; none of their writers inject personal opinion into the stories. Furthermore, Factcheck.org and Politifact.org both report on fallacious claims made by both Democrats and Republicans, making it clear that both parties are guilty of sins of omission.

So next time you settle in to watch Greta Van Susteren on Fox, Chris Matthews on MSNBC, or that Silver Fox, Anderson Cooper on CNN, take what they have to say with a grain of salt. Remember that they all have their own political axe to grind, and nothing you get from them will be completely objective. Instead, take a little more time to do some extra research and fully inform yourself from some non-biased sources.

Claire Shotwell is a Viewpoint Writer for The Cavalier Daily.

It all started on a baseball field. Not a typical field with freshly trimmed grass and carefully drawn lines, but a field of solid blacktop with a skate park interrupting right field. Trash littered this sand-less sandlot located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but the boys who played there paid no attention to these poor conditions. This scraggly field in Tompkins Square Park was their home away from home; it was all they had.

Michael Rosen, who spoke last week at the New Dominion Bookshop on the Downtown Mall, lived near this ballpark in the Lower East Side with his wife, Leslie, and two sons, Ripton and Morgan. Rosen, author of the newly-published “What Else But Home: Seven Boys and an American Journey Between the Projects and the Penthouse” would eventually show these youths in the dilapidated park that a family is more than just blood relations and legal matters — it’s a safe haven where love is unconditional.

Rosen, formerly an investor and real estate developer, lived with his family in a luxury penthouse in the Tompkins Square Park area. In the summer of 1998, Ripton, then 7-years-old, joined in a pickup baseball game at the scraggly ballpark. He invited several of the kids back to his home to play Nintendo and began to form strong bonds with the boys.

The occasional visits with Ripton soon changed to daily visits to the Rosens’ penthouse for an array of juice boxes, pizza and chips alongside some serious video-gaming. Eventually, five of the original gaggle continued to return despite increasingly strict rules enforced by the Rosens. These five black and Latino boys — Carlos, Philippe, William, Kindu and Juan — eventually became a part of the Rosen Family Extended and would live in the Rosen home for a period of their young lives.

Although the Rosens never formally adopted the boys, they were essentially adoptive parents, helping to guide them through high school and into college and the working world. With a total of seven boys in and out of their home, Michael and Leslie were not more than ordinary parents. When asked if he was ever overwhelmed and felt like this “adoption” was too much, Rosen responded with a chuckle, “Every weekend.”

Although the Rosens took on many of the responsibilities of raising the boys, the boys’ biological families remained in their lives.

“Some of their mothers been very supportive, and none have been negative,” Mr. Rosen said in an interview with PublicAffairs, who published his book.. “We’ve had less touch with some. The boys have grown to be our sons, but they are always first their mothers’ children.”

Today, the boys are “less boys and more young men rushing through life. What they’re doing changes every day,” he said.

Carlos and Kindu are both currently pursuing college degrees.

While some might call Rosen a hero, the author said he wouldn’t use that term.

“My heroes are Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, [and those] who build their lives around social justice and believe in ending racial injustice,” he said. “What happened to us was accidental.”
Taking five underprivileged kids into one’s home isn’t an everyday affair, but it isn’t unheard of.

“I’ve met more and more people on the road who have done exactly what we did,” Mr. Rosen said. “They’ve taken children into their home and parented them. That’s all we did; I’ve just happened to write about it.”

Not only has he adopted and mentored seven children and acted as a father, but he has also co-founded the East Village Community Coalition in New York City.

“Our neighborhood has been a portal for waves of immigrants, and that immigrant heritage speaks tremendously about what America can be,” Rosen said. “You become a portal for any single kid whose life you help turn around.”

Working to preserve this neighborhood, Rosen and the EVCC rezoned the area, he said. The EVCC has been successful in prohibiting the building of high rises, “because they take away from the street-level community by their nature; people can‘t hang out on the stoops,” he said.

Other future goals of the EVCC include doing away with franchises and chain restaurants, which Rosen said he believes “eliminate diversity. They destroy jobs that give a working wage. Instead of having profits flow to ‘mom and pop‘ organizations, they are pooled to [CEO Howard] Shultz of Starbucks.”

Along with these social projects, the EVCC also has a string of little league baseball teams for boys from the ages of 7 to 18.

“Organized sports for kids from public housing and poverty are crucial to their success,” Mr. Rosen said.

Many of those who heard Rosen speak at the New Dominion Bookshop were inspired by his story. Social worker Judy Zeitler delves into inner-city turmoil daily and is doing her part to help with the ongoing problem of social injustice.

“I would never adopt children from the ghetto, but I am intrigued by Rosen’s story because it’s a true one,” she said. “I work with cases of poverty-stricken individuals and this is a case study.”

Rosen said he is optimistic about the possibility of making a difference.

“Potential and kindness are everywhere,” he said. “They enable change.”