Student newspaper embroiled in First Amendment case

What began as an investigative article in a Northern Nevada high school newspaper has turned into a First Amendment issue for one young reporter.

Lauren Mac Lean, a 17-year-old senior at Churchill County High School in Fallon, wrote an article on allegations parents made about a music teacher withholding student audition tapes for the Nevada Music Educators Association Honor/All State Choir program, a prestigious state competition for aspiring student musicians.

The local teachers union filed a grievance with the principal and the Churchill County School District superintendent attempting to block publication of the article, claiming it would harm the teacher’s employment and could deprive her “of any professional advantage without just cause.”

The article is scheduled to be published in Friday’s edition of the school’s newspaper, The Flash. In Nevada, a principal has the authority to decide whether an article will run unless the school board or superintendent say otherwise, school officials said.

Full Article

I guess I never really thought about it,  but I never really thought that a student newspaper was a ‘real’ newspaper, and because of that, they were subject to whatever the teachers approved or edited.

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Why ‘Avatar’ is actually the 26th biggest movie

With everybody reporting how “Avatar” is The Biggest Movie of All Time based on grosses ($1.859 billion and counting), it’s important to remember how rising ticket prices skew the returns.

Here’s the Top 20 movies of all time … by number of tickets sold:

1 “Gone With the Wind” (1939) 202,044,600
2 “Star Wars” (1977) 178,119,600
3 “The Sound of Music” (1965) 142,415,400
4 “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) 141,854,300
5 “The Ten Commandments” (1956) 131,000,000 
6 “Titanic” (1997) 128,345,900
7 “Jaws” (1975) 128,078,800
8 “Doctor Zhivago” (1965) 124,135,500
9 “The Exorcist” (1973) 110,568,700
10 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) 109,000,000
11 “101 Dalmatians” (1961) 99,917,300
12 “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) 98,180,600
13 “Ben-Hur” (1959) 98,000,000
14 “Return of the Jedi” (1983) 94,059,400
15 “The Sting” (1973) 89,142,900
16 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) 88,141,900
17 “Jurassic Park” (1993) 86,205,800
18 “The Graduate” (1967) 85,571,400
19 “Star Wars: Episode I” (1999) 84,825,800
20 “Fantasia” (1941) 83,043,500

“Avatar,” despite topping the worldwide gross list, by and by, is only No. 26 on the ticket sales list with 76,421,000 sold … at least, so far…

Link

I just don’t understand why the movie industry does just measure by the actual numbers of tickets sold, rather than what’s earned, it makes no sense other than just to shout out a dollar figure.

Posted in Interesting, Pop Culture | 5 Comments