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40Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    I bet you that as a high schooler, whatever teacher or coach or leader worked with the youth had much highers standards of performance and evidence than real journalists face in the billion dollar media.

    It’s not just about his personal excellent performance — it’s that there are different expectations, expectations of substance, not simply the season’s fave he-said/she-said quotes in pursuit of pleasing one or another sector of establishment power.

  2. 2.

    mai naem

    I saw this on TPM a few days ago. Very funny. Arizona state lawmakers are truly some of the dumbest in the country. We are talking stoopid to the point where you wonder how they can even understand parliamentary rules.
    Also keep in mind Huppenthal is considered too liberal for the Republican nutcases in Arizona. He almost lost his seat a few years ago because he got attacked from the right and most of the opposition was based on him being more liberal on education than teatards wanted him to be.

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    I think you fail to understand that the fact that the Press Corps is unwilling to ask any hard questions is a feature, not a bug. After all, asking hard questions is hard and stuff.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    Wow. That’s amazing. I’d missed that on TPM. Good for that high school kid.

    Maybe we should get high school journalism students to go interview all our representatives. First of all, they’d probably get the interview, because the reps would expect the interview to be a softball interview. Second, they seem to have the guts and determination to ask the hard questions, so we the public might actually get answers.

  6. 6.

    El Cid

    @Violet: If that happened, quickly the selection of high school journalists would drop the knowledge-bound geek monster we see here for the cool, photogenic hipsters with their ears to the ground on the best gossip among the bigwigs there is to be heard. It’s more about who chooses and who edits and who hires and fires, not who holds the mic.

  7. 7.

    Linda Featheringill

    The kid is good.

    I’d like to see him work part time as an investigative reporter while he works his way through college.

    Maybe Rachel could adopt him and have him produce something every 10 days or so.

    Wow.

  9. 9.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Before we get all “high school journalists are teh awesome,” a word of caution: There are bad high school journalists just like there are bad college journalists and bad professional journalists.

    I’ve seen them at all levels. For every student who wants to ask the hard questions, there are probably 5-10 who just want to write softball stories about the sports team, or similar cruft.

  10. 10.

    Svensker

    @Face:

    Wait…..the guy left, and never returned? WTF?

    Yeah, but if he were a soccer player he would have started CRYING, so at least there’s that.

  11. 11.

    bkny

    damn. huppenthal is totally and completely owned by that kid. i don’t know what’s funniest — that stunned look on his face in reaction to the first question; or his twisting in his chair is terror at the detail of the question.

  12. 12.

    bkny

    @arguingwithsignposts: i worked with someone who quit to attend nyu school of journalism — with the ultimate goal of writing travelogue diaries for a magazine. wonder how that’s working out these days.

    alot of the ultimate goals of these future ‘reporters’ are to be teevee readers too.

  15. 15.

    TaMara (formerly Bad Horse's Filly)

    When I was in high school I was all about journalism and photo journalism. I was seriously considering making that my major in college. But I had this gnawing doubt. I just didn’t think I had the integrity needed to be a good journalist. So I went on to do other things. Bwahahahaha! Hindsight.

  16. 16.

    Cat Lady

    I luv the look on the kids face at the end – if there was a thought bubble over his head, it would say “PWN3D!” Exposed as an idiot and a coward. That had to hurt. Also.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    Being a journalist is an unpleasant profession. A low-level ‘local’ journalist calls someone out of the blue and asks them how they feel about their spouse, parent, etc. who died yesterday. Not nice, not fun. It’s not accidental that, on a social scale, ‘journalist’ is a step or two above ‘mugger’.

    Now suppose you’re successful at this and you get promoted to the Washington bureau. You would like, very very much, to rise socially as well as professionally. And the national-level politicians in Washington may not have Mensa-level IQs, but they generally have an instinctive understanding of where people’s strings are, and how to pull them.

    So, IMO, complaining about DC journalism is like complaining about the weather. It’s surprising when journalism actually happens in DC– the norm is going to be flattery and mutual back-scratching.

  19. 19.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @El Cid:

    Sports fans demand more accurate reporting than the supposed ‘news’ journalists. You can’t bullshit too much in sports reporting.

    YMMV, but I’ve read a lot of really poor sports reporting (most on a local level, and just as much in h.s. and college).

    They don’t have the level of anonymous sourcing as the political reporting, but they do use a lot of those “if we give 100 percent, we’ll win” cliche quotes.

  20. 20.

    Chad N Freude

    @Allison W.: These are not mutually exclusive.

    I saw this on TPM and my first thought, after I stopped quivering with delight, was “This kid will never get a job with a major media corp.”

  22. 22.

    HRA

    It has been said that the best writing comes from sports journalists.

    OTH the local news journalists make my head and teeth hurt whether on paper or on TV.
    Now that could be from this one phone call I received years back while I was a young mother with 3 toddlers. The journalist called to ask me if I had any thoughts on my husband being killed in a plant accident that morning. I responded by telling him my husband did not work in a plant. Isn’t your husband’s name…? No. Even though I did know the name and even though his parents lived next door, I was never going to tell him. Yes, he hung up without even saying goodbye or apologizing for his error.

  24. 24.

    jon

    I suggest watching the longer videos. I’ve read somewhere that Huppenthal was overwhelmed that a high schooler brought six cameras for an interview (what? was the legislator intimidated?) but that he did return. The edited, shorter, version wasn’t done by the high schooler, by the way.

    Not that the legislator looks good in the longer version anyway.

  25. 25.

    Janus Daniels

    @Jacquelyn:
    Thanks for the idea.
    The Helen Thomas seat could go to a different high school for each press conference.
    It might even shame the “journalists” into occasionally doing their job.

  26. 26.

    heydave

    I love the look on tup’s face. So clear in his disbelief: “What? Those are my best lines, kid, and you ain’t eatin’ ’em up?”

  27. 27.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    The look on Huppenthal’s face after the kid asks him about his vote is priceless. Thank the FSM Al Gore gave us the internets.

    @mai naem:

    Arizona state lawmakers are truly some of the dumbest in the country. We are talking stoopid to the point where you wonder how they can even understand parliamentary rules.

    They also have publicly funded state and local elections. So this may be a data point to remember when the public funding for elections issue is raised. Not necessarily a reason to forego publicly funded elections, its just something to keep in mind. The zealots will run, and some of them will get elected.

  28. 28.

    c u n d gulag

    Mike Wallace,
    Here’s your real son! Chris was the milkman’s love child. Whoever you F’ed on your trip here, you’ve found your real, honest-to-God son.
    This gutless weasle never came back? Really? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    The answer, for this clown and his supporters, to the question of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” is, uhm, “NO!”
    Not even close.
    HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  29. 29.

    gnomedad

    @jon:

    I’ve read somewhere that Huppenthal was overwhelmed that a high schooler brought six cameras for an interview (what? was the legislator intimidated?) but that he did return.

    I thought the videography was remarkably slick. What was up with that? Also, from your link:

    “He did come back and he was very polite,” he said.
    Wagner also said he was irked that some are using the video, which was a class project, to score political points. “I am a little upset that the focus of that has been changed to ‘high-schooler interviewing a state senator and kind of catching him off guard,’” Wagner said. … Additionally, budget documents from JLBC show the career and technical education funding levels are unchanged from FY09 at about $11.5 million.

  30. 30.

    mapaghimagsik

    Cameras are “relatively” cheap now, so going in with six cameras isn’t a several hundred thousand dollar expense for a school system. Its still not chump change, but it has changed the accessibility to equipment.

    what’s extra amazing is are there any bets whether this guy will get elected anyway?

  31. 31.

    Calipygian

    Well that kid doesn’t have to worry about being disinvited to the neighborhood block party by Huppenthal the way Timmeh! Russell did if he came to an interview ready to really confront someone.

  33. 33.

    Mike G

    The high school kid is not a corporate employee with immediate career ambitions to protect. It makes all the difference.

    If this kid goes into journalism, he’ll get schooled and smacked down into line of Playing the Game pretty quick; or his bosses will make sure he never makes it to the Serious level where he gets to interview Serious people.

  35. 35.

    Cliff

    Hold on there. I’ve seen some reports that Huppenthal came back and talked to the student:

    Wagner said the senator returned with more information on education funding. “He did come back and he was very polite,” he said. Wagner also said he was irked that some are using the video, which was a class project, to score political points. “I am a little upset that the focus of that has been changed to ‘high-schooler interviewing a state senator and kind of catching him off guard,’” Wagner said.

    As for the legislation Wagner asked Huppenthal about – he described it in the story only as a bill that cut $550 million from K-12 and decreased the career and technical education funds from $11 million to about $57,000 – the student said he was referring to H2028 (Laws 2009, Chapter 5), which lawmakers approved May 13 last year.

    However, the student seems to have misunderstood what the bill did, as it didn’t cut $550 million from K-12 and didn’t wipe out funding for vocational programs. The bill, which was part of a two-bill package that closed a $650 million deficit in FY09, did three things: roll over $100 million in university funding; roll over $300 million in K-12 funding; and cut $250 million from K-12, but backfill the cuts with an equal amount of federal stimulus money. Additionally, budget documents from JLBC show the career and technical education funding levels are unchanged from FY09 at about $11.5 million.

    http://www.democraticdiva.com/2010/06/15/retraction/

    The quoted piece is from the Arizona Capitol Times Yellow Sheet, which sounds like it requires a subscription to read.

    Huppenthal still isn’t an angel – he voted for the ban on human-animal hybrids (thereby protecting us from ManBearPig and cancer research) and for the bill that requires all presidential candidates to submit proof that they are natural born citizens.

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    Wait a minute. Although the kid did a great job, and Huppenthal looks and sounds like a dope (especially when he stupidly claims that a school program can survive when cut from $11 million to $57,000), the video is misleading, the student journalist got some of the story wrong, and the larger story is missed entirely.

    The link from jon at comment 24 indicates that the programs which were supposedly cut were ultimately restored through some complicated wheeling and dealing which ultimately included federal stimulus money.

    The bill, which was part of a a two-bill package that closed a $650 million deficit in FY09, did three things: roll over $100 million in university funding; roll over $300 million in K-12 funding; and cut $250 million from K-12, but backfill the cuts with an equal amount of federal stimulus money. Additionally, budget documents from JLBC show the career and technical education funding levels are unchanged from FY09 at about $11.5 million.

    Hmm. Arizona takes federal money to help bail out the state. How could this happen when the tea baggers insist that the federal government is the enemy.

    But I still give kudos to high school reporter Keith Wagner for doing some original reporting, and for standing up against everyone who sought to use his story to score easy, and phony, political points.

    It has come to my attention that Corona del Sol High School student reporter Keith Wagner is displeased that his school project, which included the interview with Sen. John Huppenthal, is being used for political points. Also, it seems that the snippet of the interview I got from youtube was taken out of context and that Huppenthal did return after he’d left the room and completed the interview.

    Snark is easy. Real journalism is hard. Retaining journalistic integrity, priceless.

  37. 37.

    frankdawg

    But this kid will NEVER be invited to all the good parties – never exchange super soaker squirts with the VP – never be feed the insider gossip – never be given a ‘scoop’ by a key source that wants to catapult the bullshit.

    You know – never be a serious journalist.

  38. 38.

    jon

    @Brachiator:

    It has come to my attention that Corona del Sol High School student reporter Keith Wagner is displeased that his school project, which included the interview with Sen. John Huppenthal, is being used for political points.

    That’s kind of ironic, since Wagner wanted his piece to advocate for the passage of a sales tax increase to pay for education. There was an agenda, he got used for another, and many lessons will be learned. He’s got some chops, and luckily he’ll be going to an actual journalism school here in Tucson. Not that that guarantees he’ll become an actual journalist, but the program is pretty good here.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    @jon:

    That’s kind of ironic, since Wagner wanted his piece to advocate for the passage of a sales tax increase to pay for education. There was an agenda, he got used for another, and many lessons will be learned.

    I don’t quite see looking for ways to pay for threatened educational programs as “having an agenda.”

    He’s got some chops, and luckily he’ll be going to an actual journalism school here in Tucson. Not that that guarantees he’ll become an actual journalist, but the program is pretty good here.

    Agreed. Wagner asked good questions and got good responses that underscored the ongoing problems of contemporary politics (representatives who appear to not know the significance of their own votes and who mush every issue into inane platitudes). Whaever Wagner chooses to do, I wish him well.

  40. 40.

    jon

    It sure as bippy is an agenda, since it was related to something coming up for a vote and he was promoting it. I wasn’t criticizing that fact, only pointing it out.

    Wagner produced the video for his audio/visual television class at Corona. He said he wanted students to understand how important it was for voters to pass Proposition 100, a one-cent-per-dollar increase in the sales tax. The proposition, which largely will fund education, passed on a 3-2 ratio.

    I voted for that sales tax increase in Arizona, by the way. Yea, us. Our state will only be about $3B in the red now, barring a Federal stimulus bill that won’t come before this election.

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