1. Aspiring high school journalists broke all records in our Lady Gaga competition. The mic count remained tied with 2 seconds remaining in the competition, but Natalie S. ended up with 752 mics (!) for her great comments in the debate and won PolicyMic’s press pass to cover Gaga’s foundation launch next week. We would like to congratulate all participants for engaging in a thoughtful discussion on bullying.
2. Pundits’ coverage of the Arizona GOP debate rocked this week; their articles were read over 35K times in two days. Due to stories by Cameron English, Jesse Merkel, Sophie Fry, and a handful of others, PolicyMic had its highest traffic day ever on Thursday. Keep up all the timely analysis, pundits!
3. Our Middle East coverage got great traction this week. William Bauer’s piece on Syria was republished by AlertNet. Daniel Sullivan’s article on French public intellectuals received 20 mics.
4. We are excited to announce an awesome 7-week political journalism bootcamp to train you how to write better. Sign-up here and share it with friends!
Feedback for the week. How can we encourage more sharing by users and readers of PolicyMic articles and discussions? What articles have you shared on PolicyMic and why?
Blakely & Hanalei Debate This Video Here
Top Stories – Funny Video Flips Millennials Gender Roles, Does It Succeed? – Blakely Thorton argues it’s important to remember that women also hold double standards, while Hanalei Somar argues that the video doesn’t add much to the gender dialogue. Weigh in before you go out this weekend.
Stop Talking About a Brokered Convention, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and Jeb Bush Will Never With the GOP Nomination in 2012 (John Giokaris) – A Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, or Jeb Bush candidacy is not happening. The far right needs to stop looking for someone that doesn't exist and accept the current GOP choices.
Supreme Court Should Uphold Affirmative Action (Edward Williams) – Because African-Americans and Hispanics do not yet have the same opportunities as white students, the Supreme Court should preserve affirmative action in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. In response to Belinda Moreira.
Trend of the Day – As Rick Santorum continues to talk about women’s issues, he has surprisingly become more popular, not less, gaining 13% approval with Republican women since January (WaPo story).
What We’re Reading – Romney’s gotcha campaign (Politico); Bombing Iran is not the answer (Economist); Comedian Bill Maher puts one-million dollars behind pro-Obama Super PAC (CNN); Predictions for Syria (Al Jazeera); Human growth hormones sell in Hollywood (Vanity Fair).
