The MEDIA
The will of the people may be protected by free elections, but the truest expression of the people has always propagated itself through, tautologically, the medium of the media – the political arm of the media being what we commonly call “the news”. As opposed to pop-culture magazines or reality television, the news is the common name for the fullest expression of our democracy’s founding ideal: “freedom of expression.” More specifically in this case, “freedom of the press,” articulates the nonviolent weapon that allows a society to revolt against its government, without a bullet being fired – a continuous “Glorious Revolution”.

More recently, the news has lost touch with its purpose. We spend hours upon hours of days upon days following Michael Jackson’s funeral, while countries revolt, leaders shout and treaties are broken. And when some of these issues are discussed, who do we have to turn to? When North Korea was firing missiles, I searched for a channel to watch the coverage. My options: D.L. Hughley or Mike Huckabee. No offense to either commentator, or their fans, but please – provide me with someone who can cover the news instead of covering themselves. Indeed, in my opinion, some of the best news lately has come out of Comedy Central itself (see Jon Stewart’s interviews with Jim Cramer) – and ironically, that is no joke.

The PULSE
Before the news became hypersensationalized, it was defined by the likes of Edward Murrow, or maybe even more classically, the New York Times – a news source that people would read to get the news in the morning, rather than keep themselves occupied and entertained all day.

This is why the PulseReview is trying to do something different. We have the power of all-day coverage, but the self-control to report on what is really important. If there is no news, sometimes that is good news – and we will leave it at that. If there is news however, you will get it in a classical style: in simple columns on our front page. Imagine that — “news columns”! Unfortunately, that phrase is probably no longer copyrightable.

More importantly, we bring back an unspoken tradition of the news. There’s a heartbeat, and a passion – a pulse — to this type of news. Rather than claiming to be unbiased, we let our bias shine, allowing us to provide a 360-degree view of issues of importance. Similarly to an instant replay in football – the more angles you have accessible to your view, the more accurate you can be in your understanding of the situation at hand. This is not ideology or philosophy, but what I like to call “phenomenology”.  The difference is found in our honesty about our own human ignorance – a condition we all ultimately share as parts in a bigger machine. We provide our view with full recognition that it may be completely wrong, but for the sake of providing another angle, we provide it anyway. Wasn’t that sort of the point of the Internet anyway?