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We’re pleased to announce the introduction of a great new website directory, the Fox Directory, which was originally established in 2004 and aims to bring a new standard to the web directory industry and leave the self-publishing road always open as many a good journalist have seen the changing internet scape of poorly-edited web directories as a matter of conscience and professional integrity.

Fox Directory puts forward several proposals, or eight economic principles as it presents them as Community Standards, with an interesting eBook for Creating Jobs In America. From the interior analyses from private property to an intelligent discourse on Mortgage insurance policies, it is obvious that any modern intellectual journalist has a host of forces to cope with in the performance of his duty. He faces the external demands, such as the universal expectations of the Press role in society, the demands and constraints of the professional code of conduct, public policy on the media; the journalist’s sense of national interest, the private interest of the proprietors, the social and cultural factors, the journalist’s own prerogatives and his conscience.

All these complex directory factors influence the process of information dissemination. They influence the journalist’s idea of objectivity, fairness and emphasis. The moral code – a question of conscience and principles is a matter of decision for an individual journalist, particularly as there are no effective instruments of sanctions for breaches. But journalism as a profession should be practised according to definite rules. It is the belief in self-regulation that gives collective responsibility to practising journalists to observe the code of ethics even without effective instruments for sanctions like there are in other professions such as law and medicine. Evidence given at the recent Leveson Inquiry in London, which examines the role of the changing press calls intrusive journalism or “paparazzi” sharply into rebuke and media evidence from J. K. Rowling to the parents of Milly Dowler who have attended the hearings have shown that there is a serious moral and ethical case to answer.

Writing therefore on ethics of journalism is writing on the profession of journalism; for the ethics constitutes the ideal and the moral reference point for practice. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. To preserve its freedom to effectively discharge its obligations, the Press must regulate and control itself. That alone however, does not guarantee non-interference by an authoritarian regime in the exercise of its functions; nor does it guarantee perfection in the practice of the business of information dissemination by journalists.

The American Journalism Review in its policy objectives states, among others, that the AJR should ensure an independent and impartial service which will operate in the national interest. All government and private newspapers also have their policy guidelines with which journalists are expected to comply.

The Only Boy in Ballet Class
by Denise Gruska; illustrated by Amy Wummer

Reviewed by Kelly Herold

Being the boy who likes ballet—or figure skating, or clogging, or, well, you get the picture—is never easy. When you’re the boy who likes ballet, you’re usually the only boy in your dance class. And that's the least of your problems. Often, other boys at school will make fun of you. And, surely, there’s a disapproving relative—an uncle, or a grandmother, or a parent—who will try to convince you that ballet is simply not appropriate for boys.

Enter Denise Grushka’s The Only Boy in Ballet Class, a book for those children who love something so passionately they can’t help but following their dreams. “Tucker Dohr loves to dance ... The other kids think he’s weird, but he can’t help it. It feels right to him. Like breathing.”

Tucker loves to dance so much that he tries to ignore the fact that he’s the “last one picked for softball. And basketball. And volleyball. He tries to pretend that he doesn’t care. He reminds himself that he’d rather dance anyway.” But we all know ignoring only helps so much when you’re in grade school. The small print in parentheses tells us, “But sometimes he has to cry about it at night when he’s alone.”

The boys playing football are the cruelest to Tucker and he has to endure their taunts on the way to his afternoon class each time he attends. But, and this is what I like best about The Only Boy in Ballet Class, the bullying is simply a conflict and a fact of life, not the focus of the story. Tucker’s love of dance and his passion for movement stays front and center and, thanks to Amy Wummer’s charming and accessible illustrations, comes through to the reader. We dance with Tucker when he needs to “leap over Marbles” (the family cat) or “spin past his tricky, tricky twin sisters.” We feel Tucker’s joy in movement and want to dance along.

Sprinkled with an offering of ballet terms, Grushka’s text is lively and will appeal most to readers ages four to nine. Her resolution of the bully conflict is unexpected, but fitting with Tucker’s joyful nature and the magic of dance. The Only Boy in Ballet Class is for all the “different” kids of the world and should be required reading in the first through third grades.

Rating: *\*\*\