InkTank

Woop, Woop, Bachmann! (Keeping Opinions in the OPINION section)

Many articles popped up in the mainstream press, Thursday, March 24, about the possibility of  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) throwing her hat into the next presidential election. Most know by now that Bachmann will likely start a "presidential exploratory committee" soon. As I read several publications online, I noticed that many took different angles on this story. For example, the headline for one particular story that ran on the Politico's website read: "Michele Bachmann bid could shake up GOP field."

The headline caught my attention because it was not a hard news headline like other stories I'd read on this topic. I began to read through the article and something hit me after the first two paragraphs.

I stopped and promptly began searching to make sure I wasn't reading a blog or an opinionated piece but many paragraphs certainly read that way. I checked and, unless I made a mistake or had trouble figuring out Politico's website, this story was listed under the "CONGRESS" section and the link to the story even says "news stories" in it. To my knowledge, this was not a blog or an opinionated piece, but a news story.

However, one particular paragraph had me thinking 'Okay, surely a source will be attributed at the end of this soon.' It didn't happen.

"What separates her from the pack is that, with the possible exception of Palin, she can speak to conservative activists like no other candidate. She knows how to grab their attention on cable TV, talk radio and the internet — and it’s not Paul Ryan-esque budget graph wonkery," wrote the Politico. 

Under-reporting is bias: mainstream media gets a lesson from students

My sister, a student at Point Loma Nazarene University, recently informed me of an internal debate occurring at her school regarding the decision by PLNU administration to retract a speaking invitation extended to former Mexican President Vicente Fox last semester.

It didn’t take l ong for the mainstream media to grab a hold of this “foxy” piece of news. (Pardon the pun).

I found three recent articles about this matter and, interestingly, the reports are from three very different sources: UPI, a newswire service (supposed to be the least biased), FoxNews.com, the official website of a conservative-leaning broadcast network and the Huffington Post, an online publication founded by and hard-hitting liberal. I had the same qualm with each publication: they under-reported this event.

I realize that what happens on college campuses--particularly Christian College campuses--is of little concern to the mainstream press, but I say (in very cliche rhetoric), if you’re going to give it and inch, then why not take it a mile.

Giving a story an “inch” often provides very little background information about the newsworthy instance or issue. I believe background information is what gives readers understanding and understanding can help them make an informed judgement on a situation.

Let’s take the Huffington Post article, for instance. The article is a mere four paragraphs, which aggregates its information from the San Diego Union Tribune’s report of the occurrence.

Triplet wars

Custody Battles don't normally make national news--unless they involve a paraplegic mother. 

Abbie Dorn suffered severe brain damage during the birth of her triplets in 2006. Since then, her parents have taken her in at their home in North Carolina while her children and ex-husband reside in Los Angeles. Her parents have successfully convinced California courts to require visitation rights for Abbie and her three children. 

This story brings me back to the Terri Schiavo story from 2005. As a reporter, writing about people who are in a "vegetative" state is never easy. There are many different ways to approach stories like these, but some are more tactful than others. 

R.I.P. Geraldine Ferraro

 
What a week, particularly for women who have been mourning the death of not only Elizabeth Taylor but also the first female vice-president nominee, Geraldine Ferraro.  Two very influential women who by the example of their lives where determine to make history either in film or in politics.  Instead of making history they made themselves legends of history. 

While a lot of the attention  was placed on Elizabeth Taylor I turned my focus on Geraldine Ferraro and how the media was covering her death especially after such a celebrity had taken over the news agenda.   To my surprise, Ferraro had left quite a legend of herself that she could complete with the Elizabeth Taylor coverage. 

After looking at several publications I found that Fox News did the best coverage of her death in their article, First Female Vice-President Nominee Geraldine Ferraro Dies.  The article was not only the longest but it was the most complete.

Fox News was the only article that mentioned that she was a Fox News contributor.  This was interesting since she was chosen by the Democrat nominee, Walter Mondale to be his vice-president against Ronald Reagan, and she supported abortion.

It looks like Fox News was always trying to be objective even in the 1980's.

Another favorable addition that Fox News had over some of the other articles such as, The Washington Post, CNN and NBC New York, was it included quotes from other women politicians. 

Since Ferraro was the first Democratic woman to be nominated as vice-president it was only appropriate that the article include quotes from Sarah Palin, the first Republican woman to be nominated as vice-president.

VCU Topples Kansas, AP Nails Story

When 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) trounced  top-seeded Kansas 71-61 on March 27, a flurry of news coverage reflected the uniqueness of the upset.

Though news agencies reported on the game in different ways, based on their target audience, one article that stood out to me was written by the Associated Press (AP) and picked up by The Los Angeles Times.

The AP story was perfect for a newspaper like The Times. With an audience most likely looking for generalized coverage, instead of more in-depth coverage like that provided by ESPN, the AP piece fit the bill. (The AP also provided more comprehensive stories, which were picked up by ESPN and NBC Sports.)

It's time to move beyond the same old sad tune

As a Michigander, I am familiar with the sad tune the media has been singing about Detroit. So I was not surprised when I read an article by John Wisely and Todd Sprangler in USA Today with the headline, "Detroit suffers 25% loss, population lowest in 100 years."

Bloomberg, The Washington Post, MSNBC, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis and a host of other mainstream press are also carrying the story.

The USA Today version of the story is more comprehensive then most of it's competition. It also highlights a former resident, giving a human voice to the story, which is good.

One Michigander to move out was John Bessette, 44, who grew up in suburban Detroit and moved to an exurb of Pittsburgh in August 2010 after commuting there for almost two years. His company, Aim Construction, builds medical facilities and wanted to be where that field was growing.

"With the economy, even before the bad times, everybody was tightening up their purse strings," in Detroit he said. "It was really a good time to go look at somewhere else."

But the article is not beyond room for improvement.

Wilbon on sports, race and the Fab Five

Seldom in a media feud or heated public debate does one voice speak so authoritatively as to leave pundits on both sides nodding in agreement. Even more rarely does a sports columnist resist the temptation to escalate the rhetoric of a debate and instead bring clarity to a complex issue.

That's why Michael Wilbon's March 17 column on Espn.com was such a breath of fresh air. "What Grant Hill, Jalen Rose share" addressed an increasingly heated "he said-he said" battle between the two former college stars following Rose's recent Fab Five documentary that aired on ESPN.

Disaster Hits Not Only Japan, But Careers

On Friday, March 11th the world began spinning a little slower. People around the world were consumed by the devastation and destruction that Japan was experiencing due to the 8.9 earthquake,  and the following 23 feet tsunami waves.

The quake was the biggest to hit Japan in over 150 years.

Houses, work places, cars and most importantly, families were all destroyed in only a matter of hours.

Celebrities across the country began advocating for disaster relief programs, but for Glenn Beck, along with many others, another more personal type of disaster was beginning to form. 

"I'm not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes -- well I'm not not saying that either! What God does is God's business, I have no idea. But I'll tell you this -- whether you call it Gaia or whether you call it Jesus, there's a message being sent. And that is, 'Hey you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.'"

Lets Not Forget Broadcast

Fifty years ago Newton N.Minow gave a speech at the annual convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in his first public address as president Kennedy's chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In his speech he noted that T.V. was becoming a "vast wasteland." In his opinion viewers had few choices between game shows, violence, and cartoons. Out of Minow's ideas came good, more public broadcasting, and bad, more commercials. 

Fifty years later, in the April 2011 Atlantic magazine, Minow writes a follow up titled A Vaster Wasteland.

He briefly mentions the technological advances T.V. and the internet has faced in the past 50 years, but what most surprised me most was that he devoted a mere two sentences to the internet. The entire article I was anticipating the internet coming back into the picture. I wanted him to mention how a majority of the public streams their T.V. via the web.  But there was nothing. How can he state his future goals of T.V (which he did) and not bring up the way, in my opinion, even more people will catch their broadcast news down the road.  

Minow continues the rest of the article with his six goals for the next 50 years to make choices in the values in our communication system, while accompanying the technological changes. 

Cocktail of Scientific Terms

CNN took a bold step on March 10, when they attempted to describe a new single dose method of lethal injection being used in Ohio, in an article entitled "Ohio uses new, untested drug to execute death row inmate".  Unfortunately the technical language of the drugs and process itself were not explained in a lay-mans fashion and the veritable cocktail of drugs caused the story to drag.

This confusion began as early as the fourth graf of the story where the article discuses the drug, pentobarbital.

The new drug administered by corrections officials was pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is used by veterinarians to put down pets. It also has limited Food and Drug Administration approval in smaller doses for humans as a mild anesthetic, and to treat some seizures.

The article seemed to miss opportunities to make simple statements that described the effects of the drugs or broke them down into very easy cause and effect progressions.

One would have liked to have heard what the drug actually does, the way drugs.com explains it, saying, "Pentobarbital slows the activity of your brain and nervous system."