Mainstream Media
Major H/T to Ian Donnis for spotting and highlighting this illuminating Dan Kennedy post about the redesign of the ProJo’s website. … the Providence Journal unveiled its new website — a prelude to its long-promised (or long-threatened) paywall. … But this is not a digital strategy — it’s a print strategy, built on the idea…
After a decade of blogging, the hunt for mainstream media bias gives me about the same thrill as finding three-leaf clovers. Even so, the Providence Journal’s front page declaration in its Sunday edition took me back a bit: “The voice of the masses”? Since Sunday, multiple polls have emerged suggesting that it just ain’t so.…
I notice that the wire story that the Providence Journal chose for its coverage of President Obama’s Labor Day speech didn’t make mention of the call to arms of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. The omission would be one thing if the article were narrowly focused on President Obama’s words (that is, if they took…
Even the presidential primaries are too far away for me to be invested in any particular candidate, yet, but perusing my Sunday Providence Journal, I found it a little disconcerting to see that every section of the paper that appropriately touches on politics had a piece attacking Texas Governor Rick Perry. Ed Fitzpatrick threw a…
I alluded to it and Justin dealt more directly with Froma Harrop calling tea partiers “terrorists.” Others in the “national” blogosphere have called attention to the hypocrisy of Harrop’s comments given she is the chair of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, which runs the Civility Project, whose goal is to help all of us…
“House GOP vs. America” — that’s quite a headline for an unsigned editorial about the debt ceiling battle. The text below it is the sort of summary of economic assumptions and narrow conclusions about specific issues that is therefore impossible to address without revisiting every particular issue and arguing line by line. For example, writes…
It’s getting kinda hard to take the spin that permeates economic reporting. Reporter Kate Bramson and her headline writer mainly adopt RI Department of Labor and Training Director Charles Fogerty’s line that the statistics show “slow, steady progress.” The headline and lede are, “Rhode Island unemployment dips slightly, to 10.8 percent, Still, 10.8% an improvement…
Like the ProJo, I’ve actually supported the idea of having an LNG terminal somewhere in the region. But their latest attempt to boost the idea by editorializing against “fracking” of natural gas in shale deposits is misinformed and relies too much on a much criticized, recent NY Times investigative piece. For instance, as the ProJo…
Apparently we’re at the point in Campaign 2012 where we play the game of dissecting political statements for “gotcha moments.” The pols have to be ready for the questions, so they should work to make sure they mitigate damage by reading up beforehand. That being said, of all the things to talk to a Presidential…
First above-the-fold headline in yesterday’s Providence Journal: “Cuts trump expanded sales tax in House plan.” The lead is: “Finance Committee’s $7.7-billion budget trims spending by $160 million, curtails sales-tax growth.” The only cut that the story provides as an example, however, is $1.6 million “in state spending from programs affecting low-income families, the disabled and…