Marko Rollo
F L I N T O I D
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Critical reading skills required. This article wouldn't have got a passing grade in a freshman journalism class. Reasons:
1. Opinion masked as news:
"...another sign of lingering discord..."
"...perceived bombs..."
"...could be interpreted..."
"...that had many wondering..."
"...playing second fiddle..."
"...the new Democratic order..."
2. Passive voice to imply facts:
"...tensions were simmering..."
"...it was reported..."
So let's see if we can re-write this as a real news article:
quote:
FOX News confirmed Wednesday that former President Bill Clinton will not attend Barack Obama’s Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver Thursday night.
A senior Obama aide said the candidate is “not worried about it. There’s places besides Denver where we need and will get [Clinton's] help winning this election.”
On Wednesday, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Bill Clinton is “one of the most unique and beloved figures in the Democratic Party and the country” and will “talk about why Senator Obama is the right leader right now” and how he knows Obama “will get the country back on track.”
When asked if Obama had pre-approved Clinton's speach, Obama senior adviser Anita Dunn said the camp is “not nervous at all” about not having seen the text, but is rather “excited” since it will be an “electric moment” when Clinton makes “the case for Obama and for change.”
The theme of Wednesday night’s proceedings is foreign policy. Clinton, however, will be speaking on the importance of a strong economy. Obama said Monday he’d spoken to Clinton about the speech, saying he told Clinton he could talk about anything he likes.
“Bill Clinton knows a little bit about trying to yank the economy out of the doldrums,” Obama said. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to want to edit his remarks.”
Funny, but when you actually pull the "news" out of the FOX article, it gets a lot shorter.
Did FOX think it was news? They labeled it as news, read the tagline.
Does that mean the first article was somehow bad or wrong? Not at all. However, it was a transparent attempt to sell a point of view as news. POV is great, but it belongs on the opinion or feature page.
I'm not condemning FOX alone...both sides do it. I'm just getting tired of the media mixing news and opinion and hoping we're all idiots and won't notice. |
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