Putin Wins

Putin's United Russia Party has won 62% of the vote with 34% of precincts reporting. The other non-Kremlin parties, including the Communists, are complaining that there were irregular circumstances. The opposition that actually opposes Putin has been in the news lately because the government has cracked-down on them. The chess player Gary Kasparov has been very active.

Because of the hostile atmosphere towards journalists in Russia, I thought it would be interesting to look at ABC coverage, in comparison to the Russian News and Information Agency.

The ABC story is much longer. Because it refers to something Americans probably don't know too much about, it spends the last 2 pages updating us on events that have already occurred. The crackdown on other opposition groups, criticisms of Putin's leadership, etc. In contrast, the RNIA just has an updates on voting totals.It then reassures the public that his party will not change the constitution. Finally, it ends with quotes form the Communist party (who play the role of the "loyal opposition" to Putin), citing voting irregularities and promising legal action. There was no mention of Kasparov or the boycott by his party. It's interesting, because not knowing whether Kasparov is just a Western fixation (like Nader) or whether he's actually a power in politics that is not being covered by the media (like Ron Paul) for whatever reasons.

A "Black Friday" for decent journalism

I was going to compare the Star Trib (I couldn't find link but it's in the paper paper ) and Pi Press articles about Black Friday because, even before I looked, I knew there would be a ton of them. Along with fluff about the state fair, stories about this horrible shopping day are a tradition in place of real news. But then I looked at the Pi Press article and it just didn't seem adequate. It's just the typical story about shopping. It doesn't hold up at all to the ST's title, "A Kinder, Gentler Black Friday." First off, three reporters contributed to the story. This isn't all, remember the ST has a new direction. They also have an article all about SUI (Shopping while Under the Influence). I'm always amazed that the media hypes this horrific occasion so much, if it were any other destination that was busy and clogged they would deter people.

In any case. The premise of the main article is that this "Black Friday" isn't as crazy as previous ones have been. My favorite phrase in the lead is,"Reports of orderly gift-buying broke out all over the Twin Cities." The mixture of journalist-speak with such an inane topic strikes me as more gross than funny. Ok, I get it. This isn't a serious story. The reporters are having fun with it. The public wants to read about it. To tell you the truth I'm a little relieved that we didn't see the typical day-after-thanksgiving profile: Three generations of women who annually wake up at 3 am to go shopping together. Thanks Star Tribune.

The meat of this story is a discussion of how much tamer BF is this year. It touches on the economic problems like housing and jobs, but the experts they spoke to, managers and retail experts, veer away from this much more interesting topic. Instead it focuses on preparation of stores as the key to avoiding a mess. Too bad, the other story would have been more interesting.

Cable-box vandals arrested

Last week, three men were arrested for vandalizing cable boxes in Minneapolis. Both papers covered it at the time. However, the PP has somehow scooped the Trib on a Minneapolis story. They found a buddy of theirs that gave the motive for messing with cable boxes. It is the following: "He literally does this stuff because he thinks it's funny." Wow.

Ok, so the public IS wondering what these guys were up to. Explaining that they're just pranksters informs the public that they aren't anti-tv extremists or something. T.V. is safe. The question I would ask: How believable is this guy?

The reporter actually does a great job balancing these concerns. She goes to Xcel and the Comcast to try to confirm what this guy said were work histories. She also talks to cell phone providers to match his descriptions of pranks to actual events. Last she checked state records to confirm the convictions that this guy described. All in all she did a great job on what is more or less a stupid story (or a story about stupid people). She ends with a Comcast Spokesperson describing the huge risk of electrical shock. And even reports that she has tried to get interviews with the accused.

Chavez's constitutional challenge

USA Today has reprinted an AP article about how Chavez trailing in his attempts to amend the Venezuelan constitution. It seems that a Venezuelan company, Datanalasis, has found support for these constitutional amendments at 39% with 49% opposition. They interviewed about 1,800 people of all socio-economic and other sub-populations. In previous elections the company has accurately predicted Chavez's victories. I thought this would be an interesting story to discuss because we're looking at stats and polls in 3004 right now.

The story leads with the above info. Alread, the second paragraph explains that the company has consistently found accurate results for Chavez. This seems like an attempt to preempt criticisms of the company by Chavez supporters. That might seem strange for the United States (at least blatantly), but in Latin America, with such a history of outside and elite intervention including coups, this is just being realistic.

The next important info explains the numbers and survey. Only after that does it segue into what the heck the constitutional amendment is about. It actually only gives a little information about it, I would have appreciated some background of WHY Chavez wants these changes and what the general criticism would be.It closes with info on how the interviews were conducted before closing with a statement connecting about Chavez and his connection to Castro.

Russian authorities crack down on opposition

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune reported today that opposition demonstrations are being repressed, and that Gary Kasparov, the former chess champion, is among those arrested.

First off, I'm glad to see a foreign correspondent reporting this, it's feeling pretty rare to have more than AP stories. As far as the story itself, my impression is that it would be difficult to write. There's a lot going on and deciding which aspects to focus on, and which to ignore, is a challenge. On one side you have Putin leading his party for another election, you have repression of all opposition parties except the Communists who have a sort of alliance with Putin's right-wing party, you have elections coming up next week, you have Putin's party accusing the West of interfering in Russian politics and you have leaders of all these parties being jailed. That's a lot for one story.

The writer, of course, does a great job of condensing all that information, as well as putting it into a chronology that eases the reader into the depths of the story.

It begins with the current crackdown. Paragraph tow gives details. Paragraph three explains what the "pro-democracy" group that is being repressed is. Paragraphs seven and eight explain the Russian electoral system. The closing paragraphs describe Putin's accusations that the West is behind all civil unrest. It closes with an creepy, communist-era (or Chicago '68) quote from the police accusing the demonstrators of disorder.

Angela Benson of WCCO could scab for striking writers in L.A.

My headline is different than the Star Tribune's. It's actually centered around Paul Magers, the former Twin Cities anchor at channel 11. It seems that the writers he works with might be going on strike soon. The story describes the situation, what Mager's role will be, and then segues into another local angle; how Benson will be required to fill-in for striking workers. Although this story is written in that gossipy entertainment news voice, it still contains some interesting reporting. I think though, that this buries the more interesting story underneath the Paul Magers references. There's more reporting to do too. What is WCCO's connection to this other station? What about workers here? What attention would this get WCCO from unions? Etc. There's a super interesting story in there, I think.

Torture adviser has been trained in torture

The Asheville Global Report had an article that i haven't heard anything about anywhere else. It turns out that an adviser for homeland security has practiced water-boarding in Navy training, and considers it torture. The story introduces the technique of water-boarding. It then covers the debate about whether it is torture and introduces the adviser who they say has embarrassed the Bush Administration. The thing I found particularly interesting was his explanation of the technique. Every other article I've read has described it as "simulated drowning." From what the adviser says it's actually a limited drowning. The lungs are filling up with water. The fact that this hasn't been widely reported otherwise is pretty disturbing, meaning journalists weren't examining the practice closely enough. The repercussions or follow-ups for this story could involve the administrations response, or even journalist's reflections on why they weren't informed as to the extent of the practice.

Obama criticizes Clinton for NAFTA

Obama criticized Clinton's support of NAFTA and other free-trade agreements during a speech for a chapter of the United Auto Workers of America today. The AP covered it extensively. I'm interested in how free-trade became the focus of the story.

It seems like the first thing that set it up was the context. Obama was speaking to a chapter of the UAW, jobs are obviously the focus of unions. Secondly, Clinton has taken some flack for her husbands support of these trade agreements so there's some sort of history. This last point also gives the opportunity to quote Edwards, who has been very vocal critic of Clinton's connection to the "establishment" in Washington. Third, the writer is then able to go to the PR people for the campaigns to get additional quotes. Like this: "It must be the silly season, because this is getting ridiculous," Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said." I don't really know what that means, and it's interesting because the PR hacks can say pretty much whatever they want, and no one really holds them to it. And there's the story. In this case though, for all its length, I think the article says very little. It's mostly chatter. It does manage to give the candidate's individual stances on free-trade agreements in the last lines, in my opinion it would have been beneficial to the readers to know what the candidates really do rather than how their PR people do it.

Robert Fisk interview on Vice Magazine

Vice Magazine is a hybrid of print and electronic journalism. It started out as a smarmy hipster 'zine years back, but recently they've started to cover important issues that mainstream media won't touch. They went to Iraq and talked to refugees and did a profile of a metal band. Their reporting is more magazine-style, but it's still an interesting case of a new type of journalism for the internet age. Although much of the reporting in Vice is done in their multimedia format, VBS, they still cover a good deal of stuff in print. A recent article that I thought was interesting, and relevant to journalism, is an interview with Robert Fisk. It deals with Fisk's experiences as an international reporter, how it's changed since the "War on terror" and how people interact with him.

He's certainly up there with Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite as widely-respected representatives of journalism, which itself isn't widely respected. Some of the more interesting points was of how coverage has changed. He's highly critical of the lack of street reporting in the Middle East. He talks about how the risk of being abducted is balanced by the need for the public to know. It's an awesome statement for a reporter who was almost killed a couple years back.

Scholtes leaves City Pages

The City Pages always reports on the sorry state of local media in their weekly blotter. It's too bad there's no one to report on them. Since the City Pages editor, Steve Perry left, they've been leaking talent. In all honesty though, we probably have to go back to when the City Pages and Twin Cities Reader were both bought by supposedly independent Village Voice. They killed the Reader and streamlined the city pages. Revenue is probably up.

Perry had always covered more politics, and done mroe investigations than other VV media. If you've noticed, since he left it's been music feature after spectacular feature like a day in the life of a stripper. There haven't been the same boring features about Roseville politics (that turned out to be interesting). The City Pages has pretty much given up the ghost. They're a weekly entertainment periodical.

My point, Scholtes left now, and there's two mentions of it. One comes via Twin Cities Daily Planet from Minnesota Monitor, and the other from City Pages itself. The Monitor The reporting of the monitor isn't right-on.The writer provides a lot of context and conjecture, however, I think he's probably saying what no other locla media would dare to say. That the management of the CP is driving good people away and replacing them with anyone who will happily toe the line.

"Scholtes' departure adds to a list of familiar bylines that have left the paper this year, a group that includes Britt Robson, G.R. Anderson, Mike Mosedale, Beth Hawkins, Rob Nelson, Michael Tortorello, Jim Walsh and editor Steve Perry."

That's the insinuation anyways.

The City Pages, in contrast, only talks about how sad they are to see him go. No context of course. What affect does corporate consolidation have on media? On formerly independent media? Maybe related is another story I read today about the FCC trying to extend Clinton's media consolidation of Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The Plague breaks out? (And we're not talking about Ug Boots)

A Wildlife biologist at Grand Canyon State Park died after being infected with the plague, presumably by a mountain corpse he dissected. This is not uncommon in the southwest for a reason which neither the article in the Arizona Republic or the Med Headlines tells us. But, in any case, it is a spectacularly frightening thing so please report it in brief everywhere. I'm not sure if med headlines is a newspaper or what, maybe they just compiled their stats from other sources, but it's still relevant because each of these publications targeted a different audience and adjusted their information accordingly.

The Arizona Republic piece was picked up by USA Today. It revolves around the guy, how he caught it, what his job was and how he would be buried. The Med one revolves around medical issues of all things. In this one the first thing that catches your eye is a graphic showing how bubonic plague is passed from rats (the rat in the graphic is also impossibly cute, I can say this because I have experienced rats with my own eyes and they are nothing like the cuddly creature pictured), to a flea, to a human. The article itself is brief but it focuses more on how the disease was transmitted, what the common carriers are, where and who normally gets infected. It's information relevant to medical staff and doctors while the Arizona Republic is a human-interest story largely revolving around the man himself.

The Democratic Party parties in Iowa

Last night the Democrats candidates for president attended the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa. It was everything that you might expect if you've been following the election narrative that has dominated articles in past weeks. There are three front-runners: Clinton, Obama and Edwards. O and E are finally criticizing C, who is in the lead. She is increasingly vulnerable and the latest polls show her lead slipping, however, O and E are "dueling" to be the C alternative and any opposition to her is divided amongst the other lower-tier candidates. The New York Times released an article covering almost exactly these points. However, and I'm as surprised at this as anyone, MTV bucks the trend and instead releases an article that bucks this narrative and focuses on the Democrat's opposition to Bush. Whether this is a blog or just an informal news article though, I can't tell. Only the last lfew paragraphs gives it away as a blog, otherwise it seems to me to be a news article, it even has a dateline. This blurring of news and blogs on media sties isn't new, it should probably be addressed more clearly though.

I'm relieved that MTV did something different, and actually points out something that would be difficult for the NY Times to ever say, that politics isn't about pageantry but about issues.
"Of course, it's easy to think that none of this, really, has anything to do with leading the free world. That chants and signs and buttons are good for the homecoming game, but they aren't going to stabilize Iraq or up your take-home pay. But if you can inspire someone to make a giant star-spangled top hat out of poster-board or to spell out your name in eight-foot tall letters festooned with Christmas lights, then maybe, just maybe, you can inspire a nation as well."

What an interesting statement to make during such a media-hyped event. Especially after that Pew Center poll of a couple weeks back that said the media hasn't been fulfilling the publics desire for real issues during election coverage.

I've stayed pretty close to the coverage of the Democrat primary, it seems like I've seen so many articles like NY TImes what, instead of showing differences, focus on the insults and slights of the candidates. Not to say the MTV article provides too much insight, but at least it's a different perspective, and, as someone who reads way too many news articles every day, I appreciate that.

Troy Williamson collects bereavement pay

Troy Williamson, receiver for the Vikings, attracted national attention when the Vikings docked his pay for missing last weeks game to attend his grandmother's funeral. It's not common for players to miss games, and the Vikings, like most NFL teams provide no paid time off for bereavement. However, it attracted a lot of attention from the ever-active sports radio world and the Vikings once again reversed course by announcing Saturday that they would pay him his $22 grand. Williamson will donate the funds to a charity in his grandmother's name.

The story was covered by both the Star Tribune and the http://www.twincities.com/vikings/ci_7429056. The stories were substantially the same, they cover the history of the controversy, how Childress changed his mind and Williamson's reaction to the change. However, in keeping with our recent focus on "reporting," there are a couple insightful quotes that make a difference.

The ST has what is perhaps the most quote by Williamson, it really sums up the whole debacle. "I'd throw this football thing away for my family." One has to wonder how this might change the feelings of the hyper-sensitive sports-talk world. And what a different impression it gives from the PP end-quote, which they took from a press release by WIlliamson's agent. "My wish is that the issue is over and that I can now go about being a football player." The difference in quotes almost creates different stories. While the release by Williamson's agent was practical and, all in all, probably the smartest move to avoid controversy. The direct quote by Williamson himself, probably relatively emotional, gave more insight into the scandal, more understanding for the reader of why it even happened.

Another shooting in North Minneapolis

Once again there's been a shooting in North Minneapolis. It happened at a birthday party for a 21-year-old. An 18-year-old was killed and another man was injured. It's a shame and tragedy. (I'm guessing that Nick Coleman is going to write a story about it.) The Star Tribune covered it like it was an action film. The Pi Press gave it a brief mention, merely numbers of dead and wounded from the police report.

Although Minneapolitans might congratulate themselves on how progressive they are, the fact is that much like there are two Americas, North and South (and Texas), there are two Minneapolis' (and Minneapolis, Kansas). It's commonly listed in the top five most segregated cities in the country, people in South might not see evidence of this, but, North is the reason.

I used to live in North Minneapolis. Albeit in the only house of white people on the block, but it was a whole different world as far as infrastructure that exists (no grocery stores, no clubs, no bars, etc.). There are some youth centers and some highly-trafficked liquor stores. But, all in all, there's nothing to do. In my limited experience I would think that if there was something to do, you wouldn't so often get these kids killing each other or bystanders. In this case it was an 18-year-old and a 21-year-old. But this observation isn't usually reflected in city policy which, apart from some limited economic development, mostly ignores North. And the stories that cover crime never touch on it.

I looked into the racial disparity in the newsrooms of the local papers, from 2002 stats it looks like they've almost doubled in the previous ten years. Respectively, from 7% to 14% and 12% to 18%. I think in this case though it's less of an easy subject to slide into the generic "people of color" label. That, obviously, reflects many different ethnicities and experiences, including, the very valid one of economy and education. Obviously there's little to do about the education, someone without a high school diploma probably can't write up to level for a metropolitan newspaper. But, something I've spoken with my roommate about, who is a producer at MPR, is that so many people in the media come down the same career path. Pretty nice high school and privileged background, to a nice college, maybe grad school, and then straight into the media world of internships and careers. Not to say that it's an easy path necessarily. But how does it skew the perceptions of the reporters?

Sometimes from this crime in North articles I get the feeling that I'm reading the same story time and again. When crime happens in other areas, more context is provided, more sympathy is shown to the victims and their families. Is this relevant to the background of the reporters and editors?

This isn't only relevant to crime in high-poverty areas.How does someone in a skilled white collar career like journalism relate to no-collar or blue-collar workers in a labor dispute? How does someone who never interacts with illegal immigrants cover their stories? Or minimum-wage workers for people who've never struggled except with student loans? Barbara Ehrenriech addressed some of these issues years back, but it was controversial in educated circles who said she was just playing and not really living the true situation of working-class in America. So are those the options, go live forever as a working-class person, or just give up (and maybe pretend that working people don't really exist?)? Obviously not. But, there's no easy answer, just a dialog.

How big a deal is vodka in school?

Both local papers decided to run pieces on four girls who were drinking in class. The Star Tribune has a much longer piece. The Pioneer Press, as usual even though it's their territory, is much briefer. TO sum it up, four girls drank vodka out of a water bottle during science class. One of them had trouble walking down stairs and the others refused to wear their safety goggles. I always hated those safety goggles too. WE all wonder, what in the world possessed these girls to get drunk DURING class. Maybe after, maybe even before, but what's the fun during class. But to me this is not really newsworthy. I can think of more than a couple high school classmates who were drunk or stoned at school, I don't think it's particularly admirable but I also think that reporting on it makes it into a bigger, and more shocking, deal than it is. Isn't it in some journalists code of ethics not to pander? It wasn't long ago that 18 year olds could drink legally in Minnesota. Kids are usually dumb, getting the story in the paper seems excessive for something so common and silly seems stupid. It doesn't give insight into any school policies or even any trend among students. All in all I think it's not worth the space that the ST gave to it, maybe the PP length is more legitimate in this case.

Ultra-orthodox jews and business

Today the New York Times included an interesting piece about business appeals to ultra-orthodox in Israel. I thought it was interesting because it took the angle of attempts to gain their business and combined it with what turned out to be almost a profile piece of the community.

It starts out by giving an example of how the ultra-orthodox guy uses his cell phone. It explains how the Rabbi must approvde it and what the differences are with other phones. it then segues into an explanation of who ultra orthodox are, what, generally, their requirements are, where they live, and how many.

The next section goes into the growing sector of business that appeals to ultra orthodox, showing a diversity. It then gives an example of a pizza shop owner who was closed and threatened by them. This is almost the signal for transitioning into more extensive critiques. They tell another story some people who were attacked. It's interesting but I'm not sure the second case was related to this angle. It demonstrated how their restrictions on themselves can lead them to try and restrict others but it wasn't related to economy in this case, like it was in the first example.

in this case I would have liked a little more background about who these people are. How did they form (actually they have a super interesting history that you wouldn't expect, it's relatively youthful movement even though it looks very very old.)