An Informed Vote My Ass
In yesterday’s Grand Rapids Press, editor Paul Keep ran is usual Sunday column. The focus for this week’s column was on the efforts that the Press has made to provide readers with information for the November 2nd Election.
The title of his column in the print version of the paper was, “Prepare yourself to cast an informed vote on Nov. 2.” As someone who monitors the Press and the information it provides to people on candidates and ballot initiatives I find it hard to take Mr. Keep’s comments seriously. The Press editor mentions three things that he believes will help voters make informed decisions – the Michigan 10.0 series, their online voter guide and Keep calls their “day to day, blow by blow news coverage.”
First, just because the Press did a series of stories they called Michigan 10.0 doesn’t mean they provided people with important information relevant to the elections. GRIID has been tracking those stories and providing some analysis. We found both significant bias in stories that dealt with both environmental issues specific to Michigan and labor issues, specifically the “right to work” question. The bias in these stories and the series as a whole overwhelmingly represented the views of business people or people in positions of authority. Rarely, did readers of the Michigan 10.0 series get the perspective or working class people or grassroots organizations.
Second, while the online voter guide does have information and candidate responses to questions posed by the Press editorial staff, it does not provide an investigative element that journalism should provide. The online voter guide provides responses from candidates, but there is no investigation into the claims they make. Having a reporter investigate those claims, do some fact checking and provide context for readers would make the online voter guide more relevant.
Also, the online voter guide is just that, online. Why doesn’t the Press provide voters with this information in print well before Election Day, so that people can easily access the information instead of having to go online? It can’t be a matter of using too much print space, since the Press has included the ArtPrize venue/voter guide 6 times between September 7th and October 3rd. The Press will run on print version of their voter guide on October 26, but it will only have “excerpts of what is online.”
Lastly, the Press editor claims they are providing “day to day and blow by blow coverage.” This simply isn’t true. The link that Paul Keep includes in his column only has eight articles in the last 30 days, which is a very low number, especially considering the amount of candidates and ballot issues that people will be deciding on. On top of that the articles are mostly about endorsements, candidate debate agreements and responses to attack ads. What voters are not getting on a day-to-day basis is information on where candidates stand on the issues or the voting records of incumbents and those who are running for a higher office.
The column by the Press editor ends with a list of upcoming election stories they plan to run, but these are not an adequate amount of stories that would provide voters with the necessary information in order to make an informed voter.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
if we simply vote for the elephants, in both elections, it kills two birds with one stone … vernon ehlers and the devos family will both be happy after years of service to our community.
cheers to the grand rapids press for simplifying everything and rewarding the people who help make grand rapids what it is.
Paul Keep has two major talents: self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. His columns are the perfect venue to show both of these off.
The election coverage of the Grand Rapids Press is pathetic, and so much of it are really opinion pieces, not news stories. The front page article in Sunday’s paper by Ted Roelofs was a perfect example. It described the utter hopelessness of the Democratic party in the face of the Republican “tsunami”, and was ridden with sentences like, “Experts are advising Democrats to keep their life jackets handy on Nov. 2.” and
“Somehow, in less than two years, ‘Yes, we can!’ became ‘Can we hang on?'”
Roelofs also used clever word choices throughout, as when he noted that David LaGrand “gamely” insists he still has a chance at winning.
To go from reading that article to Keep’s braggadocio over his paper’s “excellent” election coverage was especially galling.
I think Glenn is correct; according to the Press’s thinly veiled agenda, elephantine captitulation is the only course of action. Certainly every election year, the paper’s “coverage” seems to encourage us sheep to shuffle off in that direction.
It’s not that I think that there’s a genuine difference between the two parties, but some objective news reporting, with viewpoints from all economic classes and parties included, would be refreshing.
But the Press’s methodology under Keep’s tender care is clear-cut: Editorials disguised as news stories; advertisements disguised as feature articles. That’s why the election coverage on sites like GRIID becomes increasingly important.
yes, they helped make grand rapids potterville with an atrocious childhood poverty rate
the elephant man is from arizona, not potterville.
vernon ehlers is from canada, not potterville.
the devos family lives in ada, not potterville.
what am i missing?
the failure of the libs and moderates to challenge the %teabaggers* for the extremists they are has shifted the political spectrum to the right. counter rallies should have taken place in large numbers.
repubs are now extremely right and dems only speak to help the middle class, scared to mention helping the poor.
the idea that let them run, they will appear too extreme, it will help us, didn’t work
it sucks, but it looks like you choose the lesser of two evils in a town where jesus is magic and logic doesn’t exist
if we choose the correct congressman who might actually favor extending the school year like his party leader wants, it will help alot of people in the core with child care cost reduction.
How much election coverage does one really get from GRIID? Most of it is just criticizing the local media (primarily The Press) for their lack of coverage.
Greg, we are predominantly a media watchdog entity and have been since 1998. OUr function is not primarily to report on elections, although in the past year we have done that – covering debates, reporting on campaign finances, political ads and candidate stances on issues.
Having said that, the responsibility of the GR Press is to report on critical issues of the day, which would include elections, which our research has shown that it has mostly failed the public on this matter.
The Press is owned by Advance Communication, the 10th largest media company in the US, with a multi-million dollar budget. They can afford to hire more people to expand the Press coverage, sort of like they have done with the amount of ArtPrize coverage. GRIID, on the other hand, is an all volunteer entity.