Local News Media presents various opinions, but not facts during Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Grand Rapids

Last night former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at a GOP fundraiser in Grand Rapids. Many local commercial news outlets reported on her visit and a protest by people identified with Occupy Grand Rapids.

The Grand Rapids Press, WZZM 13, WXMI 17 and WOOD TV 8 all reported on Rice’s visit and all four of these news outlets reported on the protest against Rice, except WOOD TV 8. WOOD TV 8 reporter Rick Albin was the person who “interviewed” Condoleezza Rice at the GOP fundraising dinner and will run a long version of the “interview” on their Sunday show To the Point. How could anyone consider channel 8’s role in this GOP event with Rice as anything but objective, when a local TV station plays a major role in a fundraising event for the Kent County Republicans?

However, just because the other media outlets reported on the protest is not necessarily any indication that they fulfilled their role in conducting real journalism of Rice’s visit to Grand Rapids. Certainly one could argue that by presenting both Rice’s point of view and the protestors’ point of view, the GR Press, channel 13 and 17 were being objective in how they reported what happen last night. However, what each of these news outlets, along with channel 8, failed to do was to verify any of the claims made by Rice or the protestors. This is the real role that journalists should be playing, not just recounting what took place last night, but actually investigating the claims made by all parties involved.

That the local news agencies did not question or verify any of the claims made by Condoleeza Rice is not surprising, since in the lead up to the 2003 war and in the first months of the war the local news media acted more as stenographers to power than watchdogs, as is reflected in our 2003 report, Searching for the Smoking Gun: Local News Coverage of the US War in Iraq.

The WZZM 13 story did not include comments from Rice and focused mostly on the protestors. The Fox 17 story does provide comments from Rice and one protestor, but the amount of time is a few seconds to the protestor and nearly a minute of commentary to Rice.

The main claims that Rice makes are that Saddam Hussein took the region to war three times. It is true that Iraq went to war with Iran from 1980 – 1988, but Rice omits the fact that the US was financing Iraq during those years and providing the technology and resources for WMDs, as is substantiated in declassified US government documents. Rice also makes the claim that Saddam Hussein put 400,000 of his own people in graves, a serious accusation, which is not substantiated by the Fox 17 reporter and has no basis in actual human rights records. In addition, Rice claims that Iraq now has a chance to be a real democracy, which is an interesting claim, especially since the US used Paul Bremer to rewrite the Iraqi Constitution that would give Iraqis less say in their future and more access to foreign corporations to take over Iraqi resources.

The WOOD TV 8 story has Condoleezza Rice responding to Rick Albin was comments about 911, Iraq WMDs and the point that right now, “Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East.” Such a claim that is not verified by channel 8 ignores the fact that Israel has been the largest recipient of US military aid for 3 decades, receiving $3 billion dollars annually while they illegally occupy Palestinian land. This is hardly a shining example of democracy.

The Grand Rapids Press article follows a similar pattern by citing both protestors and Rice, but they have an additional story that is based on a separate interview with Rice. In this interview Rice makes many of the same claims as reflected in the other news coverage. However, in this interview she also makes the claim that the US removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq is what paved the way for popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

“When you start to loosen the pins in a system, a lot of things start to happen. Saddam Hussein was the most authoritarian, dictatorial leader in the region. I do believe that the removal of Saddam Hussein, but more importantly the freedom agenda that President Bush articulated in his second inaugural…put democracy on the agenda in a way it had had not been.”

The Press reporter does not verify such a claim, a claim that ignores the fact that the US has been a supporter of political repression in Tunisia and especially in Egypt, with numerous US administrations providing military and diplomatic support to Mubarak for decades.

The commercial media coverage of Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Grand Rapids provides us with just one more example of how mainstream media acts as stenographers to power. We must not be fooled by the appearance of “balance,” just because protestors are included in the coverage. Instead, we need to recognize the true role of commercial media as nothing more than an extension of the power structure in American society.