Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Analysis:

The AP article states that Republicans have “reached a White House-backed compromise to renew broad powers granted to law enforcement agencies in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks on American soil.” There is some mention of the other parts of the Patriot Act that are being negotiated by the White House such as law enforcement access to personal data and a 4-year extension on what are called roving wiretaps. Although the article says that “bipartisan criticism flared,” the only dissenting voices quoted are those is of Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy.

There were several sections of the original version omitted from the Press version as you can see below. The most important part was a quote from 6 critics, 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans who said “We still can, and must, make sure that our laws give law enforcement agents the tools they need while providing safeguards to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans.” The larger omission however, was that no other voices or perspectives are provided than that of government officials. This is too big an issue to ignore what citizen groups are saying about the Patriot Act and civil liberties considering how many cities and states have passed resolutions against the current USA Patriot Act. The story could have sought out comments from the ACLU or the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, both national groups which have a taken a critical position on the Patriot Act. It is also important to mention that nowhere in the story is the legislation cited or where readers could find it in order to make an informed decision when contacting their Representatives and Senators.

Story:

Patriot Act agreement reached
WASHINGTON – (AP) Key Republicans from the House and Senate reached a White House-backed compromise Thursday to renew the broad powers granted to law enforcement agencies in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks on American soil.

GOP leaders pledged to pass the Patriot Act extension for President Bush’s signature by the holidays, although bipartisan criticism flared. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., threatened to filibuster a bill he said lacked adequate safeguards to protect constitutional freedoms.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the measure would assist “in the detection, disruption and dismantling of terrorist cells before they strike.”

Important parts involve the ability of law enforcement officials to gain access to a wealth of personal data, including library records, as part of investigations into suspected terrorist activity.

The measure provides a four-year extension of the government’s ability to conduct roving wiretaps – which may involve multiple phones – and to seek access to many of the personal records covered by the bill.

White House officials signaled their satisfaction, and Specter has credited Vice President Dick Cheney with intervening this week to help bring the House and Senate together.
Critics from the left and right said the legislation was a bad deal.

“Taking away our rights does not make us safer,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., one of several lawmakers in both parties demanding changes in the measure.

Text from the original article ommitted from the Grand Rapids Press version:

“We hammered out what I think is a good bill. … Not a perfect bill, but a good bill,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who announced the compromise at a news conference in the Capitol.

Also extended for four years is the power to wiretap “lone wolf” terrorists who may operate on their own, without control from a foreign agent or power.

Six critics, three from each party, said in a statement, “We still can, and must, make sure that our laws give law enforcement agents the tools they need while providing safeguards to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans.”

Republicans said they intended to proceed without further changes.
The agreement capped weeks of fits and starts and came after a day of confusion and mixed signals.

Analysis:

This article was written by a reporter from the Associated Press and was on the back page of the business section. It is a fairly long article and it explains how oil production levels and revenues in Iraq have dropped far below pre-war levels and also below the levels projected by pre-war planners. The article states that these drops in production have been the result of the ongoing insurgency which has targeted oil infrastructure and pipelines. In the article several experts from various investment and oil research firms are quoted, including PVM Vienna, PFC Energy, Barclays bank, and Energy Intelligence Research. These experts predict in the article that oil production in Iraq in 2006 will either stay the same as the preceding year or drop lower.

No other voices or perspectives are provided in this article which is framed entirely on the issue of what Iraq’s oil production levels are, and whether they are going up or down. It is taken as a given in the article that increased production is a good thing and that it will help the Iraqi people. At no point is it asked who will really benefit from an increase in Iraqi oil production. A new report entitled “Crude designs: the rip off of Iraq’s oil wealth” reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64 per cent of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies. This report, co-written by the Groups the New Economics Foundation and War on Want, warns that the current oil contracts being given in Iraq guarantee US and UK oil companies massive profits, with rates of return of 42 per cent to 162 per cent. Telling readers how much oil Iraq is producing is certainly a fact worth reporting on but it only gives the reader part of the story. It is only by telling the reader who actually is benefiting from Iraqi oil production that this information has much value in helping the reader understand some of the motivations and actions of the various actors in Iraq.

Story:

Iraq oil production declining this year
By Jim Krane
The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Despite President Bush’s optimism on Iraq’s reconstruction, the country appears set to pump less crude in 2005 than last year’s disappointing showing and far less than under Saddam Hussein.

The only bright spot for Iraq’s oil sector, hampered by unrelenting insurgent attacks on its infrastructure, is that near-record oil prices have softened the blow by boosting export earnings.

“The general integrity of Iraqi oil infrastructure appears to us to be heading backwards rather than forwards,” London-based Barclay’s Capital said in a report issued Thursday.

The attacks have made it all but impossible to attract foreign expertise needed to rejuvenate Iraq’s rusty oil infrastructure, drill new wells or take any number of steps toward increasing production or exports.

Legal disputes between Iraq’s provinces and central government about ownership of oil is also keeping investors away, said Jamal Qureshi, an oil analyst with PFC Energy in Washington.

“Iraq has a lot of potential, but lots of things have to go right,” Qureshi said. “We see no sign of that happening.”
Iraq has tumbled a long way since the heady days of 1990, when it pumped about 3.5 million barrels a day, its peak production year. Since then, wars, sanctions and neglect have left the industry in tatters.

Nobody has definitive numbers on Iraq’s oil production, but analysts say daily production this year will average about 1.8 million barrels per day, about 10 percent less than 2004 levels of about 2 million barrels — and just over half 1990 levels.

“It’s another disappointing year,” said Sharif Ghalib of Energy Intelligence Research in New York.
Analysts say 2006 looks just as gloomy, although some predicted it would show an improvement.

“Anything above 2 million barrels per day would be a positive surprise for next year,” said David Wech, an oil analyst with PVM Oil Associates in Vienna.

In his speech Wednesday, Bush said Iraq is making quiet, steady progress in repairing its shattered economy, though reconstruction “has not always gone as well as we had hoped” because of violence. Bush did not mention Iraq’s oil sector, which is responsible for almost all of Baghdad’s export earnings.

Ghalib expects incessant insurgent sabotage to continue to hamstring the sector, even after next week’s elections. Iraqi production in 2006 will remain flat at about 1.8 million barrels a day, with exports of 1.3 million barrels a day, Ghalib predicted.

“There’s nothing on the horizon that suggests things are going to calm down,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Iraqi oil ministry predicted crude production would reach 2.5 million or even 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2006.

“That’s pie in the sky,” Ghalib said. “It’s not going to happen.”

In November, Iraqi crude exports plunged to 1.2 million barrels per day, one of the lowest levels since the country restarted oil shipments after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The pain has been offset by a climb in oil prices, boosting oil export earnings. This year’s oil revenues are expected to hit $23 billion, almost a third higher than the $17.5 billion in 2004, according to a government report cited by Dow Jones Newswires.

But oil ministry figures say insurgent attacks since 2003 have cost Iraq about $11.35 billion in lost revenue and infrastructure damage as of May 2005.

Iraq’s sputtering oil sector has defied prewar optimists led by Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who hoped booming exports from an America-friendly Iraq could rebuild the country and cut America’s reliance on Saudi crude.

The attacks take much of the blame, directly or indirectly, for crippling Iraq’s production and exports.

Saboteurs have been able to keep Iraq’s northern export pipeline to Turkey almost constantly shut since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. They have also occasionally halted exports from Iraq’s two Persian Gulf oil terminals in the south.
Attacks and power outages have caused delays for tanker ships arriving at Iraq’s Gulf terminals to take on oil, leaving the oil ministry paying as much as $30 million in “demurrage” charges to shipping companies, Dow Jones reported.

On Thursday, nine tankers were anchored off Basra Oil Terminal waiting to take on crude, five of which had been waiting since late November, said Mohammed Hadi, head of Iraq operations for Norton Lilly International.

Analysis:

Considering that there have been few stories recently in the local TV news about the aftermath of Hurricaine Katrina, viewers should ask themselves to ask why WOOD 8 would they run this particular story. The local TV stations have, according to our monitoring work at GRIID, a marked tendency to show irrelevant, non-local stories if they are accompanied with video containing violence or people getting hurt. In these piece, no details are provided to explain what the causes of this school violence are, and more importantly, no information is given as to what plight of the citizens of New Orleans that have been displaced. Although it is not specifically mentioned, from the images shown in this story, it appears that most of the students fighting and being arrested are African American. In September of this year, GRIID hosted a public forum on the state of local media and gave people a chance to speak directly to representatives from both WZZM 13 and WOOD 8. In attendance was an African American man who had just arrived in Grand Rapids from New Orleans, and he pleaded with the local media to be more careful of how the depicted African American victims of Katrina. He spoke of seeing people there working together in very positive ways to overcome an incredibly difficult disaster situation, and yet, he felt the media focused primarily on negative images, such as the infamous “looters” and the unsubstantiated reports of the so-called “horrors” inside the superdome. This story of New Orleans students fighting illustrates what the man at the forum was talking about, a story painting Katrina victims in a negative light while giving the viewer no real information about their plight.

Story:

WOOD 8 Newsreader – A big brawl at a Texas High School today between kids from Houston and a group from Hurricaine Katrina. From New Orleans. Thirty students were arrested, some appeared to be resisting. School leaders say it all started in the cafeteria then spread throughout the school. Police arrested fifteen students from the Houston area and fifteen from New Orleans. A school district spokesperson said this is the twelfth or thirteenth fight involving Katrina evacuees at Houston schools.

Total Time: 30 seconds

Analysis:

This is a very brief but typical example of local TV news reporting in that it only presents one voice, that of a government offical. This piece serves as basically a soundbite for the president, providing no critical analysis of his comments. It is noted that he addressed the Council on Foreign Relations, a group that “has been critical of the president’s policies”, but it is not noted how or why they have been critical of the president’s policies. This adherence to “official sources” is common amongst all three local TV stations and is not limited to coverage of the President. On issues concerning governmental policy, the views of government officials are often reported uncritically, while the views of non-governmental organizations and people are often ignored.

Story:

WXMI Newsreader – A tough crowd for president Bush during his speech on Iraq today. The president spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Most of the audience has been critical of the president’s policies in the past. Mr. Bush told the crowd there have been stumbling blocks along the way to peace in Iraq, bat says progress is being made everyday.

Bush – We’re helping the new Iraq government reverse decades of economic destruction, reinvigorate its economy, and make responsible reforms. We’re helping Iraqis to rebuild their infrastructure and establish the institutions of a market economy.

Newsreader – President Bush’s speech comes a little more than a week before Iraq’s scheduled elections on December 15.

Total time: 38 seconds

Analysis:

The story is based upon the book of an Emory University neuroscientist named Gregory Berns. He has a new book out entitled “Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment,” but viewers wouldn’t know this because the channel 13 story never provides the source of the research they mention. They only quote one shopper and then end the story with an appeal for people to go to their website and vote on whether or not shopping makes them happy.

There is no real information to support the claim that shopping makes you happy, except that they said that shopping releases dopamine in your system. The news reader simply says that “Dopamine is a chemical that stimulates pleasure.” Later in the story they also say “But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because in can lead to blowing your budget.” So while the story makes the claim that shopping gives you pleasure, it warns you about spending too much, which seems disingenuous since channel 13 then encourages viewers to send it shopping stories. Another aspect of this piece was that it appears to be a Video News Release. The video footage used does not appear to be local and when I looked online for the author of the book on this subject I came across his university, Emory, which had a link to recent video news releases that the school has produced based on their research.

Story:

Newsreader #1 – Well there is now medical evidence to prove that shopping makes you feel better.

Newsreader #2 – Now not necessarily the part where you pay, but the hunt for the perfect present actually creates higher levels of dopamine, which is the chemical that stimulates pleasure.

Shopper – You’re on a hunt and you’ve been to every store to find a certain product and then all of a sudden you go and find it and you not only find it, you find it in your size. That is, that’s victory.

Newsreader #2 – But researchers say beware of the rush you get when you shop because it can lead to blowing your budget and you may eventually feel guilty after adding up those receipts. So what do you think? Does shopping make you happy? Let us know how you feel when you are hunting for the perfect gift or just shopping for yourself. Log on to WZZM 13.com and click on the poll 13 to vote, and we will have the results right after sports.

Total time: 50 seconds

Analysis:

On December 2nd, 3rd and 4th the Grand Rapids Press ran three stories about a local man kidnapped in Haiti. These stories were told primarily through the perspective of the Kidnapped man’s family and co-workers. Several quotes were provided in which the family members talk about what kind of work the kidnapped man was doing. At one point in the article the daughter and mother are quoted as saying that they hope the kidnapping “will serve as an awareness for the situation in Haiti and more people will want to help out down there.” Unfortunately, there is little contextual information provided in the two Grand Rapids press articles about the situation in Haiti. The only information given is that Haiti is dangerous and “gang-infested”, that “There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004 and that in 5 weeks elections will be held to “restore democracy.”

Except for these three articles about the kidnapped missionary, events in Haiti seldom receive much coverage in the local media. One important topic relating to Haiti that was substantially under reported in both the local and national press was the 2004 coup against then-president Jean Paul Aristide and the US government’s role in that event. Independent news sources reported at the time of the 2004 coup that the US government had been covertly supplying the rebel forces and that they failed to take any action to stop the rebels until Aristide was out of power. Furthermore, journalists such as Amy Goodman reported that US agents actually kidnapped Aristide and flew him out of the country against his own will. So it is important to note that the US government is complicit in creating the current unrest caused by the departure of President Aristide. According to the media watchdog group “Project Censored”, U.S. involvement in the destabilization of Haiti was one of the top twenty five unreported stories of 2004. It should also be noted that the situation in Haiti, that is the extreme economic deprivation, is not solely a result of poor planning or bad luck on the part of the Haitians. Over the last two hundred years Haiti has been the victim of external manipulation by various governments and more recently international organizations like the International Monetary fund and World Bank. And yet these facts, which would help the reader have a better understanding of why Haiti is in the situation it is in, are very seldom reported on in the mainstream media.

Story:

Family buoyed by missionary’s release
Friday, December 02, 2005
By Theresa D. Mcclellan
The Grand Rapids Press
ZEELAND — Missionary Phillip Snyder, 48, of Zeeland, was released by kidnappers in Haiti shortly after 3:30 p.m. today, according to family members.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra confirmed the FBI told him Snyder has been released.

Snyder, whose family has been doing missionary work in Haiti for more than 30 years, was abducted earlier in the week. He had been shot in the arm during the abduction.

The FBI had responded and was part of the negotiations, as was Snyder’s son, Chad, 29, a missionary who relocated his family to Haiti three weeks ago.
The Zeeland missionary had been held in a gang-infested portion of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants who demanded $300,000 in cash, his family said.

The kidnappers also seized a 7-year-old Haitian boy named Chelton, who later was released. The boy’s father escaped the kidnappers.

Snyder, 48, is leader of GLOW Ministries, a Zeeland-based mission he created with his mother, Bettie, who has been involved in Haiti for more than 30 years. He visits Haiti every couple months, his family said.

Snyder’s wife said she received a call from him about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the family’s home. He told her he had been kidnapped and shot, she said, adding the Red Cross was allowed to examine him.

“The Lord has been miraculously buoying me up,” said Amber Snyder. “I am standing back amazed at the peace my kids and I have. We know that Phil is safe and will stay safe. There is no doubt in our minds, and I am amazed I have not broken down today.”

Phil Snyder was en route to the American Consulate with the child and the boy’s father to finalize a travel visa when they were abducted on a road north of the capital. The youngster has an eye bulging from its socket, and Snyder arranged for surgery at Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids.

Also Thursday, gunmen hijacked a school bus carrying 14 children Port-au-Prince. The separate kidnappings came five weeks before national elections are to be held to restore democracy and stability in this strife-torn, impoverished nation. But police said they did not appear to be politically related.

Police Commissioner Francois Henry Doussous spoke with Snyder’s kidnappers and Snyder by phone. Doussous said police believed the kidnappers brought Snyder to the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs blamed for much of the violence in the capital.

“This is purely criminal activity; the gangs need money,” he said.
Snyder grew up in Haiti with his parents.

“He is a man who loves the people of Haiti,” said Ray Renner, of Anderson, Ind., vice president of GLOW’s board. Renner is a longtime friend of Snyder’s mother, who remains in Haiti and has e-mailed Renner.

Amber Snyder, 38, said this was the first time her husband was to bring someone out of Haiti for medical purposes. She is a Zeeland native and is being supported by friends and family, including her parents, Bob and Cathy Tift.

The Snyder’s daughter, Kimberly, 19, said people came to her family’s Zeeland home Thursday to pray and bring food.

Kimberly Snyder believes her father was taken because he is American.

On Nov. 22, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning to Americans regarding Haiti. The alert warned of potential looting, roadblocks set up by armed gangs, carjackings and assaults in what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“Kidnapping for ransom remains a particular threat with over 25 American citizens, including children, kidnapped over the past year,” the travel warning stated.

On Nov. 2, Haitian police rescued three young children of Oklahoma missionaries kidnapped by gangs dressed as police.

Kidnap victim kept faith
Saturday, December 03, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Before he left this week on his trip to Haiti, Phillip Snyder told a staffer at his family’s ministry he would see her when he got back — unless he was kidnapped.
Snyder, 48, who was released by armed attackers Friday after being held for two days, knew kidnapping for ransom was an everyday occurrence in the impoverished nation where he has worked for decades.

And if he was taken, Snyder said, it would be part of God’s plan.

“He always said God would use him to witness to the kidnappers,” said Teresa Prange, who runs the downtown Zeeland office of GLOW International Ministry.

The nonprofit organization’s focus is on community development, working with Haitian pastors and community leaders to provide education and meals for more than 2,000 children there.

The father of nine was shot in the shoulder and kidnapped Thursday by assailants demanding $300,000 from his family. He was freed nearly 36 hours later after his oldest son, Chad, and a team of a Haitian and U.S. officials negotiated his release.

While the kidnappers did receive money, it was a small amount, said his 72-year-old mother, Bettie Snyder, who has been a missionary in Haiti for more than three decades.
Bettie Snyder, reached on her cell phone there Friday, credited her grandson with playing a key role in his father’s quick release. She said she believes the kidnappers understood Snyder’s commitment to helping Haitians.

“I think it’s because of his work here,” she said of her son, who first went to Haiti 30 years ago to join his late father in mission work.

It was not disclosed who paid the ransom, but it did not come from GLOW, she said.
“There is no way we could have paid that money when we are feeding children with every dollar we have,” she said.

With the kidnapping behind them, the family has no plan to abandon their life’s work.
“We couldn’t leave our children. We love Haiti and these children. We have raised so many,” Bettie Snyder said.

This isn’t Phillip Snyder’s first brush with danger in Haiti. He left the country in 1991 after living there for 12 years because of threats to his life.

But he couldn’t forget the Haitians. In 1998, he, his wife, Amber, and his mother founded GLOW. Bettie Snyder lives most of the year in Haiti, while her son makes several trips there a year.

Local residents who have accompanied him are amazed at how revered Snyder is by Haitians.

“You go through Haiti on a truck and everybody yells ‘Phillip,'” said Prange, who, after her mission trip, joined the GLOW staff.

Bettie Snyder believes her son was kidnapped because he was driving down the wrong road at the wrong time of day.

“His problem is he left too early. In the morning, (kidnappers) lay in wait,” she said.
Amber Snyder, 38, said she never feared for her husband’s safety after he called her Thursday to tell her he had been shot and kidnapped.

“I explained that I had such a supernatural sense of peace, and there was no doubt in my mind he would be OK,” she said. “He said it was a good thing because he didn’t. He said ‘I thought I was going to be killed.'”
Although his capture was violent, he wasn’t abused physically during his ordeal, he told his wife.

He was held hostage with a 7-year-old Haitian boy he was preparing to bring back to West Michigan for eye surgery. With the exception of the first two hours, the two were together the entire time, Snyder told his wife.

They were driving to the U.S. Consulate in Port-au-Prince to complete paperwork for a medical travel visa when they were ambushed by the captors who riddled the recently purchased truck with bullets.

Since April, 28 Americans have been kidnapped in Haiti, according to U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland.

“It is a business in Haiti to kidnap people and hold them for ransom,” said Hoekstra, who visited the country five weeks ago.

Snyder couldn’t believe his kidnapping made national headlines.

“Everybody has been praying for you … literally from around the world. I even heard people in Africa were praying for you,” Amber Snyder told her husband Friday as she stood in the living room of their home.

Snyder told his wife he will need further medical treatment on his wounded shoulder. He plans to return home next week, along with the Haitian boy in need of surgery.
Haiti’s children always will be a priority for the Snyders.

“They are family to us. You don’t turn your back on your family,” Amber Snyder said.

Missionary’s passion for Haitians shared
Sunday, December 04, 2005
By Shandra Martinez
The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND — Phillip Snyder, the missionary who was shot, abducted and released in Haiti, is delaying his medical treatment so he can bring a boy to West Michigan for eye surgery.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Heather Medema, of Grand Rapids, a physician’s assistant who has led medical missions to Haiti as part of Snyder’s GLOW Ministries International, which stands for God’s Love for Orphans and Widows.

Snyder, of Zeeland, needs to have shrapnel removed from his shoulder. His abductors shot him Thursday when they ambushed his truck as he was traveling to the Haitian capital to secure a travel visa for the boy, 6. Snyder was released Friday.

Those who have accompanied Snyder on mission trips say they understand his passion for helping Haitians, especially children. It comes from seeing suffering up close.

Rick Kasten, of Holland, visited a village where Haitians were so sick, they could barely take care of themselves. The children’s severe malnourishment was evident by their orange hair and bloated stomachs.

“You go to a place like that and you are confronted about whether you are going to make a difference or not,” said Kasten, who provided money to open a school and support a program that feeds more than 200 children.

Medema said she organized mobile medical clinics during her mission trips. The painful part, she said, was being able to treat only a portion of the hundreds who waited hours seeking help.

Her goal is to start health clinics at GLOW-supported schools and expand the service to acute and chronic medical needs.

“We need to feed the kids first, get clean water, and then help train Haitians in health care so, if there is political unrest and Americans can’t come, their own people can take care of them,” Medema said.

There have been more abductions since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004. Authorities believe the kidnappers are members of gangs based in Cite Soleil, a sprawling seaside slum.

“The gangs need money,” Commissioner Francois Henri Doussous, head of Haiti’s anti-kidnapping unit, told The Associated Press.

Snyder’s captors were paid a small ransom, relatives said.

Despite the headlines, Medema said she hopes to take another mission trip to Haiti in the spring.

“It waxes and wanes as far as incidents,” she said. “The only thing this has done is open people’s eyes to what has been going for years.”

Analysis:

This story is in many ways a promotional piece about the new Microsoft X-Box. The area stores have sold out according to the reporter, who relies on comments exclusively from business such as Microsoft and Target stores. How does reporting to viewers that these new video games systems are selling out constitute as news? The reporter could have talked to gamers to find out about the popularity of the game and even more importantly the reporter could have spoken with the cultural/social impact of video game use or even looked at the working conditions in China, especially since the workers might have to put in extra hours to meet the demands.

Story:

WOOD TV 8 News reader – Long lines to get the latest version of the X-box today. Released just in time for the holiday shopping season, the trouble tonight most stores are out of them.

Reporter – We Sue if you are looking for the new X-box 360 you can stop looking for now. Retailers across West Michigan, including Target stores tell us they have sold out. Now earlier today 24 Hour News 8 asked Microsoft when the next shipments will arrive.

West Michigan video gamers were out in force, out in the cold and waiting in long lines, hopeful to land the newest X-box 360. Many getting the cold should when supplies of the console ran out. At the Target on 28th street the first guests were handed a ticket to keep order.

Business spokesperson – Oh man, those went in minutes it seems like. We had folks in here at 10:00 in the evening time, waiting and the stores doesn’t open up until 8:00 in the morning.

Reporter – It is a nationwide sellout. Microsoft, a console maker tells 24 hour news 8 that it’s 2 facilities in China are making X-box 360s as fast as it can. Loading them up headed for the US.

Microsoft Spokesperson – In the first 90 days we think we will sell 2 million to 3.75 million consoles.

Reporter – However that is not enough to meet the overwhelming demand. Games with better power and more graphics will have to wait for most X-box fans. Microsoft says retailers can expect deliveries every week, but it will be up to each retailer to decide how those new units will be allocated.

Now if you want the new 360 it will come on a first come first serve basis. When I spoke with Microsoft they said call retailers ahead of time and ask how many they plan on receiving and oh it might not be a bad idea to wait and save your money. These things are going for $300 to $400 depending on the model unit.

Total Time: 2 minutes and 5 seconds

Analysis:

This news story was nothing more than a 2 minute and 30 second commercial for a local Travel Agency called Travel by Gagnon and Royal Caribbean. The story is basically about a local woman who decided that she can’t make family vacation plans on her own, so she calls Travel by Gagnon. The local travel agent is the main news source in this story and her role is framed as someone who offers travel tips. The reality is that no real tips are offered when she says things like this “We know the ins and outs, we know what rules to follow, we know where the great deals are and the computer is not as smart as we are.”

A question for news viewers to ask here is how does this story present useful information for consumers? The travel agent was basically saying that the number one family vacation these days is to take your family on a cruise. Much of the story uses video footage provided by Royal Caribbean (such as the still photo from the news story) of people on cruise ships or in exotic tropical locations. The only information that is provided that might be beneficial for consumers is a price break down for a Caribbean cruise before and after the New Year, which is a difference between $2700 and $3800 dollars. The question for listeners is this, which families can even afford this type of a vacation? And what does this say about who WXMI 17’s target audience is?

Story:

WXMI Reporter – It is quite a process finding the perfect holiday vacation. Lots of things to consider, where to go, when, and the most important question how much is it going to cost? Lots of travelers search the web for answers. Pat Gruen used to be one of them.

Consumer – We decided after taking a little walk through the Internet, that perhaps we weren’t as good as we thought.

Reporter – That is when Gruen and her family turned their vacation plans over to a professional.

Consumer – When you go on the Internet you don’t have somebody to sit there across from you and ask you questions about where you want to go, what you want to do, what are you trying to accomplish.

Reporter – Joanne Kochnoeff, the owner of Travel by Gagnon, she is now helping the Gruens.

Business – We know the ins and outs, we know what rules to follow, we know where the great deals are and the computer is not as smart as we are.

Reporter – The next step, when to get away.

Business – If they are a little flexible on the dates when they can go, if they don’t have a vacation that is cut in stone, we can very often find a much better price just by looking at a different time frame.

Reporter – Here is an example of what Kochnoeff is talking about. Say you want to take a 7 night Caribbean cruise for 2, round trip airfare from Grand Rapids over Christmas. It will cost $3884.00, over New Year $3124.00, but look at this in January, $2735.00.

Business – If you go perhaps the week after New Year. You can save sometimes a thousand dollars on your vacation, just by tweaking that vacation, just a little bit. Computers don’t tell you that, travel agents tell you that.

Reporter – The Gruens will be cruising this holiday season.

Consumer – The expertise of having somebody know the ship, know what level of the ship to stay on, what rooms are available. They can describe the room to you.

Business – Cruises have become the number one family type vacation because they offer so many different options.

Reporter – and if cruising isn’t you then Kochnoeff says there are plenty of other popular destinations and these are calling your name.

Total Time: 2 minutes and 30 seconds

Analysis:

The article provides a summary of some of some of the things that the speaker presented, such as computer manipulations in the voting machines, voter roll purges and election rule changes. The article also mentions the person in Ohio responsible for some of this manipulation, J. Kenneth Blackwell, as well as mentioning Rep. John Conyers report and the government’s General Accounting Office study which also acknowledges that there was evidence of electoral fraud which led a loss of counted votes and a miscounting of votes in some cases.

The lecture presented many statistics and numerous examples of how the election was unfair on many levels, looking at instances in big cities like Toledo, Columbus and Dayton as well as smaller communities throughout Ohio, but none of those details were provided in reference to a specific community. The article does also mention the electronic voting machine company Diebold and its role in the voting results but referred to them as malfunctions. The speaker clearly said throughout the lecture that these were manipulations, as cited in the government’s own study. The article also refers to people who acknowledge voter fraud as “angry liberals unconvinced of the election’s legitimacy.” This is how much of the article was framed, by using language that dismisses the seriousness of the charges presented by Fitrakis. Even the headline reflects how the Press doesn’t take these claims seriously when it reads “Lecturer keeps conspiracy out there.”

Story:

Lecturer keeps conspiracy out there

By Steven Harmon

GRAND RAPIDS — Bob Fitrakis is accustomed to being labeled a conspiracy theorist and on the fringe. But that hasn’t stopped him from his relentless pursuit to keep alive the 2004 presidential election and the fraud he says occurred.
Fitrakis, an Ohio attorney and political science professor who observed the Ohio elections in 2004, accuses the Bush administration and Republican friends of stealing the 2004 election through a mixture of computer manipulations, voter roll purges and election rules changes.

He laid out his case to about 50 people at the Wealthy Street Theatre as part of the Community Media Center’s lecture series. Bush’s victory over U.S. Sen. John Kerry in Ohio by 119,000 votes put him over the top for his re-election, but sparked an underground movement of angry liberals unconvinced of the election’s legitimacy.

“What happened in Ohio was very well thought out,” said Fitrakis, a Columbus State University professor who attended Grand Valley State University in 1978. “It was no accident. Much can be linked to Karl Rove and J. Kenneth Blackwell,” President Bush’s senior political adviser and Ohio’s Secretary of State, who also was the state’s chairman of Bush’s re-election committee.

Much of Fitrakis’ work has been cited by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, who requested an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, which recently produced a report upholding some of the complaints.

The non-partisan GAO report found that, “some of (the) concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

Malfunctions in election computers, many of which were designed by Diebold Inc., whose owner promised to “deliver” Ohio to Bush, led to flawed vote counts, Fitrakis said. In one precinct with fewer than 700 voters, for instance, more than 4,000 votes for Bush were tabulated, he said. That mistake was corrected.

Fitrakis, who calls himself an independent voter, didn’t spare Democrats from his criticism. “Democrats have done little to challenge the obvious voter suppression,” he said. “It’s like they think if they behave well, this behavior will go away. It won’t. It will get worse.” Voters have a hard time believing “the corruption” of their votes because “we’ve been socialized to believe nobody would do that,” Fitrakis said.