Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

Analysis:

Both stories were rather short and according to our monitoring work, this was the first time this issue was mentioned in local TV news coverage. The WZZM story started “The University of Michigan is welcoming Coca Cola to its campus. University officials dropped Coke purchases in December over the pop company’s’ labor practices in India and Colombia. Today U of M officials said they were satisfied with plans for investigations into the soft drink company’s practices. Michigan was one of twelve schools in the boycott against Coca Cola.” The WOOD 8 story was about the same length but did note that the specific complaints about Coca Cola that “In Columbia labor groups have accused the company in conspiring with right wing paramilitary groups to harass and harm workers.”

Both stories ignored the fact that this boycott was the result of a campaign organized not by university administrators but by students. This effort, entitled “Campaign To Boycott Killer Coke!” is part of an ongoing effort to hold Coke accountable for its pratices in Colombia and elsewhere. This was not mentioned in the TV stories, nor was it mentioned that the University ended the boycott against the wishes of the students who had organized the boycott effort, or that the nationwide coalition of groups that make up the Killer Coke campaign were still calling for boycotts. Also not presented in the TV stories were the actual specifics of the claims against Coke. The WZZM 13 story totally glossed over this point merely stating that there were problems with Coke’s “companys’ labor practices.” The WOOD 8 story was more detailed in that is noted that Coke had ties to Paramilitary groups in Colombia. According to the Killer Coke campaign, eight union organizers at Colombian Coke bottling plants have been killed by Paramilitary groups, and “Hundreds of other Coke workers have been tortured, kidnapped and/or illegally detained.” The WZZM 13 piece does mention that complaints have been leveled at Cokes plants in Inda as well but does not give any specifics. According to an article by Michael Blanding of the Nation, Coke bottling plants in India have lead to “polluted and depleted water supplies.”

Story:

WOOD 8 Newsreader – University of Michigan will buy Coca Cola again. U of M has agreed to resume the purchase of Coca Cola products. At least 12 schools that had joined a coke-boycott. They stopped buying Coca Cola products for vending machines in residence halls, cafeterias and campus restaurants on January 1st over allegations that the company commits human rights and environmental abuses overseas. In Columbia labor groups have accused the company in conspiring with right wing paramilitary groups to harass and harm workers.

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WZZM 13 Newsreader – The University of Michigan is welcoming Coca Cola to it’s campus. University officials dropped Coke purchases in December over the pop companys’ labor practices in India and Colombia. Today U of M officials said they were satisfied with plans for investigations into the soft drink company’s practices. Michigan was one of twelve schools in the boycott against Coca Cola.

Analysis:

This story fails to consult any sources to verify President Bush’s claims about the situation in Iraq. Does President Bush provide any proof that “terrorists” and “former regime elements” are behind the violence in Iraq? The viewer would not know based on this excerpt, nor does WOOD TV 8 provide any independent investigation of this claim.

Story:

WOOD 8 Newsreader – President Bush blames Saddam Hussein for much of the violence in Iraq-not the US presence there. In his third speech in Iraq this month, he said insurgents are using Saddam’s tactics as they kill and terrorize Iraqis and exploit sectarian divisions.

Bush – Today, some Americans are asking why Iraqi people are having such a hard time building a democracy. The reason is that the terrorists and former regime elements are exploiting the wounds inflicted under Saddam’s tyranny.

Length: 38 seconds

Analysis:

This story frames the issue of the minimum wage by reinforcing the perception that minimum wage earners are primarily young people or people In entry level positions. The fact that 40% of the people earning the minimum wage are the sole breadwinner in their families is brushed aside at the beginning of the story as the reporter focuses exclusively on student workers. A spokesperson from Calvin college is interviewed on the impact that raising the wages paid to student workers will have on the school budget. While the school administrator notes that this increased cost may cause cuts to be made in other places, the costs of the new minimum wage are never put in relation to the total school budget. It is noted that the increase will cost the college $ 250,000. The total budget of Calvin College is approximately 83 million a year. That means this cost increase represents .3% of the total school budget.

Also worth pointing out is the misleading bar graph included in this story. By starting the vertical axis at $5 rather than 0, the graph gives the impression that the minimum wage increase is actually greater than it really is. Also problematic is that the values on the vertical axis go from 5 to 7 to 8, using the same distance to represent two different values.

Story:

WZZM 13 Newsreader – For the first time in nine years thousands of Michigan workers will get a raise. Today the governor signed a minimum wage increase into law. It’ll go from five dollars and fifteen cents an hour, to six dollars and ninety five cents an hour in October of this year. Then, in July of 2007, it will increase again to seven fifteen, and in July on 2008, it will go up to seven forty and hour. That’s a total increase of two dollars and twenty-five cents. WZZM 13’s Amy fox has more on what the change will mean for one segment of our society, colleges and universities.

Reporter – Juliet, according to the group Michigan Needs a Raise, forty percent of workers who earn minimum wage are the sole bread winners for their families, meaning most are not. But that doesn’t mean they can’t use the money.

Reporter – Luke Eising works at the cafeteria in Calvin College.

Luke Eising (college student) – A lot of times I do, it’s called beverage salad, I carry milks and stuff, uh, run line.

Reporter – He and his fellow student workers earn just more than the minimum wage.

Student worker – I earn 5.65 for now.

Reporter – They’re happy to know they’ll get a raise, 6.95 starting in October.

Luke Eising – Sounds pretty good to me, I won’t lie. I like the idea.

Reporter – Almost fifteen hundred Calvin students work on Campus, which means their raise will cost the school quite a bit.

Henry DeVries (Calvin Vice President of Finance) – The minimum case scenario for Calvin next year will be about two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, and that would be if we simply raise anyone who’s below minimum wage to the minimum wage on the first of October. If we raise the entire wage scale by one point eight, a dollar eighty, then this could mean about a million and a half to about a million and three quarter dollars next year.

Reporter – Which could mean cuts in other areas. Calvin vice President Henry DeVries says the school still needs to decide just how much of a raise all students earning more than the minimum wage will get, he realizes the importance of helping students afford higher education.

Melanie Venema (student worker) – I use all this money as much as I can to pay my tuition and my rent and stuff here.

Reporter – So these student workers are thankful for the minimum wage raise.

Reporter – Governor Granholm will be in West Michigan tomorrow evening to attend a rally regarding the minimum wage at the Kent-Ionia labor council. She’ll also be live on WZZM 13 News at Six.

Total time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds

Analysis:

Even though the focus of the march is on House bill 4437, no details of the legislation were provided by channel 8. The Channel 8 reporter only referred to the legislation as “a bill to deal with illegal immigration and border security.” But the legislation is more complicated than those 2 issues and those issues are not addressed in the coverage.

Viewers do here from one of the marchers and one of the organizers on channel 8. The issues that are addressed are that families would be separated if the legislation went through and that people who have a relationship with undocumented migrants would also be at risk of arrest. The channel 8 story has Rep. Pete Hoekstra speaking first, since he supported the House bill, and his comments are focused on border security. What is interesting is that channel 8 doesn’t ask why so many people are willing to risk coming into the country without papers in the first place, nor the fact that many people took the day off from work to participate in the march. Another thing to think about is the fact that most people that were there are Spanish speaking, so the local news was limited in who they could speak to for perspective. How much more coverage could be provided if there were bi-lingual reporters or at least translators for the reporters?

Story:

WOOD 8 Newsreader – A lot of activity in the streets of Grand Rapids this afternoon. Thousands of people protesting proposed changes to immigration laws. 24 hour News 8 political reporter Rick Albin joining us live from Calder Plaza now, Rick.

Reporter – Well with the warm sun and the bright blue sky as a background, thousands of people started marching from Calder, er, rather from Garfield Park here to Calder Plaza. They were objecting to changes that many believe will take place in immigration laws, but despite what they believe, in Washington it’s much less clear. What Washington may ultimately do is far less certain than the objections that the big group expressed here today.

Reporter – With signs and flags and chants they hit the streets. The message is clear, no to house bill 4437. That’s a bill the lower chamber passed to deal with illegal immigration and border security.

Peter Hoekstra – What the house passed was we passed border security, put a tremendous number of additional resources on our southern and northern borders to ah provide us with a higher degree of assurance that we are only letting people into the country who were going to come here legally.

Reporter – But the house bill is more stringent than at least one in the senate and does not include a temporary or guest worker provision, something Hoekstra would like to see. The house bill would make being here illegally a criminal offence, and that concerns the organizer of today’s event.

Gloria Berdezco (Protest organizer) – Everybody who has relationships with undocumented people, they are going to be criminalized together with the undocumented people. That will mean separated families in the whole countries.

Reporter – 4437 would also provide penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers. But the question of what to do with an estimated ten to fifteen million people already here illegally creates a lot of passion.

Protester – A lot of people would have to back to their countries, and yeah, we’re not criminals so, we don’t want that because in the first place we came here because it’s a free country.

Reporter – Literally in the time that story was on the air, we have learned that the Senate judiciary committee has approved some type of immigration language. Now that’s just the judiciary committee, it’ll still have to go to the full Senate and very likely will have to go to a conference committee with that house bill that we mentioned. But that action did take place in the past five minutes or so, and 24 hour News eight will continue to stay on top of this story to bring you those details and tell you exactly what the outcome will be. Live on the Calder Plaza, Rick Albin, 24 hours News 8.

Total time: 2 minutes 31 seconds

Analysis:

This piece starts by asking the question of “imagine what it must be like for those folks who have to live amid all that chaos.” One would expect that after asking this question, the story would focus on the lives of ordinary Iraqis, possibly interviewing a few of them. Rather, the story proceeds by reporting that two public service announcements are running on Iraqi TV praising Iraqi police and condemning the “terrorists.” The reporter is unable to say who made the PSA’s, saying that they might be “the work of US contractors who have been commissioned to influence public opinion” but that “the Pentagon won’t say.” The story then jumps to a clip of Vice President Dick Cheney saying “If they’re (the Democrats) competent to fight this war then I ought to be singing on American Idol.” It should be pointed out that American Idol is a show on FOX 17, so this clip is essentially product placement for FOX 17 programming. The piece ends with a mention that Russia provided Iraq with intelligence before the US invasion. No context or details are provided on this point.

This piece is essentially three unrelated topics pertaining to Iraq thrown together in one news story. The only unifying factor is that non of these three topics address the question that the news story starts with,”what is life like for the people of Iraq?”

Story:

WXMI Newsreader – At least fifty more people have been reported killed in Iraq including two US soldiers. On a more positive note, Iraq’s president predicts a new unity government could be in place by the end of the month. FOX 17’s Grant Rampy is at the Pentagon tonight with the latest.

Reporter – Well lately we’ve heard a lot more bad news than good from that part of the world; imagine what it must be like for those folks who have to live amid all that chaos. Many Iraqis don’t have to wait for the evening news to see evidence of the war raging all around them, they need only step outside. But new public service announcements running on Iraqi TV try to cast the violence in a new light. In this PSA, a small boy speaks with pride about his father, a police officer.

PSA (Translated) – The other day he was caught between innocent Iraqis and the terrorists. He used all his bullets to finish all the criminals off.

Reporter – The ads closes, “our police officers are the knights of Iraq”, a second message salutes Iraq’s diversity warning “terrorist can’t divide us.” It’s unclear whether this is the work of US contractors who have been commissioned to influence public opinion, the Pentagon won’t say. Then there is this ad, which makes use of a child’s simple drawings, a young voice addresses insurgents asking…

PSA (translated) – Why do you hate your country? We have no electricity at school because you destroyed the power house. At home we have no heating because you bombed the oil pipelines. You’re greedy and selfish and don’t care about us children or our families.

Reporter – With no sign that the recent wave of violent attacks here is about to die down, the White House is firing back at critics. To democrats who accuse the administration of incompetence, the vice president jokes…

Cheney – If they’re competent to fight this war then I ought to be singing on American Idol.

Reporter – And a stunning disclosure today has officials here scratching their heads. A new report suggests, Russian spies gave US secrets to Saddam Hussein before the war began. It’s intelligence he reportedly ignored, still, questions abound. How did the Russians get the intel, and why did they pass it along? At the Pentagon, Grant Rampy, FOX 17 News at 10.

Total Time: 2 minutes 5 seconds

Analysis:

This story is about defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s press conference in which he criticizes media coverage of the violence in Iraq following the bombing of a Shiite Mosque. In the story, Rumsfeld’s voice is theonly one presented. The does the reporter present any critical look at Rumsfeld’s statement in piece. The defense secretary doesn’t just disagree with reports that Iraq is on the cusp of civil war, he says that these reports “give heart to terrorists and discourage those that hope for success in Iraq,” a statement which infers an anti-US agenda on the part of these reports. Rather than challenge that claim, the FOX 17 story essentially affirms it by following Rumfeld’s comment with “Its not just reporters.” No other voices are presented in the story and other than some poll numbers, no background information is presented as well.

Story:

FOX 17 Newsreader – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said reporters are exaggerating the possibility of civil war in Iraq. Today he accused the media of overstating the seriousness of the current situation in Iraq. Following the terrorist attack on that Shiite Mosque and hundreds of retaliation killings that followed. He based his accusation on military reports that say the level isn’t growing.

Rumsfeld – A steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those that hope for success in Iraq.

Newsreader – But it’s not just reporters; Iraqi officials and the US ambassador to Iraq have all gone on record saying conditions are ripe for civil war. And according to a new poll released today by the Washington Post, 80 percent of Americans now believe that civil war is likely, that’s across partisan lines.

Total Time: 48 seconds

Analysis:

The story is based on an Associated Press request to get government documents declassified on the identity of the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay since the later part of 2001. Hundreds of pages of documents were released on who was being held in the prison under the category of “enemy combatant,” which the US administration says deprives the prisoners of Geneva Convention prisoner of war protections. A US military spokesperson said that “personal information on detainees was withheld solely to protect detainee privacy and their own security.” No one else was cited in this story, just an excerpt from a testimony from one of the prisoners.

As you can see more than half of the original AP story was omitted from the Press version. The major points of that content were that more details on some of the detainees and more commentary from the US military on why they wanted to keep the names classified. There is one sentence in the original AP story that reads “Human-rights monitors say keeping identities of prisoners secret can lead to abuses and deprive their families of information about their fate.” According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, a group that has been providing legal counsel to detainees “The evidence shows the government’s despicable torture of detainees has produced worthless information. Since the majority of detainees are not even affiliated with Al Qaeda, it is no wonder that they have few relevant facts to provide. After four years of illegal detentions and abuse, the government has failed to prove a legal, moral or security rationale for these actions. The new revelations confirm this failure, and it is time for comprehensive scrutiny and accountability of the Guantánamo detentions.” Readers should ask themselves why the issue of prisoner abuse was omitted from the story, especially when the US military claims were to “protect the prisoner privacy and security.”

Story:

Detainee information released
By MIRANDA LEITSINGER and BEN FOX

GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Pentagon says he had a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in his house.
Zahir Shah says he had only a rifle — for protection against a cousin in a family feud — and the only time he shot anything was when he hunted with a BB gun.

“What are we going to do with RPGs?” he asks, adding: “The only thing I did in Afghanistan was farming. … We grew wheat, corn, vegetables and watermelons.”

Shah’s is one of hundreds of stories contained in thousands of pages of transcripts released Friday by the Pentagon after four years of secrecy about exactly who it was holding in the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay. A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press forced the Pentagon to release the documents, which contain the names, hometowns and other information about detainees that the Bush administration had previously not made public.

A federal judge rejected administration arguments that releasing the identities would violate detainees’ privacy and could endanger them and their families.

The names were scattered throughout 5,000 pages of hearings transcripts, but no complete list was given and it was unclear how many names the documents contained. In most of the transcripts, the person speaking is identified only as “detainee.” Names appear only when court officials or detainees refer to people by name.

The men were mostly captured during the 2001 U.S.-led war that drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and sent Osama bin Laden deeper into hiding, and the newly released documents shed light on some of the detainees’ explanations.

Most of the Guantánamo Bay hearings were held to determine whether the detainees were “enemy combatants.”
That classification, Bush administration lawyers say, deprives the detainees of Geneva Conventions prisoner-of-war protections and allows them to be held indefinitely without charges.

“Personal information on detainees was withheld solely to protect detainee privacy and for their own security,” said Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler.

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

Human-rights monitors say keeping identities of prisoners secret can lead to abuses and deprive their families of information about their fate. About 490 prisoners are being held at Guantánamo Bay; only 10 have been charged with a crime.

In some cases, even having the name didn’t clarify the identity. In one document, the tribunal president asks a detainee if his name is Jumma Jan. The detainee responds that no, his name is Zain Ul Abedin.

In another document, a detainee identified as Abdul Hakim Bukhary denies he is a member of al-Qaida but acknowledges he traveled from his native Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces and says he met bin Laden about 15 years ago while fighting Russians in Afghanistan.

He praises his captors for running a good prison. “Prisoners here are in paradise,” he says. “American people are very good. Really. They give us three meals. Fruit juice and everything!” Still, he says, he wants to return to his family.

It was not clear whether Shah and Bukhary are still being held. The documents do not name all current and former Guantánamo Bay detainees. And even when detainees are named, the documents do not make clear whether they have since been released.

The documents contain the names of some former prisoners, such as Moazzam Begg and Feroz Ali Abbasi, both British citizens. A handwritten note shows Abbasi pleading for prisoner-of-war status.

Documents released last year — also because of an Associated Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — included transcripts of 317 hearings, but had the detainees’ names and nationalities blacked out. The current documents are the same ones; this time, uncensored.

A U.S. military spokesman at Guantánamo Bay said the Pentagon was uneasy about handing over the transcripts.

He said the Defense Department remains concerned that the disclosure “could result in retribution or harm to the detainees or their families.”

Buz Eisenberg, a lawyer for a detainee, said he hopes the uncensored documents can help clear his client. “We have been trying to litigate a case without ever knowing what the allegations were that the government claimed justified his continued detention,” Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg did not want to name his client because he had not asked the man for permission. The documents could shed light on the scope of an insurgency still battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan, in part by detailing how Muslims from many countries wound up fighting alongside the Taliban there.

Abdul Gappher, an ethnic Uighur, says he traveled from China to Afghanistan, passing through Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, in June 2001 to “get some training to fight back against the Chinese government.” But he denied doing anything against the United States. He was captured in Pakistan and said Pakistani police officers “sold us to the U.S. government.”

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of New York ruled in favor of the AP last week, a major development in a protracted legal battle. In the ongoing litigation, the AP has also asked the Pentagon to release a complete list of all detainees ever held at the prison on a U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba.

Some of the testimony seemed bound to embarrass the military. Abbasi complains that on two occasions, military police officers had sex in front of him, while others tried to feed him “a hot plate of pork,” food banned by the Islamic faith.

Some, he said, misled him into praying north toward the United States rather than toward Mecca as Muslims are required to do. Like the other detainees, Abbasi wasn’t allowed to see classified evidence against him. He repeatedly cited international law in arguing that he was unfairly classified as an enemy combatant.

An Air Force colonel whose identity remains blacked out would have none of it. “Mr. Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words international law again. We are not concerned about international law,” the colonel says. Then he has Abbasi removed from the courtroom.

Last year, Judge Rakoff ordered the government to ask each detainee whether he or she wanted personal identifying information to be turned over to the AP as part of the lawsuit.

Of 317 detainees who received the form, 63 said yes, 17 said no, 35 returned the form without answering and 202 declined to return the form.

Analysis:

In this story, three people are talked to by the reporter, a representative of Charter Cable Company, a cable industry analyst, and a cable TV subscriber. Of these three voices, the consumer is for the a la carte plan while both the cable company executive and the analyst are opposed. That the representative from Charter Cable is critical of this proposal is not surprising, cable companies have been uniformly opposed to a la Carte programming nationwide. Nor is it surprising that the analyst, Steve Effros, is opposed, as he is the former head of the Cable Telecommunications Association, which represents cable companies. This background information is not presented in the story, rather, Effros is framed as an unbiased source. The only person shown speaking in favor of this proposal is a random cable subscriber interviewed on the street. No voices from the FCC or from any consumer advocacy groups that support the a la carte proposal are presented in the story. The reporter does mention that according to an FCC study, consumers could save up to 13% on there cable bills. The viewer is not told the name of the study, nor how it can be found. The Cable industry analyst makes claims that “virtually every analysis of a la carte says the customer winds up paying more, and getting less.” The reporter does not provide any verification on this claim. Nor does the reporter ask any follow up questions when the spokesperson from Charter Cable states that “We should continue to provide those video services offerings under a free enterprise system rather than having mandates dictated to us from Washington DC.” Given that cable companies have franchise agreements with municipalities that guarantee them with a local monopoly on cable service, it would seem reasonable for a reporter to ask how the current cable system represents a model of “free enterprise.”

Story:

Newsreader #1 – It’s a debate that started on Capital Hill and could end in your living room, a la Carte cable.

Newsreader #2 – It’s an idea being pushed by the Federal Communications Commission to help cut the costs of cable. Fox 17’s Mike Avery has more on this hot button issue in tonight’s consumer hard drive.

Unidentified voice – You have HBO, then you have Cinemax Reporter – A la carte, a system that prices each item separately, it’s that idea that’s being applied to the cable television industry by the federal government, allowing consumers a choice in which programming they want, and paying for just that.

Troy Hayes (cable customer) – For instance I’m going to go in the store here and I’m going to have a choice of options of what I’m going to buy, from no brand cheese to Craft cheese, you know I get what I pay for, I think its a great idea.

Reporter – But the cable industry doesn’t like the a la carte idea, citing losses in advertising revenues, and higher subscription fees for consumers.

Dan Spoelman (Charter Communications) – We should continue to provide those video services offerings under a free enterprise system rather than having mandates dictated to us from Washington DC.

Reporter – Industry analyst Steve Effros agrees. Steve Effros – Having been here for over thirty years in Washington, I’m pretty safe in saying that when the government gets its hand in just about anything, the unintended consequences usually out weigh what they were trying to do.

Reporter – A la carte is being driven by the FCC, Senator John McCain has even drafted legislation trying to reduce consumers cable bills. In fact, a recent report by the FCC says consumers could save up to 13% on their bill through a la carte. Effros says it’s misleading.

Effros – This is why virtually every analysis of a la carte says the customer winds up paying more, and getting less. They get fewer channels and it costs them more. Spoelman – Effectively in an eighty channel package that you have today, you would pay the same amount for about four channels.

Reporter – But one consumer we talked to today says being able to pick your own channels is worth it. Hayes – And i think it’s the same thing with cable, that as long as I’m getting what I paid for, then I shouldn’t complain about how much it costs, I’m getting what I paid for.

Reporter – But at what cost? According to Effros, there’s plenty to be lost.

Effros – If you did it the other way, if you said alright, only the programs I want to buy, are the ones that are going to come into my home, you would probably destroy the ability of smaller channels to survive. And so diversity gets lost in the process. And we think that’s a very bad idea.

Reporter – That depends on who you ask. In Grand Rapids, Mike Avery, Fox 17 News at ten.