Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

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.

Analysis:

This article appeared in the business section of the Grand Rapids Press on Wednesday November 16. The article is a brief description of a speech given locally by an executive from the Altria Corporation on business ethics. Altria is the new name for Philip Morris, the largest producer of cigarettes in the United States. In the article the ethics “expert”, as the article labels him, is said to have discussed processes, policies and practices to make Altria “ship-shape”. The article does mention that Altria has been alleged to have deceived the public about the health risks of smoking. This claim is followed with a quote from the speaker who says that “I do not believe there were evil people in the company (a decade ago), but I think we were out of touch. We didn’t see how people perceived us.” He then goes on to say in the article that the company had worked to change its image and to promote an ethical culture with top-down commitment to “do the right thing.” The article ends with the speaker saying “We created the job thinking that we need to focus not just on our product, but on our broader responsibility.” Considering Philip Morris’s

Story:

Companies should promote ethics, expert says

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

By Matt Vande Bunte

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — For the first few months in his new position, David Greenberg had a hard time describing exactly what a “chief compliance officer” did all day. Then, the Enron Corp. fiasco made headlines.

“Once Enron broke, I didn’t have to explain anymore,” said Greenberg, senior vice president and chief compliance officer for Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA.

“Enron and all the scandals helped people understand why this is important.”

Greenberg brought his corporate lessons to the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan on Tuesday at Aquinas College, talking about “Marlboros, Oreos and Integrity: Global Responsibility in a $100 Billion Multinational Corporation.”

He detailed some of the processes, policies and practices that Altria implemented to make sure things are in ship-shape among its 160,000-plus employees in more than 100 countries.

Altria has been at the fore of state and federal lawsuits alleging a cigarette industry conspiracy to deceive the public about the health risks of smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine.

“I do not believe there were evil people in the company (a decade ago), but I think we were out of touch,” Greenberg said. “We didn’t see how people perceived us.”

So the company worked to change its image inside and out, he said. Greenberg was hired in 2001 to create a new compliance and integrity program.

Because Altria cannot employ a corporate police force to monitor its employees, Greenberg said the company has tried to promote an ethical culture with top-down commitment to “do the right thing.” The alternative is to let the government intervene, he said.

The company held focus groups to write a code of conduct and created ethical training for employees.

“We created the job thinking that we need to focus not just on our product, but on our broader responsibility,” Greenberg said. “Over the long haul, that’s a recruiting tool, a marketing tool and a brand-builder.

“You ignore that stuff at your peril. Both businesses and reputations will be broken.”

Analysis:

The channel 17 story is framed just as an attempt by the Writers Guild of America to also make money off of the use of product placement in TV shows and films. The newsreader says “Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it,” or later in the story it says “So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie.” This is completely misleading as to the intent of the Press Conference.

According to other news stories from that day, whether it was Yahoo news or the Guardian they all quoted someone from the Writers Guild of America. Here is what appeared in the Guardian “Major advertisers like Home Depot, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble are out of control,” said the WGA. “They’ll stop at nothing to insert their brand names into every TV plotline. These diabolical advertising fiends are turning our favorite TV shows into cheesy infomercials.” If you go to their website, you can read the entire Media Release, which is very clear as to their demand to have the FCC create a Code of Conduct around the use of product placement in TV programming and films. They are advocating for 4 basic principles: 1. Full and clear disclosure for both the visual and aural disclosure of product integration deals at the beginning of each program so the program’s audience knows ahead of time that it will be subject to hidden or stealth advertising; 2. Strict limits on the usage of product integration in children’s programming; 3. A voice for storytellers, actors, and directors, arrived at through collective bargaining, about how a product or brand is to be integrated into content; 4. Extension of all regulation of product integration to cable television, where some of the most egregious abuse is found. To top it all off they even issued a 9 page White paper on the problem of Product Placement called “Are you Selling Me?” Clearly the channel 17 story was completely devoid of what the Writers Guild of America actually said.

Story:

WXMI 17 News reader – Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it. You’ve seen it, product integration and no apparently writers are being coached to write a specific brand of chips or soda into their scripts. So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie. The actors want a say in the products they’re hawking. TV companies are especially doing it to offset the impact of DVRs, which let viewers skip over all those big dollar commercials.

Analysis:

The story was about state legislation that would provide millions of dollars in tax incentives to businesses in Michigan or those seeking to relocate to Michigan. It is primarily framed as a partisan battle between Republicans and Democrats, with each side making claims about the business tax plans. The story provides no verification of either party’s claims, and only provides actual details of the tax proposal at the end of the article.

You can read at the very end of the story the information about the breakdown of where the tax incentive money would go, such as tourism, filmmakers who film in Michigan and the marketing of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Then there are details that were left out of the Press version of the AP story which said that “At least $90 million of it must go to the life sciences corridor program over the next two years,” which seems relevant to people in Grand Rapids considering what is happening on Michigan Street hill. Another thing that is missing is the name and number of the actual bill that the House passed. If readers and tax payers wanted to find further information on this legislation they could not find it in the Press article. We checked the Michigan Legislative website and could not find the bill after 10 minutes of searching. Here is how journalists can help citizens, by providing not only a summary of what is happening with state politics, but information that makes it easier for the public to participate in the political process, like actual legislation language or the bill numbers.

Story:

State House OKs business tax relief, Granholm veto possible

AMY F. BAILEY

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Legislation that would provide tax relief to businesses and invest in up-and-coming industries won state House approval early Thursday morning, but it may not make it past Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s desk.
The legislation does not continue the state’s main business tax beyond its scheduled end on Dec. 31, 2009, which the Democratic governor has said is a requirement for her signature. She said Republicans had agreed to continue it at a reduced rate during recent negotiations.

“It is not good policy to eliminate all business taxes in 2009 and shift the burden to individuals,” Granholm said Wednesday as she pointed to a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis of the economic improvement plan that referred to continuing the single business tax after its scheduled sunset.

A veto, however, would prevent all the bills in the package from becoming law because those that would change the tax code are tied to others that would set up a $1 billion investment fund, said Matt Resch, spokesman for House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi.

The House vote came 12 hours after lawmakers began session on Wednesday afternoon. They spent much of that time waiting for the legislation to be written.

DeRoche has said the issue of the single business tax sunset did not come up when the deal was hammered out late last week. He said he has always wanted to see the single business tax end and would not have signed off on an agreement that would continue it after four years.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, questioned whether the governor would veto legislation that would provide what the Senate Fiscal Agency estimates to be nearly $670 million in net tax relief to businesses over the next six years.

“We’re going to call her bluff,” Sikkema spokesman Ari Adler said. “The package she’s going to get will be good for the economy. She’s vetoing tangible relief in favor of a concept.” The Senate was expected to take up the bills later Thursday.

The legislation would set up a $1 billion investment fund to provide loans and grants to new businesses and cutting-edge companies to encourage them to locate in Michigan.

Most of the tax relief and incentives in the package would be directed toward manufacturers. They would see a 15 percent personal property tax credit starting on Jan. 1 as well as a 100 percent credit in 2006 and 2007 if they bring jobs or equipment into Michigan.

House Democrats failed to tack on amendments to bills in the package that would close loopholes in the tax structure. They wanted to remove the scheduled 2009 sunset and increase the minimum wage. When those amendments were voted down, Democrats voted against the tax loophole bills but voted for legislation that would cut taxes and provide incentives to new businesses.

“We’re not going to participate in the tax increases without a full deal,” said House Minority Leader Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga.

The legislation would drop the single business tax from 1.9 percent to 1.85 percent on Jan. 1, 2009, phase out the tax businesses pay on employer-provided health care benefits over five years and reduce the taxes small businesses pay under the single business tax.

The state would sell some of its future tobacco settlement to put $400 million toward the overall $1 billion investment fund. It also would use $75 million a year from the settlement as that money comes in over the next eight years.

About $100 million of that fund would go toward a variety of economic development initiatives, including $2 million to encourage filmmakers to make movies in Michigan, $15 million for more tourism advertising and up to $36 million for administration and marketing of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the Senate Fiscal Agency said.

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

The fund’s remaining $300 million would go to loan guarantees, small business capital access programs and a number of investments, including private equity and venture capital. At least $90 million of it must go to the life sciences corridor program over the next two years.

Selling off some of the state’s future tobacco settlements and using a portion of the annual payments would mean designating $1.4 billion of the state budget for economic development after 20 years, the Senate Fiscal Agency said. That would mean less to spend on other areas, such as corrections and higher education.

Analysis:

This is a brief story about a number of local factories that had outsourced jobs to Mexico and it included two different perspectives. One is of a local worker who is on unemployment after being laid off by a local furniture manufacturer. This man is shown making a number of statements on-air, in which he is lamenting his lost job. The reporter than notes that he will most likely have to find work in a different field as a lower wage. The other person shown speaking in the story is Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan who is reported as saying that outsourcing has helped keep inflation in check and that this has resulted in a “cycle of low prices and solid growth”. No more clarification or verification is made of Greenspans comments. Given the loss of jobs in Michigan, it would seem reasonable for a reporter to ask in response to Greenspans comments, solid growth for whom, and whether outsourcing jobs is a fair trade off for keeping inflation down. Another interesting point in the piece is a brief mantion that NAFTA, the North American Trade Agreement, is supposed to provide funds for retraining of workers whose jobs are outsourced. Not reported in the story is that fact that NAFTA was also responsible for making it easier for these jobs to be outsourced in the first place.

Story:

WZZM 13 Reporter – You’ve probably never heard of Gemtron. But you probably touch it’s product everyday. This company makes the glass spill proof shelves found inside nearly every refrigerator. And now, forty Holland Gemtron jobs will be cut. Sent to Mexico at the insistence of large customers like Electrolux and Amana. Because these jobs are going to Mexico, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement the workers who will lose their jobs will receive money so they can go back to school or learn new skills.

Dirk DeYoung – I’m on extended unemployment now.

Reporter – Dirk DeYoung crafted wood furnature for twenty-five years.

DeYoung – I had a solid job all along, then boom.

Reporter – Many of those years at Sligh until the company said last winter the work could be done more cheaply outside the USA.

DeYoung – Just one day its, you know, you’re done.

Reporter – DeYoung spoke to us on the same day Alan Greenspan made his final presentation to congress where he said that outsourcing has helped keep inflation in check.

Greenspan – The result has been a (inaudible) cycle of low prices and solid growth.

Reporter – The state has helped Dirk DeYoung look for work at the same facility that Gemtron workers will likely come to know well. But after nine months DeYoung has yet to find a new job. DeYoungs job councilor says he may need to find work in a new field, one that likely will pay less. In the news room Peter Ross WZZM 13 news.

Analysis:

This election story is based on a very important issue for local voters, the economy and the City budget. The reporter provides adequate space for both Second Ward City candidates to respond. Do the candidates actually respond to the questions put forth by the reporter? Do you as a voter think that the responses provide you with adequate information to make an informed vote? Could the reporter have pursued other angles or questioning?
One question viewers could ask themselves about this story has to do with verification or investigation of claims made by candidates. Candidate Bliss make comments about State Revenue Sharing, yet no contextual information on Revenue Sharing is provided. Second, there is no verification or investigation made of the main claim from candidate Johnston, where she refers to a Milwaukee city government economic plan. Again, the reporter doesn’t verify the claim, nor provide information about what this market-based philosophy would mean.

Story:

WOOD TV 8 News reader – Just two weeks from now when Grand Rapids voters head to the polls, they’ll elect a new commissioner in the city’s Second
Ward. That new commissioner will face some major challenges, from dealing with the effects of a shrinking budget to possibly deciding whether your taxes should increase.

Reporter – City budgets all over West Michigan are suffering, and Grand Rapids is no different. There have been some $12 million in cuts this year alone. Over 300 jobs have been eliminated, and city officials don ‘t expect things to get any better. So far, public safety, like the city’s police and fire forces, and quality of life programs like pools and other leisure services, have taken the brunt of the cuts. Attention will soon turn to next year’s budget. Our question to the candidates how do they plan to address budget problems. We start with Second Ward candidate Shaula Johnston.

Candidate Johnston – I think that one of the things we need to look at is bringing in a market based philosophy to city government.

Reporter – Johnston studied Milwaukee, a city that’s adopted that market based philosophy. Her research found success when the city bureaucracy began treating each department like a business.

Candidate Johnston – Say you have an in-house contract for printing. You bid it out, and the low bid gets the job. And if that’s giving it out, if that’s outsourcing, that’s fine.

Johnston says the approach not only cuts costs for a city, it also improves customer service. In this case, the customer being the taxpayer. The other challenger in the Second Ward is Rosalynn Bliss.

Candidate Bliss – I really don’t think there is any one solution that is going to take care of the budget solution.

Bliss says Lansing holds the key to part of the budget solution. In recent years, legislators have cut millions in revenue sharing tax dollars collected by the state and shared with local communities. Despite the efforts of local officials, including rallies at the capital to preserve and regain those funds, Bliss says she’ll rally residents to send a message to Lansing.

Candidate Bliss – There’s power in numbers, and it has to come not only from representatives. It has to come from people. We have to get people informed and educated about the issue, and they also have to contact legislators. It’s one thing to get a call from a lobbyist. It has a much greater impact when it’s coming from a person that voted you into office.

Reporter – Despite a number of job eliminations and consolidations at the department head level, both candidates say the next round of job cuts should come from upper level management. Bliss and Johnston also favor public-private partnerships to reopen city pools and restore other parks and recreation programs. Voters will decide who has a better plan on November 8.

Total Time: 2 minutes and 40 seconds