Analysis:
Much like the story last month about the “suicidal opossum”, this is a fluff piece with no relevance to West Michigan. This particular piece follows the same pattern of the opossum piece, pairing a popular song, in this case Rick James “Superfreak”, with some unusual animal footage.
Story:
(story starts with “Superfreak” by Rick James)
Newsreader #1 – Well a strange sight in New Mexico gave a rancher a shock. Check it out, this calf has five legs and six hooves. He doesn’t’t even belong to the rancher who farms the land, he just kind of hangs out on the property. So far no one really knows what to do with him, but for now the curious cow just keeps hoofing around.
Newsreader #2 – I want to see it again. (laughter) Go figure.
Newsreader #1 – I’m speechless.
Newsreader #2 – I call it cinco for five, five legs.
Newsreader #1 – There you go.
Total Time: 35 seconds
Blaming Newsweek
Analysis:
On May 17, WZZM 13 ran a short piece about the scandal surrounding a Newsweek article alleging that U.S. interrogators had desecrated a copy of the Koran. This was a very short piece and is indicative of how the local TV news covers international issues. The entire transcript is only four sentences, and, as we have often seen in local TV reporting, only the U.S. government version of events is presented. So the idea that these protests are solely the result of an article in Newsweek is not questioned in this brief report. Nor does the story address the issue of whether the charges of Koran abuse are true or not. The reporter states that “the policy is respect for the holy book”, and yet many cases of the Koran being abused have been reported in several different independent sources prior to the Newsweek article. On Sunday May 22 the LA times ran a story documenting several examples of the Koran being used during interrogations at Guantanamo bay. Also worth noting is the fact that anchor notes, without any comment, that the White house is proposing a story for Newsweek to run. Most people would consider it inappropriate in a society with a free press for the government to pressure news agencies to publish stories promoting the government version of events.
Story:
Newsreader: The Muslim world was ripped by more anti-American riots today and the Bush Administration asked Newsweek magazine to help stop that violence. In Indonesia there was another demonstration to protest alleged American desecration of the Koran. Today the White house proposed Newsweek put out stories on what the Administration calls the “truth about the Koran at U.S. military prisons like Guantanamo.” The policy there is respect for the Muslim holy book.
Marketing Star Wars merchandise as news
Analysis:
Here is another article giving free publicity to a product tied to the new Star Wars film. This particular article was one of three articles in the “Your Life” section in the May 16 edition of the GR Press dealing with Star Wars video games. This article, “the force will be felt in its legacy of video games” was 24 inches long. For comparative purposes, our data shows that in the last presidential election, the GR Press ran only one article out of all their election related articles that was over 24 inches long. Now many of these election stories were originally rather lengthy articles that the GR Press would pull off the wire and edit for length. This Star Wars article was also pulled from a wire but the editors at the GR Press evidently felt that the history a video game franchise deserved to be run in its entirety.
Story:
The Force will be felt in its legacy of video games
By Matt Slagle
The Associated Press
There are probably enough “Star Wars” video games to fill a space cruiser. And let’s face it: Many of them probably should have been destroyed along with those pesky Death Stars.
But like the enduring saga of good versus evil upon which they’re based, a few used the mythic story and fantastical locales very successfully. On the eve of the final “Star Wars Episode III —Revenge of the Sith,” we reflect like a Jedi Master on some of the more memorable moments in Star Wars gaming.
If we’re going to cover the entire history of Star Wars games, we’ll have to go back to a time long, long ago, when arcades still ruled the galaxy.
Though it debuted years after “Episode IV: A New Hope,” Atari’s “Star Wars” coin-op in 1983 was just as amazing as the first film’s opening space battle.
Using simple but smooth color vector graphics, you piloted an X-Wing through swarms of Imperial TIE fighters, then attacked the Death Star. Many quarters were lost in my quest to defeat the evil galactic empire.
We’ll have to fast forward almost a decade before another “Star Wars” game grabbed me so, umm, forcefully.
A time long, long ago
It was 1992, and the movie prequels were on the distant horizon. But I had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, one of the most advanced consoles at the time, and a new “Super Star Wars” cartridge that blew me away.
This LucasArts title remains a sentimental favorite — I still dust off my SNES and play from time to time. The game followed the movie events precisely, with stereo sound and excellent color graphics in a side-scrolling adventure. As Luke Skywalker, I ran through the deserts of Tatooine, braved dingy Mos Eisley cantinas, then blew up the Death Star all over again.
Two “Super” follow-ups based on “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” added force powers and other extras but were also light-years tougher.
If you survived “Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” then you’ll no doubt remember one of its highlights: the exhilarating racing sequence, when the cute, cuddly version of future Sith Lord Darth Vader straps on some goggles and leaves his foes choking on pod fumes.
So what if it came off as a ploy to sell video games? “Star Wars Episode I: Racer,” for the PC, Macintosh, Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 was a high-speed ride through the desert mesas of Tatooine and seven other worlds. No other game simulates racing at 600 mph four feet above the ground so well.
Multiplayer letdown
A franchise as storied as this was bound to have its letdowns, and “Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided” certainly fell into that category — particularly when it was first released in 2003
The massively multiplayer online game looked great but lacked the feel of a dynamic universe. And whether it was intentional or not, becoming a Jedi was nigh impossible, short of quitting your real life job and devoting all waking hours to the pursuit.
“Galaxies” has improved over time, with last fall’s “Jump to Lightspeed” expansion pack finally letting players pilot space ships. Another expansion, “Rage of the Wookiees” adds content from the forthcoming movie. Be aware that a vocal group of players are upset with recent changes to the game’s combat system, so much so they’ve petitioned the game makers to change it back.
Fan favorites
Two definitive “Star Wars” video games occur thousands of years before the movies.
“Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” in 2003 and last year’s “Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords,” both for Xbox and the PC, captured the sense of history, action and drama better than most of the movies. It’s a fan favorite wrapped in an intriguing role-playing premise: how you act determines which side of the Force you’ll follow.
More recently, the franchise has been spun in countless directions:
“Star Wars: Battlefront” for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC was a first-person shooter where dozens of combatants fought each other with laser turrets and advanced weaponry. Cool ships like TIE-Fighters, however, were impossible to control. A sequel has been announced.
This year’s buildup to Sith has already seen some decent “Star Wars” games.
“Star Wars Republic Commando” was a squad-based first-person shooter set during the Clone Wars. Even colored-plastic toy brick maker Lego managed to cross-market its line of Star Wars products with “Lego Star Wars: The Video Game,” featuring Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul among the blocky cast of heroes and villains.
Call me a nerf herder for not mentioning more, but there are just too many games to cram into one article.
Some other highlights include “Dark Forces,” “Galactic Battlegrounds,” “Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast” and the GameCube space shooter “Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II.”
As for the future, fret not, young padawan learners.
LucasArts, the video game division of George Lucas’ media empire, has plenty of games coming out long after this final movie has left theaters.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Remember NAFTA?
Analysis:
This story is the first local TV story on CAFTA that we have documented, despite many local efforts to get the word out. The channel 17 news reader starts off by saying Remember NAFTA?, which is sort of like saying remember leg warmers. NAFTA is a current trade policy, not some ancient relic.
The news reader says that Bush was meeting with 6 Latin American President’s, when in fact they are 6 Central American Presidents to discuss CAFTA. No where in the story does the news reader tell viewers what CAFTA is not any of the language of this trade proposal. Next, the news reader states that there is opposition from some sectors, but limits their opposition to just job loss. This is not an accurate depiction of the reasons, nor the groups who are opposed to CAFTA locally or nationally.
Lastly, Bush is the only voice that viewers here and he doesn’t say anything relevant to CAFTA. Viewers should ask themselves why no other voices were heard and why channel 17 didn’t question or verify the President’s statement. Viewers could also ask themselves why channel 17 chose to run that comment from Bush’s speech.
Story:
WXMI News Reader – Remember NAFTA? Now President Bush is pushing something called CAFTA, the Central America Free Trade Agreement. It’s topping Business Download segment tonight.
The President met with 6 Latin American leaders at the White House today. The agreement would loosen trade restrictions. The fight is shaping up as the biggest since NAFTA was approved a decade ago. CAFTA is opposed by labor unions, sugar farmers, and other groups convinced it will cost US jobs. They say it would benefit US exporters as well as our neighbors to the south.
President – By passing this agreement we would signal that the world’s leading trading nation was committed to closer partnership with countries in our own backyard, countries which share our values.
WXMI News Reader – Congress would have to approve the measure before it goes into affect.
Total Time: 46 seconds
Reporting on Rape
Analysis:
There are many things to point out about how this story was covered. First, viewers should ask themselves if providing the age of the victim and the street names where the raped occurred violates the privacy of the victim? Second, the only people who channel 17 spoke with provided no contextual information about rape and sexual assault. Instead viewers hear from law enforcement, neighborhood people and a City Commissioner. All of them provide no real information that would be useful to viewers about either sexual assault prevention or what services for victims are available in the community.
When the police say in the story that people should keep their doors locked and not invite strangers into the home that perpetuates the myth that women are more at risk of sexual assault from strangers. Also, airing the comments from the City Commissioner borders on irresponsibility. Ask yourself, are those who commit rape more sick if they rape a 30 year old as opposed to an older woman. By running the comments from the Commissioner it lends support to the notion that rape is about sex, when in fact it has more to do with power. What reporters could do is to report on individual sexual assault cases as a public health issue, instead of merely a crime.
Story:
WXMI News Reader – People living in one Grand Rapids neighborhood still on alert tonight as an 84 year old woman was raped in her home. The attack happened on West Fulton, near John Ball Park. Fox 17’s Lisa LaPlant is live in the news room now with an update.
Reporter – Michelle, police are still looking tonight for the man. He broke into the home late night Tuesday and raped the woman upstairs in the bedroom of her home. Now neighbors are taking steps to help protect each other from another attack. From chatting on the sidewalks, to going door to door on a Spring afternoon, Carol Hennessey is a woman on a mission to prevent another attack. She took information to residents in the neighborhood where a man broke into the home of an elderly woman, then beat and raped her late Tuesday night. The woman was not able to see her attacker.
Neighborhood volunteer – When you hear of something like this you think of your own mother, of how vulnerable women are when they live alone.
Reporter – Tonight more than 30 people at the Lincoln Park pavilion heard from Police on how to protect themselves and their neighbors.
Police – Some things like locking your doors, keeping light on at night, but the most important thing we tell everybody is to know their neighbors.
Reporter – Policed received a tip from one neighbor who heard suspicious activity behind his house Tuesday night. Detectives are checking out every and any lead.
City Commissioner – It’s a pretty sick individual that would prey on somebody like that, but unfortunately there are those people in society today and that is why it is necessary to apprehend them as quickly as possible.
Reporter – It will hard for some people to sleep as long as the suspect is on the loose.
Neighborhood volunteer – I think we all feel vulnerable, we feel violated when something like this, because it is just not what you would expect. It is not what we have happen in this community.
Reporter – The 84 year old victim is still in the hospital tonight and is listed in good condition. And once again, anyone who may have seen anything suspicious should call Grand Rapids Police or Silent Observer.
Total Time – 1 minute and 58 seconds
Local Media Gloss over CAFTA
Analysis:
This article was about the annual World Trade Week which has took place in Grand Rapids from May 16 – 19. In the past the conference focused on the specific country but this year the theme is on trade in general. One of the trade issues mentioned in the article was CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. This mention of CAFTA was one of the few mentions GRIID has seen of this trade agreement in the local media. All that the article reports about CAFTA is that negotiations on the treaty are still underway and that a vote is slated for later this month.
CAFTA is basically an extension of NAFTA, which has been in place for over a decade. Critics of NAFTA, such as the AFL-CIO or Global Exchange have attributed significant job loss in the US to that trade treaty, a trend that CAFTA could potentially accelerate. Given that Western Michigan has seen a large number of manufacturing job losses over the last few years, this topic is relevant to this area.
Up until this Grand Rapids Press article, did not see a single mention of CAFTA in the GR Press. Considering the potential impact that CAFTA may have on West Michigan, this story has been very much underreported. This is not due to a lack of potential stories related to CAFTA either. A local coalition of over 20 labor, environmental, farmer and activist groups have been promoting a Stop CAFTA campaign that has been active on this issue and has been almost completely ignored by the GR Area media. Several weeks ago members of this group attended a town hall meeting held by Congressional Representative Vern Ehlers and he was asked several times to clarify his position on CAFTA. This town hall meeting was not covered by the GR Press despite the fact these organizations backing the Stop CAFTA campaign had sent out press releases. Now, this is just one example, but it is certainly not the only one where local media ignored this issue.
Story:
Week focuses on world trade
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
By Julia Bauer
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS — World trade is so hot, West Michigan is devoting nearly a week to global issues starting Monday.
World Trade Week launches its 20th year with lunch Monday and ends with a rousing round of international team trivia Thursday evening.
Between the two events, 18 experts from nine countries, along with state and federal trade officials, will share their insights.
“The effect of global forces on local trade has been just phenomenal, and our program this year reflects that,” said William Richeson, chairman of World Trade Week.
“For the last 19 years, we always focused on a particular country — Turkey, China, India, Brazil. We’ve done some major changes.”
May 17 holds the busiest agenda, with morning, afternoon and evening events around Loosemore Auditorium at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus.
Speakers include local analysts George Erickcek and Jim Gillette.
As specialists and panel members speak during 45-minute segments, individual consultations are being offered with them throughout the day, Richeson said.
Special meetings
People who sign up Tuesday morning could get a private conversation with a representative of the U.S. Department of Commerce specializing in Central America or Australia, a manager of the State of Michigan’s offices in Shanghai or Mexico City, or international attorneys from Taiwan, the Netherlands, South Africa or Germany.
On Tuesday evening, the Van Andel Global Trade Center, based at GVSU downtown, will be honored as World Trader of the Year by the event sponsors, the West Michigan World Trade Association.
With negotiations still under way for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, the World Trade Week events are very timely, Richeson said.
A decision on CAFTA is slated for later this month.
“It’s very topical, with the U.S. Department of Commerce Road Show,” said Richeson, senior vice president of global trade and treasury for National City Bank.
The Commerce Department is sending a handful of its global experts to the event.
Teens take their turn
For the first time, teenagers are in the loop on global trade issues.
Since early April, nearly 100 high school juniors in Grand Rapids Public Schools have studied issues through Global Marketplace, a Junior Achievement program.
On May 15, those students will travel to GVSU’s Allendale campus for a college day.
Their sessions include information on international majors and careers, study abroad, and financial assistance programs.
Two essay winners writing on global trade and its impact personally and on West Michigan are to win $500 scholarships from National City Bank. The daylong session is underwritten by Alticor.
