Journalism Class - Monday November 7

[jerusalem-s.livejournal.com]

Spider is slumped behind his desk looking pissed as hell. There's a button on his jacket that reads 'Do not attempt to converse with me' and one below it that reads 'This means YOU'. The cat is nowhere to be seen.

Once there are several people in the classroom, he snarls, "For today's class assignment, please go to The New York Times website. Find an article with a definite slant or bias. Copy it, explain why it is biased and how and highlight the words or phrases that reveal the bias. Discuss amongst yourselves as to whether you agree or disagree with the original author of the article and/or your classmate's diagnosis."

Comments

[mycanonhatesme]

This Time, Schwarzenegger May Not Get a Hollywood Ending

A startling change has come over California's larger-than-life governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as voters prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday for an unpopular statewide election. His television advertisements have taken on an uncharacteristic tone of humility. And ordinary people, no longer awed by his Olympian persona, are openly challenging him in public.

The four ballot measures Mr. Schwarzenegger supports are trailing in the polls, and his re-election prospects next year appear, for now, to be dimming. His approval ratings are in a tailspin, and his stage presence has been drained of much of its bombast and bluster.

At a televised forum here last week, with audience members picked to represent a cross-section of voters, several questioners interrupted Mr. Schwarzenegger and accused him of distorting facts to sell the four ballot measures, which are among eight up for a vote in an election ordered specially by the governor.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was explaining Proposition 75, a measure he favors that would require public-employee unions to receive the written permission of members before their dues could be used for political campaigns.

Democrats and union leaders who oppose the proposition have called it a naked attempt to silence the unions' political voice. The governor says the proposition is about protecting workers' paychecks.

An audience member who gave his name as Chris Robeson and said he was a health care worker from Camarillo angrily cut the governor off. "That's just Rovian spin," Mr. Robeson said, referring to Karl Rove, the White House political guru. "That's fraudulent."

Such bald impertinence would have been unthinkable a year ago, when Mr. Schwarzenegger was riding high in the polls and rolling over the opposition. But political missteps and unending battles with Democrats in the California Legislature and the public-employee unions have taken their toll. The governor seems chastened for the first time in his public life.

Full article here.

[mycanonhatesme]

"This article was obviously written by someone who doesn't like the governor. Even the headline of the article, saying he won't get a 'Hollywood ending' is condescending. There's an almost gleeful tone over the whole article, like the reporter is excited to see the governor getting knocked down a few pegs." Chloe frowns a little, reading more. "She calls his tone of humility 'uncharacteristic,' and compares him to ordinary people almost like he's super-human or something, which probably isn't a good thing for someone who's trying to be a man of the people."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica grins at her roommate.

"I think some people have a hard time separating the governor from the actor," she says.

"But I also think he's suffering, like other Republicans, fall out from all the scandal in the White House."