[Speed Gibson,
Monday April 16, 2007 at 11:27pm]
Tax Cut Rally - Newspaper Coverage
Newspapers, having generally more time and more space, should be more thorough than TV news, right? In the case of Saturday's Capitol events, yes, TV made a number of mistakes, mostly sins of omission as I documented in the prior post. But our newspapers didn't do much better, commiting the same basic mistake of co-mingling the events, portraying this as a competition bordering on conflict.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran maybe 10 inches plus a contentious photo, inside the Metro section. The headline was playfully biased: "Planet lovers and tax haters mix it up at the Capitol." Neither group came to mix it up. The tax protesters were there protesting high taxes born of exstravagent spending, not taxes in general. Even to suppose that the Global Warming activists are truly planet lovers might be a stretch.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a much smaller picture, but twice the article length, buried in the Local section. They had headline trouble, too: "2 rallies span political divide - Tax foes vs. global warming protesters."
Both articles focused on the supposed conflict and contrast, as did much of the TV coverage, brief as it was. This was a mistake, for the juxtaposition was happenstance. The Global Warming Day of Action was part of a national effort, not scheduled to counter one state's tax rally. Yes, there was a little intrigue as a result, but neither rally nor the readership was served by this approach.
Instead, I would have covered each as free standing events, with maybe a short paragraph on the overlap at the end to close it out.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran maybe 10 inches plus a contentious photo, inside the Metro section. The headline was playfully biased: "Planet lovers and tax haters mix it up at the Capitol." Neither group came to mix it up. The tax protesters were there protesting high taxes born of exstravagent spending, not taxes in general. Even to suppose that the Global Warming activists are truly planet lovers might be a stretch.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a much smaller picture, but twice the article length, buried in the Local section. They had headline trouble, too: "2 rallies span political divide - Tax foes vs. global warming protesters."
Both articles focused on the supposed conflict and contrast, as did much of the TV coverage, brief as it was. This was a mistake, for the juxtaposition was happenstance. The Global Warming Day of Action was part of a national effort, not scheduled to counter one state's tax rally. Yes, there was a little intrigue as a result, but neither rally nor the readership was served by this approach.
Instead, I would have covered each as free standing events, with maybe a short paragraph on the overlap at the end to close it out.