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"Candidates Face Off Over Economic Plans"

Jeff Zeleny and Elisabeth Bumiller

New York Times online

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/us/politics/22campaign.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

October 21, 2008

October 21, 2008

Tuesday Senator Barack Obama called for an economic meeting in Florida with Democratic governors and supportive business leaders to discuss his plan to pass an economic stimulus package.  Obama discusses how the financial crisis didn't just spring up overnight, as he goes on to say, "This has been a long time coming, and the warning signs have been very clear."  Focusing on states won by the opposition last election,Senator McCain is spent Tuesday in Pennsylvania while Obama spent his time campaigning in Florida.  Although polls in Pennsylvania favor Obama by a double-digit lead, McCain remains optimistic in still campaigning in Bensalem Tuesday morning.  McCain compared Obama's plans for taxes to his World Series picks, saying "When he's campaigning in Phily, he roots for the Phillies, and when he's campaigning in Tampa, he shows love to the Rays.  It's kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts, but then votes for tax increases after he's elected."  Obama renewed his proposal to create a tax credit for new employees hired by American companies within the next two years.  Calling for the creation of jobs across the country by putting people to work by rebuilding and repairing bridges, roads and schools.  Obama sort of pushed the baseball comments off to the side saying, "when you see a White Sox fan showing love to the Rays, and the Rays showing some love back--you know we are on to something right here."

In this article I did see a little bit of bias credit, depending how you look upon it.  The title infers that the article will discuss each candidates plans for the economy.  But part way through, McCain begins criticizing Obama's tactics, referring that he may flip-flop his ideas when it comes to decision time.  If the title had read 'candidates criticize others plan,' then this would be suitable, but that isn't the case.  It's supposed to be discussing their own plans for the economy, but the writers start bringing in McCain's critics of Obama's plans.  So in some way, this is not entirely fair and appears to contain some bias.

Chris Pumphrey

"McCain to Launch Fresh Attack on Obama's Tax Plan"

Amy Chozick and Nick Timiraos

Wall Street Journal online

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1224798005936064375.html

October 23, 2008

October 23, 2008

John McCain plans to unveil a new tax attack against Obama on Friday, claiming that the Democrat's plan would only increase the burden on families with special needs children.  McCain's top advisor said the attack is designed to show the "bizarre, unintended consequences" likely to result from Obama's supposed tax increases.  Governor Palin, Republican vice president nominee, will debut the new attack Friday morning in Pittsburgh, the campaign said the attack could launch media ads featuring special needs families targeting Obama on the issue.  Defensive over whether his claims for tax policies favored wealth redistribution, Obama counterattatcked arguing that the Republican nominee would cut taxes on corporations that moved overseas.  Recently, McCain has characterized Obama's tax cuts as intention to benefit low and middle-income Americans as "welfare."  Thursday McCain advisors said that Obama's refundable tax credit to cover payroll for low-income workers amounted to a raid on the Social Security trust fund because workers would receive Social Security benefits without paying into the program, as they called the tax proposal a "direct assault on Social Securtiy as we know it."  "Special needs" or "supplemental needs" trusts have become more as a way of stabilizing finances, as now more than 41 million Americans suffer from some form of disability.  Andy Imparato, president of American Association of People with Disabilities, says he has not heard anything from constituents about how Obama's tax plan would affect them, saying "it doesn't seem to single out parents of disabled children."

This article comes off as being fair and shows little bias, as it focuses on McCain's ideas and thoughts, as the title infers.  Although there are bits of information thrown in there from some of Obama's advisors, it has a miniscule affect on the article as a whole.  It does not take away anything from McCain's point that he is trying to get across.  The title says it talks about McCain's new attack on the Obama tax plan, and that is what it delivers.

Chris Pumphrey

"McCain Says He's Tested and Ready for a Crisis"

Elisabeth Bumiller

New York Times online

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/mccain-tested-and-ready-for-a-crisis/?scp=4&sq

October 22, 2008

October 26, 2008

Recently Senator McCain has expressed a new argument for why he could handle a national crisis better than Senator Obama: He was a naval aviator aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  At a rally in Ohio McCain attacked Senator Biden for guaranteeing the fact that Obama will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in office.  Going on to say that we don't want a president who invites testing at a time like this, adding that Americans are already fighting two wars as it is; stating that "I will not be a president that needs to be tested!"  In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer McCain states "Look, I've been tested...I was there" referring to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He goes on to question if Biden expects Obama to be tested in that manner, that it's something that should have us all concerned.  Obama gently chided Biden recently in Virginia saying, "Joe, sometimes, engages in rhetorical flourishes."  Also stating that "we have to be mindful as we pass the baton in this democracy whoever it may be."  In his interview with Blitzer, McCain defends Palin in the midst of the comments from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, listing her accalaids and achievements.  Saying that Palin was "the most popular governor in America, one who knows energy issues, a $40 billion pipeline reformer, took on the governor of her own party."  And then commenced the interview by saying he hopes Powell will find a chance to speak with Palin in the near future.

 In my opinion this article does not appear to be very fair, and comes off showing some bias.  It feels that McCain is just taking shots at Biden throughout the article, criticizing him for what he said.  When I read the article I got a feeling that it was only going to be about why McCain thinks he is ready for a crisis, but it seemed to go into other things.  In my opinion it seemed like he was playing his running mate up, trying to portray her as better than Biden.

Chris Pumphrey

I believe that ultimately, these three articles are objective and fair to all sides to which they discuss, although I did note some bias.  The first one seems to be the least fair and showing possibly the most bias, as half way through the writer brings in McCain's critics of Obama's economic plans.  The title infers that it will discuss each candidates plans for the economy, but as I noted McCain begins to bash Obama saying that he will flip-flop on his ideas.  The second article comes off in the same manner as McCain begins to discuss criticisms of Obama where it is supposed to be discussing a new attack on Obama's plan, not to bash them, but to counter them.  The same goes for the third article as well, I feel that McCain begins to take shots at Obama partway through the article, characterizing him as not capable to handle a crisis, as he thinks he is far more fit for that kind of responsibility.  In particular he goes on to question Biden, until Obama steps in to defend his running mate.  Overall, I noticed some definite bias in all three articles towards McCain's side.  In general they were relatively objective but with that little bias, possibly inacted as a last chance for a desperate man.  Throughout all three articles, there are examples of where McCain tends to take shots at Obama and his campaign, criticizing the way they have run the campaign and also the people in it, including his running mate.

One thing that I noticed a little bit in each of the articles, was that the media continued to bring up criticisms McCain had towards the Obam campaign.  The first article contains comments McCain said where he referred to Obama as someone who would flip-flop on issues if he were to be elected.  But the third article seems to contain a valid amount of criticism provided by McCain, this time it was focused on Biden, Obama's running mate and the Democratic vice presidential nominee.  Biden made comments that Obama will be tested within his first six months in office, saying it is a fact.  McCain jumped on these comments, saying that we don't need a president to be tested in a time like this; defending himself saying he has already been tested, that he has already proved himself.  I got a sense that he was criticizing Biden for saying the comments in the first place, saying that the nation needs something different.  Later in the article McCain begins to list his running mate's, Palin, accomplishments defending her in the issue with Colin Powell.  From this I got a feeling that indirectly McCain was again taking shots at the Obama campaign, in particular Biden, by playing her up, trying to portray her as a better vp choice than Biden; instigating that she is the person for the job, that we would be in a bette situation with her.

Outline

     People are always critical of the media whether or not they portray a story fairly, showing bias to one of the sides.  Although I do believe that all three of these articles do provide the public with sufficient information I did not a good amount of bias, which made me question just how fair the articles were; but instead of noticing liberal bias, I noted conservative bias.

I.    Bias by commission:   The second article that which discusses McCain's new attack on Obama's tax plan comes off in my perspective only contains strong criticisms of the Obama tax      plan.  There is no rebudle provided in the article for Obama, making it bias in favor of McCain and conservatives.

     a.     The fact that Chozick's article only contains McCain's criticisms and very little coming from the Obama campaign, we can constitute this as bias by commission, because the      perspective of the conservatives is the only one presented with minimal if any response from the liberals.

II.   Bias by omission:     Chozick predominantly only presents arguments and perspectives from McCain's side of the article.  The minimal amount of response on Obama's side is very      miniscule having almost no impact ont he articles's flow, as it refocuses back to McCain's criticisms of Obama's plan. 

     a.     The bias here may be miniscule, however, it does seem to omit substantial amount of information on Obama's side of the article.  It does provide with very little argument, but      not enough I feel to level out the bias of the article.  There seems to be an omission of Obama information as it only provides very little, devoting most of the article to McCain.

III.  Bias by the selection of sources:     I believe that all three articles fall under this type of bias, because I viewed them as including more information and sources to support McCain's      side of all the articles.  The first one mid-way through McCain begins classifying Obama as a president who would flip-flop.  While the other two articles devote most of its space and      time to McCain, whether it was him criticing Obama's plans or taking shots at Obama's running mate, rather than splitting time for both sides.

     a.     The articles can be grouped under this form of bias as there is not enough information coming from the Obama side hardly on any of them, especially the last two articles, one      brief paragraph if the liberals were lucky.  They gave McCain the conservatives more sources of information than they did for the liberals.

IV. Bias by spin:     The New York Times places a conservative bias spin in Chozick's article.

     a.     It shows bias by spin as the article provides a lot more information on the conservative view of Obama's tax plan, noting reasons why they believe it is ineffective, while it      doesn't provide enough response from the liberals as to why they view it as effective.