General media portrayal of Barak Obama


For each entry, include the following as the TITLE

1) the title of the news article (in quotation marks);

2) the author of the article if one is listed (Associated Press & Reuters count as authors);

3) where you read the story (eg: New York Times online), in italics;

4) The URL of the story if you read it online; the page number(s) if you read it in print;

5) the date the story was published (and if you read it on line, the time you consulted it).

At the end of the summary, write your name!

 

 

“Obama Picks Up First Tribune Democratic Endorsement”

By Larry Rohter

New York Times

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/obama-picks-up-first-tribune-democratic-endorsement/?scp=3&sq=barack%20obama&st=cse

Published Oct. 17. I read it on Oct. 21 at 9:43 P.M.

            Normally the Chicago Tribune newspaper supported Republicans, but now since Barack Obama is running for President they decided to support him instead. The Tribune joins a list of other newspapers that decided to support Barack Obama. All of the newspapers stated that Obama’s youth had a lot to do with their decision to support him. Also, they felt he was the best person for the job of leading this nation since so many young youths are into him. Although some major newspapers, like the New York Times, have not yet chosen a side the Tribune is making a big statement by doing this.

               I feel this article is being fair. The points brought up are all about Barack Obama and are all positive issues, but they are also all true facts. Nothing stated in the article was of opinion.

 “Thinking About Obama”

By David Brooks

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17brooks.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=barack%20obama&st=cse&oref=login

Published Oct. 16.I read it on Oct. 21 @ 10:23 P.M.

With all the way Obama had been publicized not once did he ever lose his cool. He has always stayed calm under pressure. According to the New York Times, Barack Obama is motivated by his own self worth. He wants to succeed because of him and all he has been through instead of trying to follow in someone else’s footsteps. He is always being calm when the reporters ask him tough questions at debates. According to David Brooks, he tried to compare Barack to previous presidents like F.D.R. and Bill Clinton to name a few, but he couldn’t. Barack Obama falls in his own little category of new age Presidents.

               This article is clearly biased towards Barack Obama. The article concentrates mainly on Barack Obama's good points. By comparing im to previous Presidents that were popular also is saying that they like Barack Obama. There are strong words to describe Barack's characteristics and very litttle seems to be fact in the article.

 

 

“The Early Word: Obama Predicts Tighter Race”

By Michael Falcone

New York Times

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/the-early-word-obama-predicts-tighter-race/?scp=4&sq=the%20early%20word&st=cse

Published Oct. 20. I read it on Oct. 23 at 10:13 P.M.

            Barrack Obama states the campaign race will get tighter as the weeks to election close in. The article goes over all the things that Barack Obama says he will do if he gets elected. All of his accomplishments thus far are mentioned in the article to support Barack Obama’s claim. Also, in the article they go over different things McCain is going to be doing in the next few days. The media’s position of this article seems to favor Barack a lot. The article uses strong words to describe the things Barack is doing, such as remarkable and profound. Also, the overall tone of the article is praising everything Barack has done.

               This article seems to be a little biased as well. The article goes throughout Barack's planning for the election and what he plans on doing, and when this is done Barack is being praised the whole time. Many influential words are used in the article, instead of words that don't persuade one decision to the next.

 “Obama Heads to Hawaii”

By Jeff Zeleny

New York Times

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/obama-heads-to-hawaii/

Published Oct. 23. I read it on October 23 at 10:34 P.M.

 

            Apparently Barack Obama is going to Hawaii to visit is grandmother who is very sick. The way the media makes it seem is like they want people to feel bad for his grandmother. The article points out how his grandmother has been receiving letters and messages of good faith to try and make her feel better. Barack’s grandmother is nearing her death and his doctor’s insisted that he go visit her even though the election is underway soon. While Barack is gone, his wife will take over the campaign.

               This article seems to be prety fair. Although what is going on with his grandmother is sad and could be persuading, it is also still the truth. The article is being factual with what they say.

 

 

“Barack Obama, Forever Sizing Up”

By Jodi Kantor

New York Times

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/weekinreview/26kantor.html?scp=2&sq=barack%20obama&st=cse

Published Oct. 25. I read it on Oct. 26 at 4:52 P.M.

            Barack Obama has come a long way to be in the campaign race for presidency. All the long way he has come, he never changed the way he handles things. He still holds his meetings the same way and the situations mentioned in these meetings are all answered in the same method as always. Barack has always been the type of man that was very disciplined and he carries that over into his campaign. He and his wife Michele continue to worry about what they have to do as far as the election goes and pay little attention to Barack’s opponent. Barack has a couple more days to go and he shows he is not changing his methods for anything.

               This article I feel is biased. The article tends to favor Barack Obama in many ways. The author uses strong words to describe what Barack Obama has been doing and how plans to go about the election. There are very little negative words used in the article. With that said, there are also not many neutral words in the article. The whole article is about praising Barack Obama and everything he has done thus far.

 

 

“Obama Ties McCain to Republican Party”

By Jeff Zeleny

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/us/politics/26cnd-campaign.html?scp=4&sq=barack%20obama&st=cse

Published Oct. 26. I read it on Oct. 27 at 10:34 A.M.

            With the election only a couple days away the candidates need to try to win the people over any way possible. Barack Obama knows that and that’s why he brought up on Sunday that McCain’s efforts and philosophies are very similar to that of George Bush. Barack tried to influence voters that by electing John McCain would be just like re-electing George Bush. McCain had a lot of explaining to do because of this. He found himself saying that he was similar to George Bush but also different in many ways. Also, he had to defend Sarah Palin in the act that $150,000 was given to her by the Republican Party for her outfits that were worn.

               I feel this article is also being biased. All this article does is focuses on the good things of Barack Obama. When they mention candidate John McCain they talk about all the negative issues going on with him and his party. If the article wanted to be fair then they should show both sides of both parties.

 

As far as the articles written about Barack Obama, they all seem to be similaar for the most part. All of the articles, the closer it gets to election, they seem to favor Obama in any way they can. Also, a lot of the articles tried to appeal to Obama's characteristics and his good points overall as a person instead of focusing on Obama versus McCain in the election. I think the articles found strong points in Obama and wanted to exploit them as much as possible. Even the articles that did not praise Obama as much, they also didn't point strong

negativity his way. I found they would often just focus more on his opponent if they wanted to talk negativley about Obama. The articles were very informative when talking about Obama and how he effects the election coming up.

 

 

Jeremy Appledorf

11-13-08

Outline for Paper #4

            “Obama Picks Up First Tribune Democratic Endorsement”

-          This article in particular I thought was fair. It The article is centered around Barack Obama, but only because that’s the topic of the article. Everything mentioned in the article are all facts about him as well.

 “Thinking About Obama”

-          This article is biased by omission. They talk about Barack Obama and how he is a very good person and everything, but they fail to mention anything about McCain.

“The Early Word: Obama Predicts Tighter Race”

-          This article is biased by omission as well. The article never mentions McCain and his point of view on the subjects present.

 “Obama Heads to Hawaii”

-          This article is fair in what it presents. There are no biases; it just states facts about Barack Obama’s whereabouts.

 

 

If Obama Wins, Can he Really Leave Iraq?

Robert Dreyfuss

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/31/opinion/main4562160.shtml

10/31/08

            Senator Obama’s stance on Iraq is that he is opposed to the war, and thinks the United States should have never been in there in the first place. Except now he has surrounded himself with people that don’t think an immediate withdrawal is the right solution. He is also about to take over a presidency where the military has been run in a different way than how Obama plans to lead it. A clear mandate concerning the war and the schedule for withdrawal needs to be drafted and prepared for right after the election. He needs to be careful about how he instructs his generals and high military officials because if he makes any poor choices in dealing with them than it could make his time in office a lot more difficult.

            This article was not very bias towards Barack, it judges his qualifications fairly, and the fact that he is coming into a presidency that has been doing this differently then he plans to do.

Andrew Cohn

A Long Campaign, and A Changed Barack Obama

Jay Newton Small

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1855677,00.html

10/31/08

            Barack Obama has struggled for over 20 months in one of the longest campaigns ever. In the beginning of his campaign he shied away from now huge audiences he commands. Now, he is pulling out all the stops by speaking with groups of over 100,000 people, spending millions dollars on an infomercial on television, and really trying to get his message to any non-committed voters. His political strategists wanted him to first come off as a man of Middle America and they thought if he came out too strong in the beginning people would be turned off by him. This election has made him stronger than ever and has prepared him for the presidency he will now hopefully take over.

            This article perhaps contains bias against McCain just because of how the is any article primarily about Barack. As for any bias towards Barack, there doesn’t appear to be.any bias.

Andrew Cohn

 

Joy, Fear grip African American Voters

Sameen Khan

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=113781&d=3&m=11&y=2008

10/31/08

            There are a lot of fears in people’s mind as this election is coming to a close. With all the buzz about voting machines being faulty, and fake voters in Ohio and Florida democrats are scared that this election will be stolen away from Barack Obama. In some states like Florida there are poll workers that purposefully make it very difficult for Obama supporters to vote. One woman said, “Our people stood in line in the rain and bad weather for up to four hours where I was working. They started announcing George Bush’s victory, while the people were still voting.” Making voting conditions inconvenient can shy people away from voting, this would cause unnecessary votes to be lost. But hopefully the fact that this election will be the most participated in election of all time will cancel out those lost votes.

            This article has some bias towards the voting organizations themselves, it makes it seem that in every town in every state the people that manage voting are out to get you, which is false. In some places people are ushered in to vote with open arms, but some poorer places don’t have that much of a privilege.

Andrew Cohn

Barack Obama is a president for modern times

Editorial

The Observer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/02/us-elections-2008-barack-obama

11/1/08

            President George Bush has left this country in an economic ruin, and has caused our country to enter into a recession. This has caused our country to be unsatisfied with the Republican Party. John McCain firstly had bipartisan issues that actually were important in the development of our country, but it has been dragged into touchy right wing subjects like gun control, gay marriage, and abortion. The fact that he chose Sarah Palin as a running mate kind of back fired for him because she has no grasp on public policy and she was chosen for the wrong reasons. Barack is a fresh face and perspective that our country needs right now, and McCain comes off as the old Bush agenda which is dead.

            This article has some bias towards George Bush, making him out to be the worst president of all time, and in turn, comparing McCain to Bush. This bias is shaped in a way to make the reader think that Barack is the right president for our time now.

THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE: BARACK OBAMA: DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

Julian Vachon

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-a5905128nov02,0,2285860.story

11/1/08

            Barack Obama started off graduating from Columbia University and going to work with a church based group in Chicago as a community organizer. He then went to Harvard to get his law degree and later became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He started off in the Illinois state legislature and started to gain popularity; he won a senate seat later on that year and is still serving on his first term. Some of his more important priorities of things to do while he’s in the white house is to start a universal health care program, provide tax relief for middle class families, and of course withdraw all the troops in Iraq of the next two years. Some problems he has faced during this campaign all have to do his race and the question of whether he’s a Muslim or not.

            This article has absolute no bias towards Barack Obama, it merely tries to explain where Barack is coming from and what he wants to do while he’s in office.

Andrew Cohn

Wall Street woes boost the Barack Obama bandwagon

Editorial

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5068940.ece

11/1/08

            This banking crisis that took over big business and Wall Street over the last few weeks has increased Barack Obama’s chances of getting elected. With McCain’s politics very similar to that of Bush’s and he being the reason that we are in this mess in the first place gives the impression that with McCain in office things will continue to get worse. Obama’s policy is geared towards middle America and the people that really need assistance like the ones who are losing their homes due to mortgage repayments. The democrats are less focused on big business and more on creating stimulus packages to counter all the desperate people in America. Now that the democrats engineered that $700 billion bailout plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Wall Street can start thinking about bouncing back.

            This article has some bias towards the Republican Party, blaming them directly for the Wall Street crisis. It makes the Democrats seem like they are the all mighty powerful party that God chose to carry out his orders.

Andrew Cohn

Solid as Barack

Ian Boyne

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081102/focus/focus1.html

11/1/08

            The American political system is going through a huge change right now, not only is a black man probably going to become president but our country is running out of solutions to fix all the problems we have. Barack Obama is more in tune with the people in America; right now he is talking about older people covering Medicare, and job security which is what most Americans are going through. McCain is still all about national security and how we are being changed by socialism and that is not what the people want to hear about right now. Obama is leading in some states that Bush had control over in the 2004 election, he is appealing to more people. Now more than ever McCain’s decision making and credibility are being held into question because of his running mate selection Sarah Palin. She is seen as a person not qualified to become president if anything were to happen to McCain if he were in office.

            This article does not really contain any bias towards McCain or Obama, although the article is directly about Barack, it gives pros and cons to each candidate.

Andrew Cohn

Barack Obama will hurt US firms-and world economy

Janet Daley

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/03/do0301.xml

11/1/08

            Barack Obama is an unqualified candidate that is coming in to office at a time where our government needs great guidance. He is going to bring in Democratic senators and congressman giving democrats more control in the senate and house, and allow him to nominate judges who will interpret the constitution in an Obama style. There is a type of slander coming towards McCain from the mass media that is making him devote time and money to counter what has been said. Barack’s commercial that are directed towards McCain are doing good things for his campaign, putting his own words in the ad while comparing him to Bush makes it seem that McCain doesn’t have what our country needs. Some problems seen in Obama’s corporate tax plan is that he is going to have more taxes for companies that are doing major outsourcing. It’s believed that we should worry more about creating jobs within the US to combat outsourcing instead of punish the people doing it already.

            This article does have bias towards Barack making him out to be a disqualified nim-come-poop. It makes his campaign strategy out to be one of malicious attacks on John McCain and “low blow” punches towards his opponent’s campaign. When in fact it is exactly the opposite because it was McCain who was putting out those “robo calls” about how Barack was a terrorist.

Andrew Cohn

 

Andrew Cohn Draft 1

Barack Obama: The man with the plan (Draft)

Barack Obama started off graduating from Columbia University and going to work with a church based group in Chicago as a community organizer. He then went to Harvard to get his law degree and later became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He started off in the Illinois state legislature and started to gain popularity; he won a senate seat later on that year and is still serving on his first term. Some of his more important priorities of things to do while he’s in the white house is to start a universal health care program, provide tax relief for middle class families, and of course withdraw all the troops in Iraq of the next two years. Some problems he has faced during this campaign all have to do his race and the question of whether he’s a Muslim or not.

Senator Obama has struggled for over 20 months in one of the longest campaigns ever. In the beginning of his campaign he shied away from now huge audiences he commands. Now, he is pulling out all the stops by speaking with groups of over 100,000 people, spending millions dollars on an infomercial on television, and really trying to get his message to any non-committed voters. His political strategists wanted him to first come off as a man of Middle America and they thought if he came out too strong in the beginning people would be turned off by him. This election has made him stronger than ever and has prepared him for the presidency he will now hopefully take over. But this presidency has gone through many hardships as the era of the Bush’s finally come to a close. He will have to work diligently and swiftly to help our country rise above the adversity it now faces.

As President George Bush is leaving office he has left brought our country to a point of economic devastation, and has caused our country to enter into a recession. This has caused our country to be unsatisfied with the Republican Party. John McCain firstly had bipartisan issues that actually were important in the development of our country, but it has been dragged into touchy right wing subjects like gun control, gay marriage, and abortion. The fact that he chose Sarah Palin as a running mate kind of back fired for him because she has no grasp on public policy and she was chosen for the wrong reasons. Barack is a fresh face and perspective that our country needs right now, and McCain comes off as the old Bush agenda which is dead. One prominent event that occurred towards the end of the election was the collapse of Wall Street when a couple of the largest investment banks filed bankruptcy. This will cause a swing in some votes to a candidate that is focusing more on getting our economy back on track.

This banking crisis that took over big business and Wall Street over the last few weeks has increased Barack Obama’s chances of getting elected. With McCain’s politics very similar to that of Bush’s and he being the reason that we are in this mess in the first place gives the impression that with McCain in office things will continue to get worse. Obama’s policy is geared towards middle America and the people that really need assistance like the ones who are losing their homes due to mortgage repayments. The democrats are less focused on big business and more on creating stimulus packages to counter all the desperate people in America. Now that the democrats engineered that $700 billion bailout plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Wall Street can start thinking about bouncing back.

            What has happened to our country over the past few years has caused the American political system to go through a huge change. Right now, not only is a black man probably going to become president but our country is running out of solutions to fix all the problems we have. Barack Obama is more in tune with the people in America; he is talking about older people covering Medicare, and job security which is what most Americans are going through. McCain is still all about national security and how we are being changed by socialism and that is not what the people want to hear about right now. Obama is leading in some states that Bush had control over in the 2004 Election, he is appealing to more people. Now more than ever McCain’s decision making and credibility are being held into question because of his running mate selection of Sarah Palin. She is seen as a person not qualified to become president if anything were to happen to McCain if he were in office.

There are a lot of fears in people’s mind as this election is coming to a close. With the entire buzz about voting machines being faulty, and fake voters in Ohio and Florida democrats are scared that this election will be stolen away from Barack Obama. In some states like Florida there are poll workers that purposefully make it very difficult for Obama supporters to vote. One woman said, “Our people stood in line in the rain and bad weather for up to four hours where I was working. They started announcing George Bush’s victory, while the people were still voting.” Making voting conditions inconvenient can shy people away from voting, this would cause unnecessary votes to be lost. But hopefully the fact that this election will be the most participated in election of all time will cancel out those lost votes. Also the fact that Obama wants to be out of Iraq within the next couple years is an incentive for the soldiers in Iraq to vote democrat so they can finally return home.

Senator Obama’s stance on Iraq is that he is opposed to the war, and thinks the United States should have never been in there in the first place. Except now he has surrounded himself with people that don’t think an immediate withdrawal is the right solution. He is also about to take over a presidency where the military has been run in a different way than how Obama plans to lead it. A clear mandate concerning the war and the schedule for withdrawal needs to be drafted and prepared for right after the election. He needs to be careful about how he instructs his generals and high military officials because if he makes any poor choices in dealing with them than it could make his time in office a lot more difficult. This may make Barack seem like he has not fully prepared himself for the job of commander and chief, but it just comes off that way because he is so young.

            It has been argued that Barack Obama is an unqualified candidate for president of the United States. This is coming out of the wood works now too because people are realizing that he is potentially coming in to office at a time where our government needs great guidance and leadership. He is going to bring in Democratic senators and congressman giving democrats more control in the senate and house, and allow him to nominate judges who will interpret the constitution in a democratic Obama style. This is going to be big for the democrats because now they will have control over the Supreme Court and keep protected very important cases like Roe versus Wade.

There is a type of slander coming towards McCain from the mass media that is making him devote time and money to counter what has been said. Barack’s commercial that are directed towards McCain are doing good things for his campaign, putting his own words in the ad while comparing him to Bush makes it seem that McCain doesn’t have what our country needs. Some problems seen in Obama’s corporate tax plan is that he is going to have more taxes for companies that are doing major outsourcing. It’s believed that we should worry more about creating jobs within the US to combat outsourcing instead of punish the people doing it already. There is going to be bias on issues concerning both candidates, it is just the mere fact of looking above that and forming a clear unique opinion for yourself. That is what is going to be crucial in the election for voters, so they won’t be sucked into all the media hype and bias that is constantly streamed at you whenever people tune into to CNN, or Fox News, or MsNBC. There will be nothing but hardships for our next president whether it be John McCain or Barack Obama, they will both need to listen to their officials and remain open to different ideas and laws because the same things we have tried over the past eight years has not exactly worked for the best.