Pulled Quotes

The article that struck me this week was about Hillary Clinton replacing her campaign manager after her drubbing in the primaries by Barack Obama this week. I’m not really interested in the journalism mechanics of the piece as much as how it shows Clinton’s ability to manipulate the media.

Say what you will about Hillary as a candidate (read: she’s an awful centrist who supports flag burning amendments, censorship, and anything else that will get her elected), but she does know how to finesse the media. The (in)famous crying incident before the New Hampshire primary shows this, and so does this article. Clinton was beaten pretty soundly in all of this weekend’s primaries by Obama, but by replacing her campaign manager, she managed to not only stay in the news, but do it positively.

This story was on my news ticker, right under “Obama Wins Weekend Primaries.” The Clinton campaign obviously doesn’t want Obama hogging the headlines, so this replacement of her campaign manager is an obvious ploy not only to get some ink, but to get some positive ink. Not only does Hillary get top billing with Obama in the headlines, but she can also spin it as a positive change: something like, “I’m working for change and refining my strategy” rather than “I got beaten prety badly and am trying to cut my losses.”

As for the actual journalism of the article, it’s not bad. I like that they’ve got the actual text of the campaign email. This either shows that someone did some good investigative work or that the campaign leaked it (pointing to some even more overt media manipulation).

MSNBC Online: http://www.cnbc.com/id/23057002

When I heard the writer’s strike had ended, to say I was excited would be an understatement.  Yet, when I pulled up the article linked from the glorious headline “Deal Has Been Reached to End Writer’s Strike” I got nothing new.  The article basically just restated the headline in a rambling long winded grouping of a few short paragraphs that provided no background information.  I understand news is a change in the status quo, and the end of this strike is certainly a newsworthy change, but more research and more insight would have been much appreciated.  There was no hint of what final terms were, when we can expect shows back, if a drastic change occurred to end the strike or if it was merely fatigue.  Though the article was enjoyable and exciting news, it was uninformative and left me searching other sites to find out more.  Keeping readers informed is the job of a journalist, and if you are going to take time away from my day by enticing me to read an article on ground breaking news, I hope to be satisfied or the paper’s job has not been done.