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July 27, 2004
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Briefs Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Oops! John Edwards and John Kerry may be smiling in the photo on the first page of The Washington Post's special Democratic Convention Section, but the newspaper's editors frowned when they saw the page with "Election 2000" dominating the top. The very obvious glitch appeared Monday in the paper distributed around the convention press center. "It's a great issue and the masthead shows we're committed to recycling," said Boisfiuillet Jones, publisher of the Post. Media Nation Photo by Sarah M. J. Welch
Bias Watch Boston media, including public radio station WBUR , the Boston Globe and others, relied heavily on a think tank called the Beacon Hill Institute in reporting before the Democratic convention that it’s impact would hurt Boston’s economy. The BHI, housed at Suffolk University is depicted by its Executive Director, David G. Tuerck as a “’free-market’ think tank." in fact Tuerck has long-standing GOP ties, and told the Newton Republican Party in a published 2003 interview that “I happen to be a Republican.” Democratic Party officials tried in vain to point out to reporters that Republicans might wish to cast aspersions on the convention, but this did not stem the flood of anti-convention stories based on BHI research. Ironically the Boston Herald, a feisty tabloid that doesn’t try to hide its disdain for liberals, attempted to blow the whistle on what it called the Institute’s “sloppy and unpersuasive” research. Visitors to the BHI Web site (www.beaconhill.org) can see the parade of negative stories about the convention’s likely impact, each one using BHI’s studies as a principle source.
On the Web Wonder where that great groundbreaking online coverage of the 1996 Democratic and Republican conventions disappeared to? You’ve searched up and down the Web without success or come up with dead pages. Try visiting http://www.archive.org. The site is a huge, searchable and free digital library of “Internet sites and other cultural artifacts.” Check Election 2004 in the Moving Images section. You’ll be able to watch “Bush Announces Hussein Capture” and “John Kerry on the Road.” You can find many of the entries in moveon.org’s “Bush in 30 Seconds” contest that even moreon.org doesn’t post. Popularity is measured by “batting average” -- the percentage of users who downloaded an item. The site’s audience doesn’t seem to lean Republican. Among the most popular items: “If Parents Acted Like Bush” and “My Grandmother, Lifelong Republican.”
CORRECTION Media Nation misidentified Bill Walczak, executive director of the Codman Square Health Center and frequent Dorchester Reporter source. He is not an employee of the Reporter. |
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Briefs Monday, July 26, 2004
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Media Nation
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