posted
The story is just beginning to spread on the wires, but the Houston Chronicle article is available here.
There are two important findings. No rules broken by Republican leaders, but a pattern of negligence in protecting teens. For some reason, the majority of news stories so far only stress one of the findings in the headline, so it's either:
Ethics panel: Republicans were negligent
or...
Ethics panel: Republicans didn't break any rules.
*sigh*
quote: The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's sexually explicit computer messages.
posted
Actually, a quick glance at the major news outlets shows that every single one has both "negligence" and "no rules broken" in either the headline or the sub-headline. Not quite as objective as managing to squeeze both into a headline, but all things considered, it's not that bad, spin-wise.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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House panel: GOP leaders broke no rules in Foley case: AP MarketWatch - 1 hour ago By Gabriel Madway. SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders did not break ...
House panel finds Republicans negligent in scandal Reuters - 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House ethics panel concluded that Republicans failed to adequately respond to early warnings about a lawmaker blamed for the Internet ...
Foley Panel Says GOP Negligent of Teens Forbes, NY - 1 hour ago By LARRY MARGASAK 12.08.06, 1:49 PM ET. The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling ex-Rep. ...
That's just the top few so far. (and the houston chronicle headline on google matches the one on the news page) Hopefully, the headlines will get better.
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posted
I'm not quite sure what you're wishing they would say. I guess your thread title shows it. Are you upset that the headlines are going for one or the other?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Yeah, that's really it. A headline that says "Republicans didn't break any rules" in this context really misrepresents the story. Similarly, a headline that says only "Republicans were negligent" leaves out important context.
I'm no fan of Denny Hastert - no fan of Congress, really. (The "I didn't break any rules but danced as close to edge as I could" is typical of Hastert and too many elected officials, IMO)
I am a fan of accurate reporting - and part of accurate reporting is putting out a headline that actually *summarizes* a story. Some news sources have have done that. It would be nice to see the others follow suit.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Upset may be a bit strong of a word, but the topic sentence has two parts to it. One seems to fault Republicans for the Foley affair, the other seems to clear them. Neither one is entirely accurate. Different news outlets have grabbed one or the other, which immediately influences the mindset one way or another in the person who reads the article. This mindset will play a large part in how they interpret and remember the rest of the article.
Edit: I'll let you (sndrake) field the questions, since we just keep cross posting and basically repeating each other Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Yeah, but neither of us answers in exactly the same way.
And, frankly, your last answer really nailed the issue of misleading headlines - in a way I hadn't managed to. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by BaoQingTian: Try news.google.com
Leaders failed to protect teenage pages-CNN Foley Panel Says GOP Negligent of Teens -ABC News Foley panel: GOP didn‘t protect pages -Hinesberg House panel: GOP leaders broke no rules in Foley case: AP- Marketwatch House panel finds Republicans negligent in scandal -Reuters Foley panel says Republicans broke no rules -CTV
Like I said, in each case, you get the full picture if you actually go to the news site itself and see both headline and sub-headline. Again, this isn't to say that there is no bias, because I think we all agree that the difference between headline and sub-headline, at least in the minds of your average news reader, is vast. But it's hardly the worst case of spin out there.
Now, once the assembled punditry gets ahold of this story, then the feces will really impact the rotary blade.
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