Lynn Sweet and Sen Obama
Is this the way to cover news?
I've been reading Chicago papers since the early 60s. I miss the cartoon of the long-haired-anarchist with the round bomb and lit fuse who graced the Trib's front page during the 60s. (I wish I could find an image of him for my blog.)
I have never seen the press link up with a politician quite this way.
This is the way to cover a rock star; not a United States Senator.
Sweet does Obama no favors covering him this way. Politicans need the heat to hone them.
Unless this is all about selling books and not serious politics.
13 comments:
Your concern for Obama's needs is touching.
Let me get this right:
1. The press is wrong for being mean to Mr. Bush; but
2. The press is also wrong for being nice to Sen. Obama.
Should the press be nice or should it be mean?
No wonder you Illinois Republicans keep losing.
Are you commenting on the content of the article, which Lynn Sweet wrote?
Or are you commenting on the artwork that someone at the paper created to put around her text?
It looks to me that someone at the Sun-Times is working on ways to drive online readership through improved graphics.
Meanwhile, I did get a kick out of this week's news that the Senator is still involved in the mundane task of resolving the Hyde Park fight over the revetment at Promontory Point. Wonder what the national commentators would think if they knew that the man they are promoting for US president still has to break up fights between neighborhood bullies!
Skeeter,
I don't think the press is wrong for being mean to Bush. Sometimes they've done some stuff in poor taste at the conferences but so what. Tony Snow gets paid to deal with it.
When the press has manufactured stories, that's a different kind of problem.
But the press does a disservice to pols and public alike when they become cheerleaders.
The art work, the content, this is just all wrong to me... it's a new kind of reporting and I don't think it's good.
The closest kind of reporting I can think of; is some of the older reporters who would fawn over the old Mayor Daley.
To the point for you Skeeter, should you miss it, re:
Should the press be nice or should it be mean?
The press should be aggressive.
I believe reporters can be aggressive while still showing respect for the office.
If a reporter can't negotiate that balance, then he/she should err on the side of meanness.
clear?
Remember that Barack took Jeff Zeleny and a photog to Russia w/ Dick Lugar last year. This is essentially a foreign policy "embed", which is a much better way to cover congressional travel than the shrill "all travel is bad" coverage that comes out once a year to promote a certain think tank's fundraising. The best members of congress realize that they are too insulated inside the beltway to really understand foreign policy, and they work incredibly hard on these trips. One trip I was on included 23 separate meetings in 3 days, 16 hours a day, and what amounted to a redeye in both directions.
And if the promotional graphics and style of the way the S-T is promoting this is what it takes to keep funding experienced reporters like Lynn Sweet (instead of funding the vacuous TV-talking-heads), then I'm all for it.
It would be even more interesting if the SunTimes reported on Obama's voting record, on such things as denying funding to the victims of hurricane Katrina to benefit the Bridge to Nowhere, and just let the readers decide for themselves whether Obama is all he is cracked up to be.
JBP
Anything that increases coverage of Africa and the issues facing it is a good thing. The continent is sadly--but predictably--neglected most of the time by our corporate press.
Lynn's a big lib. No secret.
The press should be objective.
Bill, did Bush rise to the top taking tough questions? How does he handle people who ask tough questions now?
Carl,
You think the Texas papers fawned over Governor Bush the way the Sun Times and Sweet fawn over Obama?
One reason Bush survived the questions over his military service was it had all been churned over while he was Governor.
There wasn't much left. CBS had to find forged documents to get a story.
Lynn Sweet's story is on the front page of the Sunday Elgin Courier-News.
Post a Comment