Earlier this week our featured topic was the presidential election. On the even of another round of voting, the NewsTrust team thought it was a perfect time to take a good look at journalism surrounding the election.
One of the highest rated stories, and one that captures the looming questions for Democrats after the Texas and Ohio primaries, is from Slate: "Clinton has come back, but has she come back far enough?"
It's interesting to note that this article, one of the highest rated so far, scored very low on the issue of balance, perhaps because it is still framing the election story in relation to Barack Obama. There has been some recent criticism that the Obama campaign has had it easy in the media so far, perhaps that is a narrative that will change now that people have begun to call attention to this bias.
The match between Clinton and Obama is in a dead heat. But, considering Clinton's history, she was expected to sweep the primaries against Obama, the LA Times asks "how the Clinton campaign got here?" This was another highly rated article which trusted reviewer Barry Grossheim points out is an "insightful look into the Clinton campaign." Again, however, the election narrative seems to be told with a pivot around Obama. This is something that I think our reviewers caught from time-to-time while rating stories in the presidential election topic.
There was one rogue story, or I should say, a story that wasn't all about the horse race, which caught my eye: Candidates in favor of ROTC on campus from the Stanford Daily. This article about the fact that all the candidates support the continuation of the ROTC on campus program was rated fairly high and garnered thoughtful reviews from some of our most trusted community members. As Michael Hudson comments - this is a 40-year-old debate that is "in need of the the public's renewed attention." I can especially argue that case after yesterday's Times Square bombing which targeted a military recruitment center.
For me, NewsTrust certainly brought the issue to the forefront. Much like Gregg Moneyhun, "I wasn't aware about this until I read the story." I've always had my opinion, which I won't go into here. The important aspect of NewsTrust isn't that we become a venue for stating your ideological belief. As Tish noted in a post - we try to check our ideology at the door. But, in this case, NewsTrust worked as a tool to get me informed and thinking critically about an issue.
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