Fox 31 News at Nine O’clock (Fox Colorado)
Sunday, November 1st
Anchors: Deborah Takahara and Leland Vittert
Fox 31 presented 17 news stories
1. Gang Rape Investigation
Fox 31 started the program with the news from Colorado University at Boulder. On Halloween night, a group of men in their early 20s raped a woman, a CU student, near the university campus.
A Fox journalist interviewed four CU students. The journalist also mentioned that they now see more police patrolling the CU campus area, but they did not interview the police. I think that comments from the police would have been a very useful source for this rape story.
2. Weather Update
The second piece of news was a brief weather report. Colorado, get ready for snow!
3. Sport.
This is a bad year for the Denver Broncos. Fox journalists interviewed the Broncos coach and at least four players. They talked about their struggles, and said that one of the main reasons for loosing so much this season is that a lot of good players suffered injuries. It would have been interesting also to hear the views of fans and competing football team members on Broncos bad year. During the Denver Broncos news, Fox 31 was playing very sad music in the background which seemed to me quite cheesy.
4. You Decide 2008.
The anchors started the news, asking “How do Obama and McCain feel just two days before election.” The viewers did not get the answer. The Fox journalists interviewed one of McCain’s spokesmen from Colorado and two of Obama’s volunteers, which did not shed light on how the presidential candidates feel. The story was focused on the voting system and the fact that in early voting, 28.000 more registered Democrats than Republicans have voted.
5. Who is coming to Colorado?
Knowing that Colorado is a swing state, during the last days, Coloradans will have a lot of guests. On election day, McCain will be in Grand Junction; on November 2nd, Sarah Palin will be in Colorado Springs; and, on the same day, Michelle Obama will be in Littleton.
6. Missing Votes
A segment relating to possible voting errors, but the example mainly focused on the failure of a ballot sheet to include a space to “write-in” a candidate’s name. A Director of Elections was interviewed, but this whole story seemed to be contrived and of little relevance.
7. Traffic Accident
There was a hit and run accident in Northglenn. This was a short journalist report, with no interviews with the police, witnesses or victims.
10. Lakewood Hero.
A man saved his neighbors’ lives. The hero’s neighbors were sleeping and did not notice that their house was on the fire. The Fox journalist talked with one of the firefighters, but viewers did not learn the cause of fire.
8. Weather Bulletin.
There is snow on the mountains and every weekend more skiing areas are opening.
9. Talking to the Taliban.
General Petraeus of U.S. suggested that the U.S. government should sit down and talk to leaders of the Taliban. Video clips were shown of Petraeus with troops.
10. Jesus, go home!
On Halloween, a middle school student from New Jersey went to the school dressed up like Jesus. He was sent back home because the school authorities considered his dress inappropriate. Viewers saw only a picture of the boy dressed up as Jesus, and journalists talking about the situation. There were not any interviews to find out what school teachers, directors, classmates etc. thought about wearing a Jesus costume on Halloween. It would have been interesting to hear a priest’s view.
11. North Korea.
The North Koreans may be concealing their leaders continued illness after a recent heart attack. There are doubts that photos released by North Korea, (in which Kim Jong-il looks healthy, happy and smiling while visiting different events in North Korea) were taken recently. No interviews were presented, only pictures and a journalist’s voice over.
12. Woman tries to kill her boyfriend’s mother.
In Greeley, Colorado, a man learned that his girlfriend had attempted a contract killing of his mother. Fox News 31 interviewed one of the mother’s neighbors and reported the boyfriend’s reaction. The boyfriend did not wish to be interviewed.
13. New Budget.
The proposed 2009-2010 Budget for Colorado was presented, in the form of itemized tables.
14. ACLU Lawsuit.
During the DNC, there were some fights outside the convention center between police and demonstrators, and there is now an investigation of whether the police started the fights unprovoked. Again, no interviews were presented, only a video showing how the police moved in on the demonstrators, and a journalist’s voice over.
15. Senate Campaign continues for Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer.
No interviews were presented, and the Fox journalists joked that they can’t wait until the political ads are over.
16. Interview with the mayor of the New York City, Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani is asked if McCain can still win. Guiliani says yes, because Obama is just a celebrity and in political decisions he has made big mistakes. He thinks that the public will think again about voting for a mere celebrity on election day. No opposing views to this controversial statement were presented.
17. Non-citizens can vote.
From a reporting perspective, this was the best story, because Fox journalists interviewed people who are non-citizens, but who somehow registered to vote. They interviewed a couple in which the wife, who is Swedish , had previously voted without realizing the illegality of doing so. This example, and one other, appear to have resulted from a misunderstanding when applying for a motor vehicles license. Fox 31 strongly implied that this could be a widespread problem seriously distorting the outcome of the election, but they provided no statistics to support this idea. They only provided two examples, which may be isolated cases. Fox also interviewed a member of the election commission who felt that this was a rare problem, but was certainly surprised to see that the Swedish woman had succeeded in voting in 2004. The Swedish woman is now facing the possibility of deportation.
Fox was jumping backwards and forwards throughout the interview: local news, weather, sport, international news, local news, weather…and they managed 17 news items, plus ads, in a 30 minute newscast. Fox provided a wide variety of short news stories and, as a result, a lot of potential interviews were missing from each story. The most in-depth story, concerning the voting of non-citizens was interesting but not well researched or balanced. In controversial stories, both sides were not presented equally.
CNN Newsroom
Saturday, October 31
CNN Newsroom presented six news stories.
1. Will they vote?
A story about the young ‘first-timers’. First-time voters are important for Obama and also for McCain. Students talked to a CNN journalist about how seriously they are taking the upcoming election. The students’ main concerns are healthcare and the economy. CNN also stated that of 870,000 new voters, 300,000 are under the age of 25.
2. Election Obsession.
A story about how some people can’t turn themselves away form the election news and coverage. A couple of these ‘addicts’ were interviewed. CNN political commentators also wondered how they would live without the “Magic Wall” poll map once the election was over.
3. Ford invests in auto plants.
Ford will create 5,000 jobs in Kentucky. There were no interviews with local Kentucky government, people, business people, etc, only a journalist’s voice over.
4. Foreclosures.
A story about a woman whose house was being foreclosed. It turned out however, that she had owned six other houses, each of which had been foreclosed earlier. It appears that she was able to buy these houses from loans based on the collateral of her first house only. It was good material because it illustrated how easy it once was to get a house loan without the means to support it in the long term. CNN interviewed the home owner as well as economists and financial advisors who let the viewers know what they should do when faced with foreclosure.
5. Big Bear.
A 150 pound baby bear was rescued from a North California wildfire.
6. Get Ready for the election.
CNN anchors gave some useful tips on how to prepare for the Presidential Elections.
In this news roundup, there were not any controversial stories. However, there was always an attempt to show the stories from different perspectives.
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
Saturday, November 1st, CBS Evening News presented seven news stories.
1. Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain are going around the U.S.
This story discussed potential voting problems in the election, especially the likelihood of many voters having to wait for hours in long lines in order to cast their ballot. In the last election, many voters were turned away in Ohio because the polling stations closed before everyone in line had voted. The report showed that election resources varied from region to region: for example, there is one voting machine per 400 voters in Colorado and one machine per 750 voters in Virginia. The CBS also reported that 20.3 million people had already voted, which should ease the problem on election day. This was a very good story, because it addressed an important issue from all sides and alerted the public to problems that may arise on November 4th. The story also reported on the battle for the swing-states and the different challenges for the two campaigns in these states.
2. Katie Couric interviewed Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent.
Couric and Schieffer discussed the “toxic” atmosphere for the Republican Party in the wake of Bush’s unpopular presidency, indicating the disadvantage this has created for McCain in the election.
3. Business news: housing market.
JP Morgan Chase and some other banks have agreed not to foreclose on any mortgages in the next ninety days. Morgan Chase expects to renegotiate $70 billion worth of mortgages in the next two years.
4. Deregulation.
The Bush administration is hurrying to eliminate numerous regulations in the areas of air pollution, clean water and other environmental protections that the administration considers a burden to US industry. This report included an interview with the White House Deputy Press Secretary, who tried to justify these actions.
5. “Vote Yes for life.”
This was a story about a campaign in South Dakota called “Vote Yes for Life” which promotes the idea that abortion is a crime, and wants the South Dakota legislature to make abortion illegal. CBS did an excellent job showing both sides equally. CBS interviewed the president of “Vote Yes for Life”, an 18-year-old girl who is getting ready for an abortion, and an opponent of the campaign. “Vote Yes for Life” wants the legislation to be passed in South Dakota and then challenged constitutionally, so that the case is ultimately taken to the Supreme Court.
6. Radio personality Studs Terkel (1912-2008) died.
7. Huge Pumpkins.
The annual competition for the biggest pumpkin was covered. The winner was “Beast from the East” with a weight of 1568 pounds huge, a bit below the existing record.
CBS gave a lot news, with both political and human interest. If the information was controversial, CBS always presented the two sides equally. Coverage of international news was surprisingly absent.
