media bias – RI Future

March 7, 2016

ProJo editor admits paper of record did Bernie wrong

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Providence Journal Executive Editor David Butler said Rhode Island’s paper of record could have done a better job covering Bernie Sanders’ primary wins onSaturday.

“I would agree it deserved more and the paper was GOP heavy,” Butler said, responding to a Nicholas Delmenico post alleging the ProJo isn’t offering fair and ample coverage to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

“Though you must admit the GOP race has been much newsier – for better or for worse,” he added.

“Please note that Bernie Sanders’ caucus wins were mentioned in the second paragraph of the A1 Sunday AP roundup on the primaries,” Butler wrote in an email to RI Future. “Note that the lead story in the Monday paper was on the Clinton-Sanders debate.”

Butler, whose full email you can read here, said, “There is no blackout of the Dems.” Delmenico’s post does not allege a blackout of Democrats, but rather of Bernie Sanders.

Sanders supporters have grown more vocal recently about what they see as unfair treatment of their candidate from the so-called “mainstream media” a colloquialism for the large, influential and in most cases for-profit corporations that Americans rely on to become educated about their government.

Delmenico insinuated the Providence Journal has not adequately covered Bernie Sanders because it is owned by a corporation with ties to Wall Street.

Others have said too many media organizations include superdelegate campaign promises when comparing Hillary Clinton and Sanders delegate totals. Superdelegates are party insiders that get a vote in who the presidential nominee is. They are known to change their mind. In fact, they are known to change their mind against Hillary Clinton, who eight years ago held a similar superdelegate advantage over Barack Obama before many switched to support the eventual nominee.

Clinton has won 671 delegates to Sanders’ 476. But, according to the New York Times, Clinton also has 458 superdelegates who have said they will vote for her compared to 22 for Sanders.

March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

The Bernie blackout is real, and it’s happening at the Providence Journal

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The media blackout on U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is real, and it’s happening with our home state newspaper. Please read further for the gruesome details.

On Saturday, March 5, 2016, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Democratic caucuses by voting margins of 35% in Kansas and 14% in Nebraska. He also lost by a margin of 48% in the Louisiana primary.

In the Providence Sunday Journal, there is not ONE headline mentioning any of these facts nor one article dedicated to the Democratic presidential race. A review of today’s “A” section reveals the following articles related to the 2016 presidential race:

Page A1 (above the fold): “Cruz gains ground – Beats Trump handily in Kansas, Maine”

Page A1 (below the fold): “Trump taps into fears of changing America – A champion to the disgruntled white working class, a ‘monster’ to the GOP elite”

Page A7: “Trump primary win roils Mass. GOP – But Democrats have left their party, too, to back the maverick Republican”

Page A8: “Clinton backers pursue ‘gender gap'” – an article that discusses the gender gap in Trump’s supporters and how a Trump/Clinton general election could feature the largest gender gap ever in a presidential election, again pushing the narrative that Trump and Clinton will be the nominees.

Page A9: “GOP points to Obama tenure as cause of party’s schism” with the featured quote “There would be no Donald Trump without Barack Obama.” – Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Page A9: “5 states will shape 2016 race on weekend” – it mentions that “both parties had contests in Kansas and Louisiana … and Democrats in Nebraska also vote” but made no mention of the results. In fact, the article also mentions that these states “possess the power to make Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump closer to unstoppable.” The bias here is frightening, and this is from an AP article. The article also gives the “delegate count” for the Democrats without noting that the count includes as of yet unofficial counts of superdelegates, another misleading tactic.

And in the “Commentary” section…

Page A13: “Clinton backers split on Trump strategy” – you guessed it, an op-ed on how Hillary should take on Trump in the general election.

Page A13: “Republican ‘takers’ take down the establishment” – a GOP-focused op-ed

Page A14: “Romney’s warning” – an editorial from the Providence Journal Editorial Board, again focused on the GOP and coming out against Trump.

Page A14: “Letters to the Editor” – even the ones included here are anti-abortion, about Ben Carson, and about John Kasich.

To top it all off, on the Providence Journal’s Facebook page, they posted, on March 6 at 9:10 am, an AP article whose headline insinuates that both Cruz and Sanders’ wins yesterday were meaningless.

What is going on here?

I will be calling the Providence Journal to complain about the lack of coverage of the Democratic nomination process. I will ask two questions:

Why were the Democratic results not given any consideration?
Will the Journal commit to giving equal consideration to the Democratic and Republican races, and give equal consideration to the only two Democrats in the race?

I will also email David J. Butler, the Executive Editor & Senior VP of News for The Providence Journal directly as his email is listed on page A2: dbutler@providencejournal.com.

As I do not expect to get satisfactory answers to my questions, I am left to do what you must always do when something doesn’t pass the sniff test: follow the money.

The Providence Journal is “a subsidiary of GateHouse Media, Inc.” according to page A2. According to Wikipedia, GateHouse Media (which went through a planned bankruptcy and is now part of the holding company New Media Investment Group Inc) is owned by Fortress Investment Group. Also according to Wikipedia, Fortress “was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wesley R. Edens, a former partner at BlackRock Financial Management, Inc.; Rob Kauffman (businessman), a managing director of UBS; and Randal A. Nardone, also a managing director of UBS. Fortress quickly expanded into hedge funds, real estate-related investments and debt securities, run by Michael Novogratz and Pete Briger, both former partners at Goldman Sachs.”

Big surprise.

Please, contact the Journal and put pressure on them to do right by the people it serves and give equal consideration to the presidential races and publish articles and op-eds from all points of view, not just those that match their owners’ views.

Please call the Journal. Please email. Please share this post. Please do anything so that the corrupt influence of “big media” does not infiltrate the biggest paper in our little state.

(Editor’s note: This was originally a Facebook post)

February 6, 2014February 6, 2014

Mark Patinkin picks bad example to depict workers’ rights

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What’s a worse sin in mainstream media bias? Is it when a reporter offers an opinion in an otherwise so-called straight news piece, or is it when opinionators offer a skewed view of the state in order to stump for their pet philosophies?

I’d say it’s the latter is where Rhode Island’s marketplace of ideas misses the mark. Case in point: Mark Patinkin’s column this morning on worker versus management rights.

He chose to focus on the spat between college buddies Rob Rainville and John Feroce, who it turned out didn’t enjoy working together as much as they liked partying together. Rainville was the attorney for Alex and Ani and Feroce the CEO. When the business and/or personal relationship turned sour Rainville, a lawyer, filed suit. Alex and Ani is under intense scrutiny as of late, and this is certainly a newsworthy topic. But it’s not an example of labor versus management rights – it’s an example of what can happen when longtime friends add loads of money and a law degree to the equation.

Better examples of the tension when employees and employers part ways exist in Rhode Island, and Patinkin would have had to only read the newspaper he works for to find about them.

One from yesterday’s Providence Journal described how the owner of a Warwick tree service fired an worker when he got hurt with a chainsaw on the job. And when the employee stood up for his worker’s rights, management had him deported. A judge awarded the employee a $30,000 settlement and then the state fined the owner $150,000 when he failed to make good on the restitution.

I’d like to know, since it seems to be a topic worthy of debate, what Mark Patinkin thinks of this situation. To me it seems pretty obvious both the employee and employer would have fared better if the employee enjoyed the full rights of American citizenship, probably would have saved us taxpayers money too.

Or how about this one from last week, in which a former Hasbro employee says she was fired for being gay and a woman. According to the ProJo, the woman “alleges that her open commitment to the cause of women’s rights, her gender and her sexual orientation led Hasbro to falsely accuse her of misconduct and subsequently fire her last January.”

If his Twitter timeline is any clue, I would expect Mark Patinkin to be even less empathetic to workers’ rights when the worker in question is a female.

He tweeted this yesterday:

How come, instead of ordering their own dessert, women say they’ll just take a bite of yours, and then eat half of it?

— Patinkin, Mark (@markpatinkin) February 6, 2014

And admitted to being a sexist in a January tweet:

Am I the only sexist who wonders why Jennifer Aniston doesn’t get married but cheers on George Clooney for avoiding capture?

— Patinkin, Mark (@markpatinkin) January 21, 2014

No, Mark Patinkin, you are not the only sexist who wonders such things. But it is good that you can admit to being a sexist. That’s the first step. You ought to also admit that your most recent column about employee versus employer rights does more damage to this important discussion than it does service.

July 3, 2012July 3, 2012

Projo Misses News at Doherty, Brown Event

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Doherty-Brown — Photo courtesy of Pat Crowley. @PatCrowleyNEARI

So, if you still have doubts that the ProJo editorial board is the tail wagging the newsroom’s dog; those fears should be laid to rest after the ~~Newspaper~~ Spin Cycle of record’s coverage of the Brendan Doherty event at Metacomet Country Club in East Providence.

Journal scribe Phil Marcelo, covered all the political details about how Sen. Scott Brown made the trip down from Massachusetts, gave a closed-door speech to the big donors and then left quickly. He also covered the fact of the approximate amount of money the event raised and even mentioned how both men met as youngsters at a basketball camp. Marcelo also goes on to note how Doherty was impressed with Brown’s call for bipartisanship.

Now here’s where I take exception to the ProJo’s coverage. When a story mentions bipartisanship, shouldn’t it at least include some of what the other side might have to offer, or object to? Maybe an example of Sen. Brown working in a cooperative manner?

Not only was there no mention of the other side’s views in this story, there wasn’t even any mention of the protesters outside the entrance to the country club. Members of Planned Parenthood and several labor groups were outside the event to make attendees and passers-by aware of extreme right-wing positions Mr. Doherty has staked out for his campaign. My question is: How is this not news?

Maybe if the ProJo goes back to fairly and accurately reporting the news and keeping its opinions on the editorial page, the paper can gain back some of its credibility. If not, I fear for my former co-workers on Fountain Street, as readership declines and the state will lose a once Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, to be replaced by a print version of Fox News.

May 22, 2012May 23, 2012

Projo Uses ‘Scare Quotes’ To Smear Progressives

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Projo State House beat reporter Phil Marcelo is one of the best journalists in the state, and so I have to assume this is something that happened in the editing process of his piece today titled “Democrats poised to unwrap own spending proposal.” I’ve sent my friend Phil an email and am waiting to hear back from him. (Update: in keeping with Projo policy, Marcelo declined to comment)

In any case, in the 13th graph, the story reads:

House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, are both firmly opposed to such proposals, but “progressive ” Democratic lawmakers have used the budget process to make their case in previous years.

Why is the word progressive in quotes? Who is saying that? Who is being quoted?

No one, of course. It’s well understood that when otherwise out-of-place quotation marks appear around a word of phrase without any indication that someone said something, they are being used to convey either suspicion or irony. They are commonly called scare quotes, and Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the term as, “quotation marks used to express especially skepticism or derision concerning the use of the enclosed word or phrase.”

Scare quotes are not forbidden in journalism. In fact, according to the AP Stylebook, in the section under quotation marks it says:

IRONY: Put quotation marks around a word or words used in an ironical sense: The “debate” turned into a free-for-all.

Okay … so what’s ironic about progressive Democrats? Is the Projo insinuating that those who have used the budget process in recent years to make their case about tax reform are, in fact, not progressive?

To me, it smacks of media bias. Does anyone think the Providence Journal would ever put the word conservative in scare quotes to describe far-right Republicans? The local paper of record might be more inclined to capitalize the word rather than do that.

Like I said, Phil Marcelo is a great reporter and when I’ve questioned his reporting in the past he’s always been able to back it up. I’d love to hear either from him or an editor, though I understand the Journal has a longstanding policy not to comment on its journalism. If you’d like to do so, please use the comment section below.

UPDATE: Marcelo declined to comment.