Week 5 Article Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/politics/20campaign.html?ref=politics

This article is about the news that Colin Powell has come out in support of Barack Obama in the U.S. Presidential debate.

The article comes after Powell was featured on "Meet the Press." I had a interesting time wrapping my head around this one - in a way, I feel that it walks a very find line between biased and not due to the organization of the information and the matieral included in the article.

It begins with pretty straight up news format coverage. The lede is even bland to some extent:

"Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president on Sunday morning, calling him a “transformational figure” who has reached out to all Americans with an inclusive campaign and displayed “a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity” and “a depth of knowledge” in his approach to the nation’s problems. "

"It goes on to expound on this. The nut graph comes shortly after the lede, and is probably the following:
The endorsement, on the NBC public-affairs program “Meet the Press,” was a major blow to Senator John McCain, who has been a good friend of Mr. Powell’s for decades. Mr. Powell, a Republican, has advised Mr. McCain in the past on foreign policy. "

This is probably why this article gets under my skin - maybe its less about bias and more about just reporting in a certain way. I guess the lede, the nut graph both seem..."gossipy"?...for lack of a better term. It focuses on why this is scandalous, as opposed to what effect this news might have. It's central arguement is why Colin Powell criticized McCain, NOT why he supports Obama.

Similarly, the organization is not "ABAB" in that it simply doesn't give any other side to the issue. What is intruging is that the organization of the information is juxtaposed in such a way as to suggest that Colin Powell's decision was the right one - meaning, there will be a quote from him saying why he supports Obama, and then his will be followed up by a McCain jab....again and again. It's layer like this throughout the article - and to me they seem like they should be reported as two seperate issues....maybe that's wrong though.

The kicker is a quote kicker. It's clear and to-the-point and I think it does a nice job of finishing things off nicely.