Criminalizing Conservatives
The Weekly Standard
By Jeffrey Bell & William Kristol
First off, I know what The Weekly Standard is and what its purpose is. It is no secret that it is a right-leaning publication. They boast about it in their pages and in their advertisements. Knowing that, it covers angles rarely if ever seen by most media outlets. The article “Criminalizing Conservatives” is a prime example.
The most apparent thing about this article is its conversational tone. The first line reads: “THE MOST EFFECTIVE CONSERVATIVE LEGISLATOR of--oh--the last century or so, Congressman Tom DeLay…” demonstrates this. The interjected casual language makes the article more reader friendly and a tad tongue and cheek in approach. It is refreshing to read articles with this approach as opposed to statistic-laden text.
On top of the conversational tone, the article is well written. It has a clear thesis statement and supports it with numerous examples. The thesis statement of this article is, “What do these four men [Bill Frist, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby & Tom DeLay] have in common, other than their status as prosecutorial targets? Since 2001, they have been among the most prominent promoters of the conservative agenda of the Bush administration.” This theme drives the article.
Demonstrating the numerous inequalities of the situation is an effective way of building up their argument. The example with Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is striking. In this example, not only do the authors build their argument, but also create ethos for themselves. It shows that they are the only one’s reporting this situation, but not because it is false.
Closing with an acknowledgment of unanswered questions is interesting. It shows that the authors recognize their limitations and are well-grounded individuals. More news reporting like this would be a welcome addition to the garbled, slanted Beltway jargon generally reported.
3 comments:
*even if* DeLay is an "effective" legislator, that doesn't mean that he's doing the right thing. Hitler was an "effective" leader, too.
Also, his congressional record has no bearing upon the allegations brought against him. If convincted of campaign finance fraud, he will have proven that he believed himself to be above the American political system. That's not something I, as an American citizen, am willing to entertain in an elected official, no matter what his politics were.
-Gretchen
I like the way the article's thesis statment makes it sound like these four men are innocent and were attacked by rabid Democrats (wait, is this a role reversal from the Clinton administration?!) for no reason.
Maybe, instead of reporting like "this," or like "garbled, slanted Beltway jargon," we could report the facts without any bias. Are you certain that this is not occurring? People who watch FOX news and complain about "OMG THE LIBERAL MEDIA" have the tendency to not watch/read anything that is not FOX. So how do they know?! (Other than by FOX telling them so)
I agree that the perfect situation would be complete unbiased reporting. Too bad that it will never happen. I happen to watch Fox as well as other news channels, and sometimes the evening and Sunday morning shows. All that said, I think there is a tendency in most media outlets to look at strictly partisan topics such as this from one angle. This article, I think, does a good job of demonstrating the other side, that has not been reported, even by Fox news.
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