I’m looking at the media coverage of President Obama’s landmark May 21, 2009 speech on the legal complications of closing the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay.
USA Today: An interesting frame. The story starts with a summary of Obama’s main points. Followed by links to the speech and the response from Ex VP Cheney. What I liked about the structure of the article was that Cheney’s response was sandwiched between elements of Obama’s speech. Cheney positioned himself as giving a “rebuttal” to the president’s arguments, but, as USA Today pointed out, the answers to Cheney’s rebuttal were contained within the president’s remarks—which USA Today used to close the article. Grade: B-
Christian Science Monitor: Like much of CSM’s Obama coverage, this story seemed to be striving for a negative take. The article summarized the contents of the speech and highlighted the criticisms that followed, emphasizing the swiftness of the negative response. I’ve been disappointed in CSM’s general coverage of the president, and this article did not change my perspective. Grade: C
The New York Times: Even worse than the Monitor, the NYT framed the entire speech as an exercise in CYA, imposing its own assumptions on the president’s motivations for making the speech and giving Ex-VP Cheney’s speech equal weight, authority, and legitimacy—despite the fact that the rebuttal contained several assertions effectively countered by the president’s remarks. Grade: C-
The Washington Post: As if the Times coverage weren’t bad enough, the Post delivered a clumsy face-off framing as if the speeches were some kind of duel. They wrote about and analyzed the speeches as a package. Grade: F
What I wanted to see: Some background, some context for the President’s remarks, relating his remarks to the reality of Guantanamo, rather than presenting the remarks as if the history contained therein were a given. Did the president accurately portray the realities of the Guantanamo situation? Did he leave out any important issues? What were some of the more significant proposals presented? Do these proposals change the course of American policy, and if so, how?
