The Grand Rapids Information Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) has issued a media alert concerning the media's coverage of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst Ray McGovern's appearence last week Wednesday in Grand Rapids. After reviewing the media's lack of coverage of the event, GRIID found the following:
Of the local TV stations, only WOOD 8 provided any coverage of McGovern's visit. A producer from WOOD 8 interviewed McGovern for an hour on Wednesday, prior to McGovern's lecture. This footage was not used in the evening broadcast that evening. Six minutes of this footage was used on the following Sunday during "To the Point," WOOD 8's political affairs show. WZZM 13 and WXMI 17 did not provide any coverage of the event. Rather, the local TV stations aired stories that day on topics such as a tornado in Texas, a junk food free camp for kids, a luncheon promoting good etiquette, and the debut of Playstation 3.
The Grand Rapids Press ran two articles, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday. These were both relatively short stories that were placed on pages 3 and 5 of the "Region" section. The Press neglected to post the story from Friday's paper on their website, MLive.com. The headlines of the two articles both were problematic as well. The first headline, "Hoekstra, Bush critic to speak" was inaccurate. In the article it is plainly noted that Hoekstra had declined to participate in the debate. The headline for the Friday article was "Hoekstra's staff questions ex-CIA analyst's motives." While not factually inaccurate, this headline seems crafted to prejudice the reader against McGovern while deflecting criticism of Hoekstra.
According to GRIID:
By underreporting the visit by Ray McGovern, the local media essentially rewarded representative Hoekstra for not participating in a debate with Ray McGovern. When elected officials know the media will not hold them accountable when they are challenged by critics, these officials will refuse to take part in public dialogues with those they may not agree with.
GRIID is encouraging people to contact the media to demand better coverage.
