Analysis:

This is a short piece, but more than WZZM 13 or WOOD 8 aired, neither of which reported anything on this story on the 31st. The news story reports that Wolfowitz is considered to be the architect of the Iraq war and an administration "Hardliner" on foreign policy. The newsreader also mentions that he has been the targets of critics both at home and abroad. None of these critics are listed not are the reasons for the criticism provided. The story then has a single sentence about the World Bank, saying "The mission of the World Bank is to fight poverty and improve the standard of living in developing countries."

While that may be an accurate description of the World Bank's mission on paper, it hardly gives a complete picture of the World Bank's actual role in the developing world. The World bank was founded after WW2, along with it’s sister organization the International Monetary Fund, ostensibly to provide assistance and resources for the developing world. Numerous critics and organizations have noted that the reality of the World Bank is that its policies have increased poverty and lowered standards of living in the developing world, rather than the opposite. According to the group Global Exchange, World bank policies have led to massive debt among third world nations who are in turn forced by World Bank and IMF policies to adopt austerity programs which cut social spending in order to pay back debts. This process of "Structural adjustment", while benefiting some elite sectors in the developing country and often also benefiting construction and energy firms from the first world, have led to increased poverty and polarization of wealth in these developing nations as well.

Story:

News reader – former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz will be the new President of the World Bank. The bank’s twenty four executive directors unanimously approved it today. Wolfowitz is considered the chief architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and his hard-line foreign policy at the Pentagon has made him a target of critics, both at home and abroad. The mission of the World Bank is to fight poverty and to improve the standard of living in developing countries.