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Thursday 4 September 2008

Compare and contrast Justin Webb's reporting of two speeches

Justin Webb, the BBC's North America editor should be an unbiased observer and reporter of the US Presidential Election but of course he isn't. Do please compare and contrast his ever positive live-blogging of Joe Biden's speech with his patronising and sneering reporting of Sarah Palin's speech.

Before I contrast the two reports, it is interesting to speculate as to why Justin Webb live-blogged Joe Biden's speech but not Sarah Palin's. Did he trust himself to react positively to Joe Biden's speech but needed some consideration time before snidely attacking Sarah Palin's speech? Did he need to see how the Democratic party attack-dogs were attacking Sarah Palin's speech so as to know what line he should follow.

Anyway, to the two reports, my comments in italics:
"20.19 (Mountain time): As we watch the biographical video ahead of the big speech, it's interesting that the talk of kids and grandkids segues into his foreign policy experience faster than you can say gravitas...
Line one and Justin Webb has established Joe Biden has lots of family (a positive) and has managed to associate the word gravitas with Joe Biden as well.

20.30: Pitch perfect opening - the praise for his son is especially moving when you think of their early life.
More positive reporting of Joe Biden and his family life.

20.40: He's managed now - with well-chosen words about people struggling with the economy - to do what few other speakers have been able to do: speak directly to Americans in trouble. That's what the Democrats have to do and have not been doing so far.
More praise of Joe Biden


20.46: "That's not change, that's more of the same" - a slogan about John McCain he's now repeated about 10 times. This is the message the Democrats need to get out to the rest of the country.
A campaign tip for the Democrats there, that's nice of Justin Webb.


20.48: He's defining what "change" means - affordable healthcare, affordable education, more cops on the street. Never mind "change you can believe in", this is change people can grasp.
More praise, can Joe Biden "do no wrong"?


20.51: Daring line there on foreign policy - "John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was right" on troops to Afghanistan and other recent foreign policy controversies.
Daring? More praise...

20.54: That final line - "God bless America and God bless our troops". He used it at the end of his first speech as Obama's running-mate. For Barack Obama to have a running-mate who can say that - and sound convincing - is a tremendous asset to the ticket.
More praise and use of the word "asset".


Conclusion: Joe Biden proved in his speech (it's well worth reading the transcript by the way) that this ticket will have bite as well as cool - and it may just be the bite that wins it."
Bite and cool... Could the unbiased Justin Webb from the unbiased by charter BBC be any more biased?



Sarah Palin's speech does not get a live-blog, just this, again my comments in italics:
"I liked the parliamentary-style jabs at Obama and they have peppered the news coverage, though I still think she is skating on thin ice...
A compliment followed immediately by a worry...

Rudy Giuliani stirred the crowd with a demand that "they" stop asking her how she can cope with her parental opportunties as well as this new job. Strikes me that it is a perfectly reasonable question - you could argue that tiny babies need mums more than dads - and anyway "they" are mostly on the right, as here.
More mixed messages...

Is she tough or is she reckless? This is downright strange if it is true.
Nicely got the word "reckless" in there.

An interesting conversation with one of my favourite Republicans, Dick Armey of Texas, the former congressional leader. He says he supports Mrs Palin BUT he does not support this method of choosing vice presidential candidates - instead he suggests that the vice-presidential pick runs alongside the main man (oops, or woman) on the ticket. So they run as a couple and are elected in the primaries as a couple. Patronage and rolling the dice is replaced by good old democracy. Sounds wise, like so many of Dick's views. ....
So that's it, not much reporting of the speech just opinions and snipes.
Well done Justin Webb, excellent job done, Democrat praised and worries about a Republican expressed.

To follow will come a comparison of Justin Webb's reporting of Barack Obama's speech with that of John McCain.

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