A forum, news site and archive begun in February, 2007 about politics and the environment in Wisconsin. And elsewhere.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
GOP Self-Inflicted Marginalization: Good Story, Tepid Headline
Craig Gilbert offers a good analysis of the GOP's suicidal fringification, but could the headline writer have knocked out something jazzier than "GOP nearing brink of generation gap."
I really like the topic -- certainly something that takes the news beyond the headlines -- but I'm skeptical about it qualifying as a good story.
Gilbert has been doing a lot of shilling for Paul Ryan in recent months (see here, here, here, and here), and I can't help but see this article fitting right in that line. To be sure, the opening few paragraphs -- the most crucial in any newspaper article -- seemed more focused on parroting the line about "the Obama administration's costly and ambitious domestic agenda" than offering a coherent statement about why the GOP has gotten itself into this position with young voters.
In terms of providing an overview of the Republican decline, I prefer this recent piece by Michael Grunwald in TIME. Granted, this is a magazine cover story that affords more leeway and space than a newspaper article, but still, it just does a better job situating the issue as one that stems from things Republicans have done as opposed to the Obama administration or just mere demographics.
I really like the topic -- certainly something that takes the news beyond the headlines -- but I'm skeptical about it qualifying as a good story.
ReplyDeleteGilbert has been doing a lot of shilling for Paul Ryan in recent months (see here, here, here, and here), and I can't help but see this article fitting right in that line. To be sure, the opening few paragraphs -- the most crucial in any newspaper article -- seemed more focused on parroting the line about "the Obama administration's costly and ambitious domestic agenda" than offering a coherent statement about why the GOP has gotten itself into this position with young voters.
In terms of providing an overview of the Republican decline, I prefer this recent piece by Michael Grunwald in TIME. Granted, this is a magazine cover story that affords more leeway and space than a newspaper article, but still, it just does a better job situating the issue as one that stems from things Republicans have done as opposed to the Obama administration or just mere demographics.