On Nov. 2, 2011, the news was the addition of a referendum to the debt relief payments Greece is receiving. The referendum would ask the Greek people if they wanted to stay a part of the euro zone. This caused a huge uproar by the other nations that are part of the euro zone – or so one would think if think if they only read the Associated Press article. The CNN article briefly mentions a possible meeting with all of the leaders, but it was not until The New York Times story did I realize that there was a meeting of the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes, France.
On Nov. 3, the reports covered Prime Minister George Papandreou’s decision not to go through with the referendum. Once again, the pattern emerges of the Associated Press introducing the story, The New York Times expanding on it, and CNN drawing from different experts. An Associated Press article mentions the prime minister being “summoned to an emergency European meeting in Cannes,” which other news sources covered – only not as an emergency.
All the articles covered the fact that the prime minister was working to rebuild and repair relationships, as some do not trust him after the surprise of the referendum. The CNN article covers what is happening within the country through the parliament’s reaction, and bringing in different economic experts to comment on the effects of the decision, providing a different point of view.They also cover the opposition to the prime minister quite extensively. The New York Times covered the dialogue between the prime minister, the cabinet, and the New Democracy party. I did not pick up any obvious bias as I read the different articles, but found them each questioning whether the prime minister will stay.
Note: Tabitha Wiebe is a student at Colorado Christian University. The above is part of her critique of a week’s worth of news coverage by Fox News, CNN and The New York Times of the Greek debt crisis, shortly before Prime Minister George Papandreou resigned. She wrote it for our News21 academic course, “Persuasion and News in the 21st Century.”
