“Sarah Palin to GOP: ‘Fight like a girl’”
This article, written by Andy Barr of Politico, reports on a speech given by Sarah Palin at a tea party rally in Wisconsin on Saturday. According to the article, Palin critiqued congressional Republicans by saying that they need to “fight like a girl,” and cut spending deeper and faster. In her speech, Palin pointed out the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, which recently won the national championship. Palin specifically discussed the GOP’s pledge to cut $100 billion in spending, and the party’s later decision to only cut $60 billion. Palin said that the $38 billion reached in the compromise was full of “accounting gimmicks,” and was “politics as usual.” Palin also took several stabs at President Obama, saying that Obama is unserious about cutting government spending and simply trying to win reelection in 2012. The final three paragraphs of the article discuss the background of the speech, which was given at a two-hour tea party rally in the snow. Palin was introduced by Andrew Breitbart. After being introduced, Palin praised the activists at the rally. In addition, Palin showed her support for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his recent legislation regarding state employee unions. The article ends with Palin’s praise of Walker, saying, “Hey folks, he’s trying to save your jobs.” No sources were given in the article.
This Politico article uses a hard news approach to report highlights of Sarah Palin’s speech in Wisconsin. The writer’s decision to use a quote in the headline proves effective in catching the reader’s attention, and the opening paragraph with the same quote encourages readers to continue reading the article. Although a partial quote is used in the headline and first paragraph, a full quote is used in the second paragraph. In fact, the majority of the article is dominated by quotes from Palin, effectively allowing her speech, not the writer, to tell the story. Background of the story is given in the sixth paragraph, informing readers of the context of Palin’s speech. The writer includes that Palin’s speech was 15 minutes long. It is worth noting that of the numerous topics likely covered in the speech, the writer decides to include Palin’s support of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Including this part of the speech in the article not only reinforces Palin’s conservative political views, but also allows readers to connect with a topic that received national attention for weeks. The article ends with a solid quote praising Governor Walker. Overall, this article was engaging, well written, and nearly void of political bias.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53308.html
Good assessment.
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