CNN Discusses Obama's Meetings in Context of Elections

Obama: Deficit reduction must keep alive the American dream

CNN reports on President Obama’s meeting in Reno, Nevada, calling it “his third town hall-style event in three days.” In these ‘town hall-style’ meetings, Obama strives to promote the benefits of his plan for financial reform and deficit reduction. However, the article’s authors believe that these events are doubling as a trial of potential messages and slogans for his re-election campaigns. Interestingly, even before this is clearly stated, the beginning of the article reads as if Obama were holding these meetings solely for campaign purposes. The opening of the story is as follows:

“Over and over Thursday, President Barack Obama told workers at a renewable energy that he is like them. He remembers pumping gas when high oil prices ate a hole in his budget, he said. He knows he wouldn’t have made it through college without scholarships and loans. And now as president, he promised that he won’t let the current debate on deficit reduction deny others the chance for the American dream he has lived.”

The wording and sequence of these sentences slightly reminded me of a political ad one might view on TV. Of course, the meetings have a variety of motives including shaping Obama’s campaign. Nonetheless, these first few sentences frame the event in such a way that readers might interpret the president’s meetings as nothing more than a part of his campaign. Only halfway through the article did the authors focus on the actual topic of Obama’s speech: the fiscal crisis. At this point the story discusses the partisan conflicts over the budget in the past several weeks and the prospects of more debates later this year. This article is a good example of how opening statements can set the tone for the entire presentation of political news.