On Thursday, the first republican debate took place in South Carolina but rather than what was said making headlines; the lack of big names is. Republicans have been slow on making a run for the presidency and only have a few official big names bidding for the republican nomination. Many Americans were hoping that this first official GOP debate, which has been the introduction to republican front-runners in the past, would give an idea as to who is else is making their run official. Instead viewers got one front-runner and four other candidates with not much support. This entry will be looking at two articles on this event. The first, an article on the Miami Herald website in their nation wires section written by David Lightman from Mcclatchy Newspapers and the second from the Salt Lake Tribune written by Thomas Burr.
The article on the Miami Herald is clear and objective, the reporter was able to talk about a number of topics without confusing the reader. The headline was basic yet intriguing, the lead was also basic and covered the, who, what, when. The transitions were good and made it easy to understand. There were a lot of great quotes and attributions from the candidates and even Matt Rhoades, Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, explaining why the governor did not attend the debate. Lightman, the reporter was able to explain to the reader the issues that were covered and what the candidates had to say, through quotes. This article covered the bases of what happened at the debate and why other candidates did not show.
The article on the Salt Lake Tribune had a good basic headline that was intriguing but for some reason did not have the same effect as the headline from the Herald. The lead was concise and to the point, Burr made up for any missing information and any necessary explanation in the nutgraf, which was in the second paragraph of the article. Thomas Burr the reporter from the Tribune differentiated from David Lightman by not using quotes and attributions to tell what happened but rather mentioned the highlights and giving a few quotes to expand on the highlights of the event. The article itself was clear until the last paragraph, which mentioned Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr by last name. Huntsman was briefly mentioned at the beginning and was not a name that was reinstated throughout the article. A simple reminder of who Huntsman is would have made the last paragraph clearer. Burr was able to stay neutral and overall did a good job retelling the points of the night.
Both reporters and outlets did a good job covering the important issues of the debate. It would have been a great added bonus if either had some type of infographic or video clip of the debate. Both pages seamed plain and did not catch much attention. Lightman, the reporter from Mcclatchy made his story a bit more enjoyable by using great quotes. Lightman did a good job making a story that can be pretty bland to a reader, enjoyable. Covering a debate where there were no big names is not really a story, but the fact that there are no big names in a debate that has been known in the past for kicking off campaigns is.
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