How to read the media

The first article I chose to look at was from last week after the Giants announced that they were suspending Plaxico Burress and placing him on the non football injury/ injured reserve list. This was done after Burress accidentally shot himself, and was one of the biggest sports stories of the week. What made it particularly interesting was that Burress claimed that he was not seriously injured and the he would be able to play this week. However, after being rexamined by the Giants' team doctor it was then determined that he would be out at least 4 weeks. By the Giants placing on the NFI injured reserve list that would not have to pay him his salary for those weeks. This article was from the teams' official website. http://www.giants.com/news/headlines/story.asp?story_id=32599

-Is the information accurate?
I would say that the information is fairly accurate however, it doesn't mention the fact that Burress initially said that he would be able to play this week and that the first doctor to see him said it was only a flesh wound, and that it was the TEAM physician who said he would be out 4 weeks. This again is important because it allowed the team to put him on the non-football injury list, allowing them to not pay him his salary for those weeks. So while the article was fairly accurate, it does leave out some important facts that could change people's opinions.

-Is there missing context?
There is definitely missing context, as it doesn't mention that placing Burress on the non football injured reserve will allow them to not have to pay him, and that is essentially what this story is all about. The most important issue is Burress saying he could play and the team saying he couldn't, which isn't even mentioned. Rather they just mention the suspension and then quote team officials who say how concerned they are for Plaxico. The true issue is money and its not even discussed, and that totally changes the context of this story as well as how readers might feel about it.

-Who is quoted and who isn't?
This is amajor example of bias here as the story is about Plaxico Burress and he isn't even quoted. Instead team officals, including the owner, and coach, are all quoted as saying how much they care about him and are worried for him, and then even worse yet, they say that Plaxico understands the severity of the situation and is sorry for letting down his teamates. Not only is this a story about Plaxico where doesn't even give his perspective, but then other individuals, with conflicting agendas, are then being quoted on his behalf.

After looking at this article, the new question that comes to mind for me is, Whose motives are being served by an article or TV report? In this case it is clear that the Giants are serving their own personal agenda as they are trying to show how well they dealt with the incident while at the same time justifying their actions. It would be interesting to see a story that gave Plaxico's side, or his agents, or the NFL players association. This just goes to show how the motives and agendas of a certain group can greatly influence a story.

The next story I looked at was from the Minnesota Timberwolves official website, and was about the recent firing of their head coach Randy Wittman. First of all, the article says that he was relieved of his duties, it doesnt say he was fired, which is a much gentler way of putting it. It then says that he will be replaced by Kevin McHale who was the current team VP and the man who hired Wittman, as well as assembled the miserable team that caused Wittman to be fired. The article then says how they feek that McHale will be able to get the most out of these players and that he has such great expericnce and knowledge. McHale has been criticized often for being a poor executive and many feel he is the problem, however this article shows a great deal of support for him, and portays Wittman as an unsuccessful coach. The bottomline is that the article is on the Teams official Website and therefore tries to show how they made a great decision. The fact is that McHale is probablly more to blame than anyone for the teams struggles, shades of Isiah Thomas with the Knicks, but the team is trying to act like he is the right mant for the job and show how much faith they have in him.