How to read the News Ex. 1

What is the official logo on the browser tag?

• CNN.com

• MSNBC.com

• White House.gov

• Reuters.org

Look atthe web address, or URL is it spelled correctly?

• yes

• no

• I don't know

Who is the author? Do they have a reputation for truth and neutrality? Is there a bio you can read?

• Rachel Maddow, usually neutral, no bio

• Kevin McCarthy, partisan stance, has bio

• James Downie, opinion editor, has bio

• Dan Rather, nonpartisan, no bio

Read the headline. What emotion does it evoke?

• This will be a funny story, it has clowns.

• This will be a story about clown cars.

• This will be a critical story because it makes the Speaker of the house sound silly.

• This story will be neutral because clowns don't take sides.

Who is this article about?

The clown car that has been Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s speakership spluttered to a halting start over 15 long ballots in January and hasn’t had a second of a smooth ride since. From botched committee hearings to failed subcommittees to intra-leadership disputes, the House speaker’s tenure has been a kaleidoscope of incompetence. But McCarthy’s latest stumble is the most important, as it concerns the entire U.S. economy. 

• Don McClean

• Kevin McCarthy

• The leader of the Democrats

• Paul Ryan

a

b

c

d

loaded language

headline bias

tone

diction

What is this article about?

• War in Ukraine

• U.S. economy

• Illegal immigration

• Tax reform

Is this a fact or an opinion?

From botched committee hearings to failed subcommittees to intra-leadership disputes, the House speaker’s tenure has been a kaleidoscope of incompetence.

• fact

• opinion

The problem here isn’t the bill itself — even though it has the absence of substance you’d expect from today’s GOP. The problem is that the basic elements of what’s being requested in the bill have been public knowledge for months, and yet McCarthy and his team have dawdled on bringing it to the floor. And even after all this time, McCarthy is, once again, struggling to find the 218 votes he needs to pass the proposal. “The whip count on this is not good,” one senior Republican told Axios on Thursday.

• Fact based

• Opinion with some facts

• Opinion only

• Mostly factual

Certain words in this passage create a negative tone. Which words are negative?

There is no excuse for such negligence. A recent report from Moody’s Analytics projects that a prolonged default would cause an economic downturn “comparable to that suffered during the global financial crisis,” costing more than 7 million jobs and destroying more than $10 trillion in household wealth. To procrastinate while faced with such a crisis is malpractice.

• Negligence, default, downturn,

  destroying, crisis

• Analytics, $10 trillion, suffered

• Household wealth, prolonged, financial

• Global, procrastinate, wealth, projects