43 speaks

1: See the funny working people! (Nebraska, Feb. 4)

When promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush... met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son.

The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the promises made will be kept by the government.'

But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

2: Social Security reform explained (Tampa, FL, Feb. 4)

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: I don't really understand. How is it the new [Social Security] plan is going to fix that problem?

Bush: Because the--all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those--changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be--or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the--like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate--the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those--if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

The Strib: fair and balanced, or crazy like a Fox?

The story that ceased to be

Regular visitors to startribune.com may have noticed an abrupt about-face in the paper's January 31 story about Mike Hatch's four-volume report on the non-profit Fairview Health Systems. The report, which offered a scathing portrait of Fairview's debt-collection and executive compensation practices, was covered in fairly blunt terms by media all over the state. The treatment at KSTP-TV's website typified the tone of the early dispatches: "Bonuses for Bosses at Fairview, But No Help for Poor Patients, Hatch Reports." The Strib's first web post of its story sounded a similar refrain: "While execs got bonuses, Fairview's low-income patients got bill."

That headline was still showing up in the Google news cache as of this writing, but the story you found by clicking on it had been considerably repackaged even before it hit the Strib's print edition on February 1. That version, still posted online, is titled "Fairview Hasn't Done Enough, Hatch Says." Reporter Glenn Howatt's lede is a veritable compendium of euphemisms and softball qualifiers: "Although it has taken steps to curb executive pay and perks, one of Minnesota's leading hospital operators has not done enough to make sure that the neediest patients get financial help, the state Attorney General charged Monday."

The story went on to recount the same damning allegations as all the other wire accounts. So what difference does this little disappearing act make? Two things. First, media studies show that many if not most readers--sorry, news consumers--absorb only the packaging and lede of many stories in their daily papers. So spinning the headline and lede 180 degrees is a move of some consequence where public impressions are concerned. Second, why did the Strib blink on its harsher (and more accurate) initial treatment? The seemingly obvious question is, who at Fairview or the Strib barked about the first version?

Howatt says flatly that the answer is no one. We phoned the longtime health care beat reporter to ask after the markedly different before-and-after versions of his story. "Nobody expressed any dissatisfaction," he said. "I gathered more information and more reactions. We're in a different world here. We write for the web a lot more now. We have more time to write the pieces that appear in the paper. We strived for fairness, balance, and accuracy in both stories. If you want to say I was soft on Fairview, you can say I was soft on Fairview."

Reggie, we hardly know ye

The tale of Arizona businessman Reggie Fowler's bid to purchase the Vikings keeps going from weird to worse. Right after Red McCombs accepted Fowler's $600 million-plus offer, it emerged that several details of Fowler's biography were, how you say, made up. He had never played in the Little League World Series or worn the proud colors of the Cincinnati Bengals. He did not graduate from the University of Wyoming with a business degree. No sooner did that storm pass than reporters Chris Serres and Jay Weiner dropped a series of bombshells such as these in last Saturday's Star Tribune: "Fowler or his businesses have been sued more than three dozen times in the Phoenix and Denver areas over the past 15 years on a wide array of allegations.... He has borrowed heavily against several of his commercial properties in the Phoenix area.... He is the landlord and business partner of a man who years ago was involved in a college basketball point-shaving scam."

Well, look at the bright side: Maybe he made up the part about being business partners with a convicted gambler, too. Fowler got past his resume fibs relatively unscathed by stepping up to a microphone and saying, "I made a mistake." How did he get to be 46 years old without learning to avoid easily falsifiable whoppers? It just proves the rich really are different from you and me. If Fowler can even be called rich for present purposes, that is. He has steadfastly refused to say how much he's worth. The Arizona Republic estimated his assets somewhere slightly north of $400 million, which, even if correct, would be barely good enough for a basement apartment on Owner's Row in the NFL.

Close on the heels of our Clear Channel story, the radio giant posted a momentous $4.7 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2004--chump change compared to the $18.4 billion charge-off by Viacom.

If you wondered whether internet advertising and satellite radio were cutting into the proceeds of radio business as usual, you don't have to wonder anymore.

BOSTON (AP) - The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites _ stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday.

Read the rest.

Bad memories make Good Neighbors

Recently we had occasion to go looking for the WCCO Radio website. (Don't ask.) We'll just click over from the main wcco.com page, we figured, but no: WCCO Radio is to WCCO TV, apparently, as the crazy aunt is to the family that keeps her locked in the attic. No cross-links to be found. So we tried wccoradio.com instead, and it worked. 

On a whim we decided to see if anyone at the Good Neighbor had been clever enough to reserve the station's rightful web address: www.goodneighbor.com.

Never let it be said that there's nothing to this synchronicity stuff.