Differing media provide differing accounts of political conference

Perception is reality, and a good example of that old adage is a recent teleconference about President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan involving the mayors of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

Both The Des Moines Register’s Jason Pulliam and Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson were listening in, but when it came time to write a story, both came to very different conclusions about what it is the two Democratic mayors actually were saying.

The Register’s headline said “D.M., C.R. mayors ask Grassley to back Obama on economy,” and opened with “The top elected leaders from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids have called upon Iowa’s congressional delegation to support President-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery plans.”

At Radio Iowa, the headline was “Mayors of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids praise rather than rebuke Grassley,” and opened by explaining that the conference call was set up to bash Grassley but the mayors ” seemed conciliatory.”

While both stories make it clear the mayors are supportive of Obama’s plan and think Grassley should support it, Radio Iowa’s focuses almost entirely on how the two Democratic mayors seemed to want to avoid getting into it with Iowa’s senior senator and highest ranking Republican. There was no mention of “seeming conciliatory” in the Register’s account, as a much more combative tone was presented.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette and Associated Press accounts are very similar to The Register’s and probably a lot closer to what The Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now, the organization that set up the conference call, were hoping for. It’s up to the reader to determine who is right (or who they trust) since the audio of the call is not available on the group’s Web site, but it’s always nice to see events coverered differently by competing media and it’s another example of why a more diverse media landscape is always better.