Brandon Glover English 1101 Mrs.

Fuentes 10/13/2013

Government Shutdown Article Analysis

Recently the United States government was shut down. The House of Representatives wasn't able to pass several spending measures that would have funded smaller bits of the government. President Obama said "They're shutting down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health care to many Americans." Many people have completely different views on the government shutdown and the people involved in the shutdown. The first article I read was the one by fox news, written by Clint Henderson. Fox news isnt supposed to be biased but they do typically lean towards the Republican side. Their leaning to the Republican side is shown in the article if you look carefully. Heres an example: "The fact is that Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks." (Henderson) This is a sentence that I took out of the article. Using the word slammed makes the Washington Democrats sound harsh and a bit mean. The president is also a Democrat and they used the term cutting legs off when they referred to one of his plans. The article is mostly just an informative one since it is from a news company but attempts to sway opinion, a little towards the Republican opinion. The second article I looked through was 47 Things You Must Do During The Government Shutdown, by the writers of Funny Or Die. You can obviously tell that its supposed to be a funny article looking at who its written by. The article is a list of funny events written in order that has to do with getting angry at government run places that are shut down because of the government. They use the repetition of screaming the word cowards at government employees after being denied entry or use. They end the article by saying; Remember you were in the middle of a pretty serious audit by the IRS which has been put on hold thanks to the shutdown (Funny Or Die). This adds to the comedy because after showing all the anger and things you cant do they show one positive from the shut down that is still not even really a positive. The third and final article was This Is What They Want written by Charles Pierce for Esquire, Online. This article is more direct with its opinion than the other two. Charles shows his open disgust with the Republicans. At one point he even says Their concern for the general national interest isn't worthy of discussion. His text shows anger against government officials. Hes words persuade people against the Republican Party and government officials. Of all three articles the one that could sway my personal opinion is the funny one. Ive never been huge into politics so people getting really serious and biased with their opinions is not something I follow, like, or get in to. Whether it is directly biased like the third article by Charles Pierce, or semi biased like the Fox News report article I dont like to read them or get involved with them specifically. The funny or die article shows a relaxed context regarding the government shut down.

Brandon Glover English 1101 Mrs. Fuentes 10/13/2013 MLA Citations

Henderson, Clint. "October 2, 2013 Happening Now." Fox News. FOX News Network, 02 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. "47 Fun Things You MUST Do During the Government Shutdown." Funny or Die. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. Pierce, Charles. "The Politics Blog." Esquirecom Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.