Framing the news

McQuail defines framing as how news is presented to the public. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, there are a wide variety of narrative techniques that journalists use to frame the news. One of these techniques is quoted below from the website:
“… the press shows a decided tendency to present the news through a combative lens. Three narrative frames -- conflict, winners and losers and revealing wrongdoing -- accounted for 30% of all stories, twice the number of straight news accounts. The penchant for framing stories around these combative elements is even more pronounced at the top of the front page and is truer still when it comes to describing the actions or statements of government officials.”
(http://www.journalism.org/node/445)
The following two articles are good examples of this type of news framing. Both show a conflict, in this case the substandard care that U.S. veterans receive as outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
There are differences in these stories though and these differences influence the effectiveness of the articles.
These articles are follow-up stories to the original series based on investigative reports that ran in Sunday and Monday’s edition of the Washington Post.
The article was picked up by Bloomberg News and published in The Boston Globe. While it appeared on page one of the Washington Post, it was somewhat buried in the Nation section of the Boston Globe.
Bloomberg News’ version of the article lacks some of the immediacy that it had in the Washington Post. Also, notice how the quotes in the Washington Post article keep the story fresh and current.

Review At Walter Reed Is Ordered
Defense Secretary Vows Accountability
By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 24, 2007; A01

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates named an independent review panel yesterday to investigate what he called an "unacceptable" situation in outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he said that some soldiers "most directly involved" in the problems have been removed from their positions.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Army hospital in Northwest Washington, Gates also warned that senior military leaders could be disciplined based on the findings of the review group.

"We empower commanders with responsibility, authority and resources necessary to carry out their missions," Gates said. "With responsibility comes accountability. Accordingly, after the facts are established, those responsible for having allowed this unacceptable situation to develop will indeed be held accountable."

The Senate Armed Services Committee has tentatively scheduled hearings on the facility for March 6, said a spokeswoman for the panel's chairman, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the ranking minority member of the committee, toured the facility yesterday.

The actions came after stories in The Washington Post on Sunday and Monday revealed that wounded soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed often become mired in red tape as they seek further treatment or decisions on whether they will stay in the military. The articles also disclosed poor living conditions -- including mold, filth and leaks -- in Building 18, an Army facility that houses recovering troops.

"I'm grateful to reporters for bringing this to our attention but thoroughly disappointed we did not identify it ourselves," Gates said in his first public remarks addressing the situation.

The eight-member review group appointed by Gates has been charged with taking a broad look at all rehabilitative care and administrative procedures both at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Panel members "will be given free and unrestricted access" to visit medical facilities and interview personnel, Gates said.

The group will be co-chaired by Togo West, who was secretary of veterans affairs and secretary of the Army during the Clinton administration, and by John O. Marsh Jr., who was secretary of the Army under President Ronald Reagan and a former member of Congress from Virginia. Other members include two former members of Congress, three retired senior military officers and a retired command sergeant major. Their report is due within 45 days and will be made public, Gates said.

Gates said he had no information suggesting that there are problems at Bethesda similar to those at Walter Reed, but he said the naval facility is being included because "we need to know the scope of this problem."

There is rare unanimity in Washington on the need to treat wounded soldiers well, Gates said, "and so we're determined to fix it, and fix it fast." He described the medical care itself at the hospital as "unsurpassable" and said the shortcomings were confined to "the outpatient aspect of this."

During his visit, Gates met a group of five soldiers being treated at the facility who spoke of a frustrating administrative bureaucracy at the hospital. "They battled our foreign enemies; they should not have to battle an American bureaucracy," Gates said.

Gates said caseworkers are "overwhelmed" by the numbers of patients they are assigned, and he indicated that more workers would be soon assigned to the hospital.

"There's just too much work for the number of people that are available," he said. "So that's one thing that can be addressed pretty quickly." Gates added that troops who had been wounded in service "should not have to recuperate in substandard housing."

The Army declined to identify publicly the personnel who have been moved to different positions at the hospital. Speaking on background, an Army official said they included several soldiers involved in supervising facilities at Walter Reed, including Building 18.

Gates met with President Bush yesterday morning to brief him on the actions underway. "He is, understandably, concerned and emphatic in wanting the best possible care for our wounded soldiers and for their families," Gates said.
Gates vows to improve outpatient care at Walter Reed
Facility reportedly full of pests, mold

Boston Globe
By Ken Fireman, Bloomberg News | February 24, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates condemned as "unacceptable" the outpatient care problems encountered by hundreds of wounded U S troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and promised to correct them quickly.

Gates announced the creation of an independent panel to investigate conditions at the facility in Washington and vowed to hold those found responsible for the problems accountable.

"This is about our family," Gates said yesterday at a news conference at the medical facility. "And it appears to us that some of our family may not have been treated the way they should have been."

The Washington Post, in a series of articles earlier this week, reported that dozens of recuperating soldiers and Marines are put in dirty, mold-ridden, pest-infested housing. They and others have also faced daunting bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining needed follow-up care, the newspaper reported.

Gates praised the Post for reporting the problems and said he has seen nothing to indicate that its articles were "in any substantial way wrong."

He said the problems were with outpatient care and didn't extend to the medical care given wounded personnel in the main facility, which Gates called "world class."

The secretary said that he met with President Bush earlier yesterday to discuss the issue and that Bush "is understandably concerned."

In vowing to hold accountable those found responsible for the problems, Gates said "some people who are most directly involved" have already been relieved of their duties.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Gates was referring to "individuals who were in a direct supervisory role."

Whitman and White House spokesman Tony Fratto said there was no connection between the Walter Reed problems and the departure of Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr. as assistant defense secretary for health affairs. Whitman said Winkenwerder told his superiors last year that he wanted to leave government service.

The White House said Winkenwerder will be replaced by Dr. S. Ward Casscells , a professor at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

The review panel will investigate conditions at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Gates said. Two former Army secretaries, Togo West and Jack Marsh, will lead the inquiry.

The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold a hearing March 6 on conditions at Walter Reed, according to one member of the panel, Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican.

Warner, a former Navy secretary and committee chairman, attended Gates's news conference and praised the secretary's handling of the issue.