The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) has just completed a 6-month study of all news stories in the Grand Rapids Press that deal with Latin America. The study found that the Press used almost exclusively Associated Press (AP) stories and most of the AP stories used by the GR Press had portions of the original stories omitted.

Other findings in the study were that the stories used had very limited contextual information, with the role of US policy in Latin America almost completely absent. There was not a single mention of the trade polices known as NAFTA or CAFTA, no mention of US military aid to the region, nor the US role in the war on drugs. There was also bias in stories that dealt with Cuba and Venezuela, both countries that the US State Department considers anti-democratic countries.

We encourage you to write to the Grand Rapids Press and demand better coverage of Latin America. Improved coverage is important since US taxpayer money is being used for military purposes in the region, readers of the Press have a right to know about economic trade policies that may impact jobs in West Michigan, and since there is a growing population from Latin American countries living in West Michigan it would be beneficial for readers to get good information about the countries that some new immigrants are coming from.

Grand Rapids Press Coverage of Latin America, 02/01/07 - 07/31/07:
http://www.mediamouse.org/griid/pdfs/reports/griid-latin-america-020107-073107.pdf

Contact the Grand Rapids Press:
http://www.mediamouse.org/griid/mediadirectory.php#media8