NYRA-Berkeley bravely presses forward with their campaign to lower the voting age. Sadly after a few narrow defeats they have cut back from seeking the vote at 16 for all elections, to allowing 17-year-olds to vote for school board elections. Either way, if they can get a win, it’ll still be the first of its kind in the United States and an important stepping stone to make people realize this is possible (and a good idea).

The chapter had a rally on Tuesday, and earned coverage from the Daily Californian and the Berkeley Daily Planet. For those out there who still trust the news to cover news unbiasedly, or are skeptical over how much a reporter can really do with facts to change a story should consider this an important lesson. The Daily Planet story was decidedly against NYRA’s position, and that quite shamelessly affected its story:

On the size of the rally
Daily Californian:

More than a half dozen members of the Berkeley High School chapter of the National Youth Rights Association demonstrated on Shattuck Avenue at 1 p.m. in an effort to galvanize public support for suffrage for 17-year-old voters in local school board elections.

Daily Planet:

Although NYRA could only muster five students for Tuesday’s announcement, Berkeley High junior Chris Howell insisted that if given the vote students would pack polling stations.

On the earlier proposal before the city council

Daily Californian:

The council members’ vote on the proposal fell one short of the five needed to pass.

Daily Planet:

Last month the group suffered a stinging defeat, when the City Council voted 5-4 against asking the state to let cities lower the voting age to 16.

Both articles quoted members of the city council, school board, and other individuals with an interest in the story. The Daily Planet story only quoted people opposed to lowering the voting age, and the only comments in support of NYRA-Berkeley were from NYRA-Berkeley. The Daily Californian article quoted individuals on both sides of the issue, and council members on the fence as well.

The Daily Californian was far more balanced than the Daily Planet. What is remarkable about this though, is that the Daily Cal is a student paper based out of UC-Berkeley. The Daily Planet is the city paper. If this is an example of the impartiality that adult-run papers show, I think perhaps some professional reporters should take internships at the college paper, they might learn a thing or two.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 15th, 2005 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Youth Rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.