Source Notes 22

Jindal looking for high speed rail money (MSNBC, 03/02/2009)

Summary:

1600 Pennsylvania Avanue reported that Governor Bobby Jindal, who criticized Obama’s stimulus bill giving money to high-speed rail, has asked the federal government for funds for high-speed rail.  This source details part of the Gulf Coast corridor designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2002.

Topic:

High-Speed Rail Policy

Category:

journalistic

What is it?

a video

Publication Information:

The Program 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue of MSNBC published the video.  The video was published on March 2, 2009 in Washington D.C.

Author:

David Gregory

Location:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29472088#29472088

Accessed:

March 8, 2009

Support:

anonymous, a spokesmen for the Louisiana Department of Transportation

Billy Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

William Ankner, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation

An anonymous spokesperson for LDOT said that the Louisiana state government requested $110 million for high-speed rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.  William Ankner was appointed to the department of transportation by Jindal and supports the proposed.  New Orleans-Baton Rouge project.  Jindal asked the federal government for high-speed rail money, after criticizing the stimulus bill for giving money to high-speed rail.

Audience and Agenda:

MSNBC’s website had approximately 12.8 million visitors at the end of January.  Most of the visitors to MSNBC’s website are above 18, childless, earn at least $60,000 per year, and have graduated from college.  They use MSNBC for recent and archived news stories on national issues.  They expect news stories geared towards people who do not have as much prior knowledge on a subject.

MSNBC is funded by NBC Universal and Microsoft.  It caters to a world audience looking for general interest periodicals.  It is trying to provide generalized news to the largest possible audience.

Usefulness:

This article is in a state context, focusing on Louisiana.  It is part of the larger Gulf Corridor, which connects to the Southeast Corridor.  The document was created by a news team wanting to entertain people with political gaffs. Louisiana’s governor asking for funds he originally campaigned against.  MSNBC might also have run the story to show how popular high-speed rail is becoming, considering a politician who once opposed it is now needing help to fund it. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  addresses the broadest of audiences who have very little background information.  It is trying to make the argument that the governor shouldn’t be hypocritical.  For those two reasons, the story is not very in-depth.  It forgets to state that New Orleans to Baton Rouge is part of one of the designated high-speed rail corridors.  Still, this source shows that even high-level politicians are more than willing to sacrifice their old views and invest in high-speed rail.

Focusing on one of the designated corridors, this source relates to Source Notes 11 and Source Notes 17.  Focusing on the opinion of one or more politicians, this source relates to Source Notes 6, Source Notes 8, and Source Notes 27.  Being a video, this source relates to Source Notes 5, Source Notes 18, Source Notes 30, and Source Notes 28.

Works Cited:

“MSNBC.”  Wikipedia.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC>

MSNBC.  <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/>

“1600 Pensylvania Avenue.”  MSNBC.  <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23580538/>

“msnbc.msn.com.”  Quantcast.  <http://www.quantcast.com/msnbc.msn.com>

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Filed under: Journalistic