Kelsey Halstead Professor Fuentes English 1101 14 October 2013

Rhetorical Analysis of Three Articles on the Government Shutdown The shutdown of the United States government took place on October 1st, 2013, when the two parties could not come to an agreement on a national budget or continuing resolution for the fiscal year. In analyzing the three articles that were published due to the shutdown, we must pay close attention to the differing opinions and political sides that people are defending. The three sources have very distinct exigence for writing, and it seems that each is using a tactic to draw in the audience, which in each case is the American public. For example, Fox News is a conservative source for all news, so of course we would expect for them to give a more conservative view, although many Americans watch completely for the information, not the twisted political gains and losses. Clint Hendersons article on FoxNews.com is short, semi-informative, and very conservative, in my opinion. To me, the evidence of this is clear in just simply reading the title of the article: October 2, 2013 Happening Now- Shutdown Showdown Day 2; Obamacare Exchanges Open for Business Glitches and All.. The author is already stating his opinion by bringing the Obamacare Exchanges to the center of the issue, and drawing readers in with an already-negative view, saying Business Glitches and All. Henderson uses a mocking tone of voice and several outside sources of information to pull the piece together. The short snip-itssnippets of information that make up the article seem just like updates at first, but if when you realize that each one of the pieces was

carefully selected, you can easily see the bias in the article itself. Phrases such as Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government and the President is cutting legs off his planned trip have a negative connotation for the Democratic Party, which is understandable considering it is Fox News reporting. Although the quotes are not from the Fox News journalist he carefully selected them, which is almost nearlyjust as important. Also, there is great sarcasm in the last paragraph when he reports that Obamacare froze many people out, saying there were numerous issues already and all he said was Well see in concluding the article. The article from FunnyorDie.com titled 47 Fun Things You MUST Do During The Government Shutdown is a satirical, comical article that truly makes any audience laugh. The website is run by famous actors and actresses, Will Farrell being one of the many behind the scenes. The point of this article is to make the situation that has become a crisis for the US and many Americans something to laugh over. The repetition in the article points out the many flaws and impasses created by the government when it is shutdown and how the everyday American finds these government rules incredibly inconvenient. But really, who really gets that much governmental interaction everyday? The final article was published by a commonly generally liberal mens magazine called Esquire. So fFrom just reading the title, we know who the target is: Republicans Getting What They Want: This is What They Want. The article is clearly going to bash the Rrepublican side, which is the exact opposite of what we saw in the Fox News article. Charles Pierces purpose in this article is to draw attention to what he sees as the big issue: [what] vandals in Washington are shooting for right now is a subject population whose tattered freedoms depend on the whimsical ethics of the American corporate
Formatted: Font: Italic Comment [EG1]: Is this part of the joke, do you think? Clarify.

class.s The corporate class is mostly supported by the Republican Party and he calls the Rrepublicans vandals. The article is written with a sort of frustration. The sentences make the rhetor seem angry and overblown. Also, the use of diction such as bloviation with regard to the dead hand of government is very mocking. Whereas the Fox News article gave informative snip its in its article, this one written by Charles Pierce seems like a rant over government in general. It that does not exactly focus on the issue at hand:, the government shutdown.

Good work Kelsey. You analyze each articles exigence, taking into account the context of each piece and the political leanings of each rhetor. In particular you break down the language used. This is a key part of rhetorical analysis: looking at exactly which words were used, and attempting to understand why. Nice job.

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