MIDRANGE: $850 to $1,800. The real bargain among side-by-side refrigerators is the GE GSS25JFM, $890, A CR Best Buy. More full-featured are the side-by-side Kenmore 5255, $1,400, and the Kenmore Elite 5260, $1,700. Kenmore and GE are among the more reliable side-by-side brands. If you’re looking for a bottom-freezer, the GE GBS22LB, $1,050, offers the best combination of performance, capacity, and flexibility.

HIGH-END: $1,800 to $5,000. Side-by-side, cabinet-depth refrigerators are less expensive than true built-ins. The GE Profile Arctica PSI23NGM, $2,300 (above, right) performed well overall. The Sub-Zero 650/F, $4,600, is the ablest bottom-freezer built-in that we tested. It’s very energy efficient. But it’s noisier than others, and reliability is a concern with the brand. The GE Monogram ZIC360NM, $3,900, is almost as good, and it’s quieter.

Click here to get complete ratings on refrigerators from Consumer Reports’ pay Web site.

Economic Affliliations:

When examining news sources, it is important to consider who owns what and how this ownership plays into the diversity and content of the news we recieve. For example, within the United States, the number of media sources is shrinking due to the large amount of corporate mergers that occured in the 1980s and 90s. As a result, various broadcasting, newspaper, radio, and internet companies have become inter-connected. This is in part due to the ground-breaking 1996 Telecommunications Act, which allows for increasing deregulation of all media by allowing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to modify any previous regulations it deems as not in the public interest.

The concentration of ownership results in several conflicts in terms of news reporting. The massive financial backing of the corporations may in fact allow for news reporting entities to have a great deal of freedom in their reporting due to the minimal economic concerns. On the other hand, this same financial backing can be used to censor the output of news. Thirdly, a combination of these two conflicts can occur. Such a case is similiar to the example about refrigerators discussed above in that no facts are necessarily obscured, but they are simply slanted to the benefit of the affliliated companies. Corporate relationships can have an impact on what information you receive, and it may be about things far more important than just a refrigerator.

Media sources that are tied to corporate entities operate on a for-profit basis. As a result, Journalism responsiblities may be compromised due to the fact that making a profit is a necessity for these corporations to survive.

The same conflicts arise in individually run media sources. These media sources may not be controlled by a corporation, but they are still subject to economic pressures by advertisers and/or large individual investors.

FOX News

‘Pro-War’ Movement Springs Into Action

Sunday, March 2, 2003

NEW YORK – As time runs out for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm or face a military thrashing from the United States and its allies, “pro-war” – or “anti-anti-war” – Americans are saying they have had enough of the recent protests in various cities at home and abroad.

“We decided we can’t sit idly by while President Bush’s agenda, specifically his continuing efforts on the war on terror, specifically Iraq … while they … Democrats, the left wing and Hollywood … conduct a well-coordinated, well-organized, well-financed effort to undo the president and really to destroy him, because that’s their goal,” David Bossie, president of Citizens United, told Foxnews.com.

Washington Post

Poll: Americans Ambivalent About Support for Iraq War

Monday, March 3, 2003

Surveys conducted since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have consistently showed that a majority of Americans favor military strikes against Iraq. But this general agreement that force should be used is neither absolute, unconditional nor uniformly shared by key voting groups, an analysis of recent Washington Post-ABC News surveys suggests.

This ambivalence, most recently reflected in a Post-ABC News poll completed Sunday, raises questions about the depth and durability of public support for using force to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The poll found that 59 percent of respondents favor using military force against Iraq, even without the support of the U.N. Security Council. But four in 10 supporters also said they had reservations about the looming conflict with Iraq. When these doubters are combined with opponents of military action, the result suggest that more than six in 10 Americans harbor at least some doubts about using force while only a third are unequivocally behind going to war.

Political Affiliations:

The choice of what is to be reported and how it is reported is a key one and, in the above example, it is worth looking further into the political affiliations of these news sources due to the vastly different reports given on virtually the same subject.

Upon further examination of FOX News it can be found that the owner of this media outlet News Corporation all of which is owned by K. Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch is commonly associated with conservative politics and is often criticized for using his media outlets as a way of promoting his own political agendas. In a recent interview with Murdoch by MSN, Murdoch noted his favor for President Bush and the Iraqi war (citation). This exact viewpoint is the one often reported at FOX News. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that much of what is reported on at FOX News has a conservative slant.

Ownership of a media company does not necessarily mean that the owner’s political viewpoints are the same as those reflected in the media source; however, given Murdoch’s reputation and history it is reasonable to link FOX News and other Murdoch owned entities with the conservative political affiliation.

The above is an example of when the political affiliation of the news source helps determine the economic associations of it and not vice versa. This is not to say that there are not economic pressures on the news source, but rather, that at least for the time being, these pressures most likely will not interfere with the conservative viewpoints reflected on FOX News.

The political affiliation of certain news sources may very well take precedent over the business aspects of the news source. This is often the case when there is strong financial backing that holds the same views as the news source. Also, some news sources refuse to allow economics to determine the reporting. In such cases, the political affiliation of the source is much more important than maintaining a profitable business.