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1. Introduction Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a new linguistic tool that aims to

discover inequality in language. One of the main targets of CDA is news report. W.

Lance Bennett (1983, p. 125) defines news as information that is timely, relevantto

the concerns of its audience, and presented in a form that is easy to grasp. As an

important channel of information transmission, news report always advocates itshard factsunbiased information-releasing. However, with the systematical

analysis of CDA, this is not the case any more. The world that the news report tries

to deliver is not objective straightforward but the one that has already been

understood and processed. In other words, news is the end-product of a complex

process which begins with a systematic sorting and selecting of events and topics

according to a socially constructed set of criteria of news worthiness. It is not a

natural phenomenon emerging straight from reality, but essentially a kind of social

practice (Fower, 1979, p. 12). Driven by concerns, values and ideologies, news

report tends to strategically deal with the facts by mentioning and stressing some

purposely-selective facts to influence the readers emotion and make them follow a

rational line to accept its idea. Not understanding procedures of news making, thegeneral public confronts the obstacles to see the material-controlling of the news

report which leads them to turning blind eyes to the ideologies hide in the news,

ultimately being misled. From the linguistic perspective, CDA can serve as the

powerful analytical tool to expose the true nature of news report language and bring

the rational judgment back to the readers by offering critically understanding of

their tendency and characteristics. 2. The concept of Critical Discourse Analysis

Theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was first established by

Fowler, Kressand and Trew (1979) in their book Language and control since CDA

became a new linguistic method. It is mainly to expose the influence of the ideology

on discourse and the retroaction of discourse on ideology, as well as how ideology

and discourse originate from the social structure and how they serve differentpower groups with the support of linguistics, psychology and communication

theories. It is intended to discover the usage of language and expose its connection

with social relations.

3. The main methods of Critical Discourse Analysis The methods of linguistics

analysis serve as the foundation for the methods of analysis in CDA. With the

analysis on the language level, it generally adopts the theory of Systemic Functional

Linguistics that at least provides assistances in three perspectives to realize its

objective of analysis on discourse from CDA: (1) Hallidays theory of Systemic

Functional Linguistics has the function of social semeiology which reveals that

language can be fully understood only when it is set in cultural environment; (2)

Systemic Functional Linguistics takes semantics rather than syntax as its base to bein accordance to the opinion of some critical linguistics expressed as meaning serves

for power and language serves for ideology; (3) The three meta-functions of

Systemic Functional Linguistics provide the concrete methods for CDA. CDA belongs

to tool linguistics whose research objective is to expound other matters such as

social system. Halliday generalizes the innumerous functions of language into three

abstract meta-functions, namely ideational function, interpersonal function and

textual function. (1) Ideational function: The function of the language is to express

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the speakers experience of the real world, including the inner world of his own

consciousness and logical relations among different matters. It is realized by the

system of transitivity; (2) Interpersonal function: The function to express the

authors identity, attitude, motivation and his ability of judgment. Being directly

involved in position and opinion, it is a shortcut to carry out the ideology; (3)

Textual function: The function of making links between itself and the features of thesituation in which it is used. Generally speaking, the linguists of CDA connect

language forms with all these functions, especially by applying the methods of

transitivity, modality, classification, nominalization, passivation and quotation in

line with the specific characteristics of discourse. From which we can conclude that

language is not to allege of transparency but to control the understanding of the

audiences with their own opinions on purpose or not. The focus of CDA is not only

laid on discourse itself but on historical and social context. 4. The Critical Discourse

Analysis of a report on Barack Obama This paper concentrates on a report with the

title of Barack Obama for president from The New York Times (2008). When Barack

Obama was born in 1961, many states had laws in their books on enforced

segregation, banned mixed-race union like that of their parents and restrictedvoting rights. This year American can claim more credibly than any other western

country to have at last become politically color-blind by launching a black president

candidate to the worlds political center stage. The media of course will not miss this

great opportunity to create or participate in the magnitude of the American or even

the world history by offering overwhelming reports on Obama. The New York Times

is one of the most famous United States media serves as the mouthpiece of the

Americans politics. The way Obama was presented or portrayed by it is of great

influence to the audiences. With this advantage, The New York Times carries its tool

to make the audiences believe that Obama is the right choice for the new president.

This paper will look into this piece of report and expound its intention from the