This study investigates the journalistic construction of the news from a focus-group of eleven Philadelphia-area voters. The journalists not only represent the participants’ voice, they also present themselves as keen observers—they attempt to display expertise as journalists. The written stories use the participants’ voices more than was found in the journalists’ oral discussion about the focus-group. In both the oral and written stories, the journalists ventroloquise participants’ voices within the genre, the news-feature story--how the dire political economy affects ordinary people. The journalists may represent the participants’ opinions while simultaneously recontextualizing participants’ voices within their own storyline.