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Why Does The American Media Get Big Stories Wrong Summary

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Everybody in the United States has a certain way of getting information about what’s going on in the country. Some of the media giants in this country include CNN, Fox News, NBC, among many others, and nearly all of them have been criticized for being biased and promoting “hidden agendas.” Today, the clear majority of the public get their news very quickly, so people prefer television news or through apps or websites on their phones. Connor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic took note of this in an article he wrote titled “Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?” He states that the media has shifted to less informative methods of reporting on stories and that today’s media is ripe with flaws, many of which are easily identifiable. Opposed …show more content…

Television cares much more about headline news with opinionated interviews and short segments, along with boosting their ratings, charisma, and image, rather than caring about giving actual information and giving the full spectrum of the story. Cassidy agreed that this current state of the news is not a good thing. In his article, he states that there is a new 24-hour coverage cycle on the news, which shortens the segments of larger news stories to include the smaller ones. Although they agree on this general idea, Cassidy pins the blame on the viewer, not the media. He claims that a divided and dysfunctional American body of politics leads to people looking to pin blame and to blindly relate back to their party relation. Friedersdorf then moves on to say that the general public undervalues the watchdog media, which I agree with and we also discussed this idea in our class discussion about the media. The government and its officials can partake in some corrupt activity, and news outlets are supposed to be there to break that to the public and prevent further corruption from happening. The issue is that media outlets aren’t doing this because corruption doesn’t bring in as many views as fear or …show more content…

Friedersdorf mentions how media outlets seem to respond to media criticism, and he continues the statement by saying that he agrees that there is a liberal bias that is swayed by America’s conservative movement. Although this is true, he also states that the conservative movement doesn’t necessarily benefit the media. The conservatives had been giving false reports that the initial situation in Iraq was favorable when in reality it was a disaster, and the conservative bias believed that they were telling the “real” story. Meanwhile, years later, the situation between Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann brought to light what a liberal bias without an ideology could do, and it changed the media more than the conservative bias did in years. This bias issue goes perfectly with what Cassidy says is the main issue with modern day political news media. Cassidy believes that it is not that there is a lack of serious reporters, but an issue with people finding sources that favor their own personal agenda. This happens on both ends of the spectrum, but it is more extreme on the conservative end. This idea perfectly supports what Friedersdorf had said in his article. Friedersdorf ends the article by claiming that nobody oversees the media, and this leads to a free-for-all coverage of news stories. This leads to some important news stories

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