I don’t get much of an opportunity to watch the national news on the television (and never on cable); but when I do, it’s fairly easy to pick out which political slant each network is depicting. It appears to me, and this is my opinion, that ABC, NBC and CNN lean pretty far left, CBS is more the middle of the road, and FOX and its affiliates lean (fall over) to the right. I would guess that, based upon my readings of other people’s opinions of those broadcasters, that that is the general consensus of the public. That being said, I do read more than I watch TV, and sometimes it is just painfully obvious which way a particular news website or newspaper slants their reporting. For example, I think one of the better newspapers as far as equal coverage of both the left and right is USA Today. They do an excellent job of presenting both sides of most arguments, and offer opinions that really make me angry sometimes, and some that I couldn’t agree with more. I think that’s the definition of “balance” in the media, and I enjoy it the most. There are others, however, that I read that pander to a specific political group; for example, the Kansas City Star. It never fails that the KC Star virtually attacks the right wing of the Republican party. They seem, to me, to be so impartial, that it takes away a great amount of their credibility; and I lean left! Most of the news I get is via the internet; I have a selection of various websites that I visit daily, and others that I follow on
All sources of media have viewers that is what keeps them running. However why do some viewer watch certain media outlet that only support one side of the story. According to Bernie Goldberg in the video Are You a Bias Viewer where he quoted “ More and more I think of people who watch news and opinions want to get their own biases… validated”. When a viewer is bias they go to the news channel that will agree with them. Goldberg even stated that liberals watch liberal news channels while conservatives watch conservative news channels. This means that not only is the media bias so are the viewers. Viewers will watch whatever they agree with because their on the same side. However there still some news channel that give the viewer all the facts instead of just one side of the topic. Letting viewers make their own choose on what side to take.
These news outlets, as well as talk radio, at least get people involved in the political world and drive conversations. Many who watch or listen to them have other sources from which to gather information, such as their local newspaper. For every disparaging remark made about my choice of news outlets, I can find 10 more to counter the remark anywhere on the web. For example, Rush Limbaugh said that Bartlett has now gone over to “the dark side.” Another example is from The Christian Science Monitor, “Fox News was among the top four outlets cited as people’s main source of news.” For a 19 year old actively involved and working college student, I do not have the time to find and read scholarly papers because any and all elections would be over by the time I did. In the meantime, I will continue to listen more to the news radio and read news websites while discerning what is actually news and what part is for entertainment
After reading Bernard Goldberg’s Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, I could recognize the medias divide and opinion when reporting the news. Growing older and more understanding of certain issues and what is going on in the world it has been easier for me to acknowledge this bias and opinion of news reporters when watching the news. Being more in the middle of the right and left wing I can see how the media inputs its views that are not objective or twists stories to make it politically correct.
Robert J. Samuelson’s factual article, “Picking Sides for the News,” is an essay that describes the different views and opinions on American news by American citizens. Samuelson claims that most Americans see people in the news business as “sloppy, biased, and self-serving.” He states that the news industry is divided by political views; Republican and conservative, and Democratic and liberal. Based on your political standpoint, you may find different news stations more supportive than others. Samuelson shows support to his viewpoint that many news companies “make news rather than just report it.”
It has recently come to my attention that not enough people understand how great bias in media has been to our lives. Each day we wake up and see near one or more biases in the media, lying at the foot of our beds. It is wonderful to be able to wake up and smile each morning because of this. Decisions are made based on what people hold to be true. History has shown instances where severly biased media. The most recognizable evidence being WWII and Stalin. "Because of the status quo bias, the media ignore any position that advocates radical change"
The news media uses visual rhetoric usually to get us to buy there news. You can watch several different news media outlets about the same story but draw different opinions. The news media is good about adding additional details to the new or not show you parts of the story as well. 2 stations that I believe are notorious for this is CNN and FOX news. FOX general has a conservative point of view and CNN is a lot more liberal. Unfortunately, a reporter or news agency can skew a story in any direction they see fit. This is protected by their freedom of
News sources carry the persona of giving biased information in the vast majority of cases-whether or not you may consider that as a “good” or “bad” thing. No matter what news source you retrieve your information from, there is almost assuredly a flaw in the way that news is presented to the audience, in order to try and persuade you to follow their bias. Oftentimes the bias is politically based; for instance, Fox News is believed to show bias in favor of the Republican party, professional sports outlets may be biased towards certain teams or players, certain articles or reports may be biased towards a certain race, and so on. The bottom line is no matter how significant (or insignificant) the news may be, or what the subject of the news may
Viewers are starting to realize that media bias is very prominent in the news, especially in today’s political climate. Due to the fact that there is so much bias in the media, viewers easily can tell whether a news channel is conservative or liberal. The viewer should not even know the political stance of a news broadcasting network. Although many look to the news to validate their opinions, many would rather be provided with just facts. Viewers are beginning to become more open minded and are giving their attention to media outlets who are more factual. People are now watching other news outlets rather than watching major networks, who have biased content. Bias and groupthink in the media should be eliminated because viewers are making a shift from biased news outlets to more factual news
A Washington Times story last week screamed, “Americans increasingly seeking media outlets that confirm pre-existing partisan views.” The Public Policy Polling people recently found Republicans only trust Fox News while Democrats trust any news other than
The Three largest or most well-known news stations of the modern age is Fox News, CNN, and BBC. Everyone has heard of at least one of these news stations, and most people know what their stance on politics are. CNN, Fox, and BBC like any news station are political and there are two political views in this world. There are the left and the right side of politics, I have noticed that people on the news stations do take side. CNN and BBC take a far more left stance on politics and Fox news take the right side of politics.
In America today there are two major news providers bringing you news up to the hour, contrary to popular belief. Both providers have one general major downside and that’s that they are both biased towards two different political parties. Fox news likes to cover the news in a way that it benefits the views of Conservatives/ Republicans. On the other hand CNN news likes to cover news that Democrats/ Liberals want to
One of the easiest ways to see the influence of media bias is through the election season. Political propaganda has a major effect on potential voters during this time because of the magnitude of the event. There was a study done in 2007 that discovered that Fox News, who is known to be republican bias, had convinced 3% to 28% of their listeners to vote republican (Knight, Chiang, 2008). On the reverse side, readers of the primarily democratic Washington Post’s probability to vote democrat, increased by 8% (Knight, Chiang, 2008). What this shows is that in a
American journalism has always played both sides of the fence for the American people. In regards to that, news media is always for the people, however for different reasons. One is to make money, and two is to provide the American people with the accurate information of national and international affairs. As a result, partisan news media has become realistically the only choice of news with the big five owning most of the corporations. The discussion amongst scholars is that partisan news makes for more of an engaged citizen, on the other hand it creates bias due to the lack of correlation of intertwining ideas. Taking into consideration both sides of the argument, one thing remains true that there is a correlation between the great divide and the big five partisan news medias.
There are many arguments when it comes to this issue. Some people think that the media has a liberal bias; some people think that there is a conservative view. The real issue is that there is a bias opinion and this is changing the way that people perceive the media. According to Tyler Cohen `Media Bias Is Not a Serious Problem' it doesn't matter that the media has a biased opinion. He states that people are aware that the media is bias and because of that they keep in mind when watching. He also states that people want to watch stations that have the same opinion as them (2005). Most people to watch specific news stations that do have the same belief as them, but we should be able to watch whatever station we want and be able to get the same type of information.
Mainstream media such as television is a large factor into media bias. For example, CNN tends to lean liberal in most areas while Fox News tends to lean conservative. Research conducted at Harvard University found that, “The CNN programming studied tended to cast a negative light on Republican candidates – by a margin of three-to-one. Four-in-ten stories (41%) were clearly negative while just 14% were positive and 46% were neutral.” Charlie Rena, former Fox News producer, wrote that Fox News would ‘slant’ the daily news to fit the president at the time, George W. Bush’s (Republican) agenda. “...unlike the AP, CBS, or ABC, Fox News's editorial policy is set from the top down in the form of a daily memo: "[F]requently, it also contains hints, suggestions and directives on how to slant the day's news—invariably in a way that was consistent with the politics and desires of the Bush administration." Both of these examples from CNN and Fox News