Is the media, biased, more towards progressive-liberal values, conservative values or in both directions? According to an article written by Robert M. Entman, the term bias “seems to take on three major meanings. Sometimes, it is applied to news that distorts or falsifies reality (distortion bias), sometimes to news that favors one side rather than providing equivalent treatment to both sides in a political conflict (content bias), and sometimes to the motivations and mindsets of journalists who produce the biased content (decision-making bias).” The media has a large influence on the political siding. With one article sometimes, an opinion can be swayed in either direction with a simple play of words. The media as multiple ways to distract followers in whatever direction they want them to go in in order to achieve their goal.
Media bias come in a variety of ways as well. The simplest being selective reporting. This is when media sources focus on specific subjects while downplaying some. News companies fail to shed light on major details relating to the story (Martin 17). Realizing that that selective reporting is not always an example of political biases crucial. For example, countless amounts of negativity are produced about presidential candidates. This causes two different things to occur. Number one being, there are more hot topics that display presidential candidates negatively. Next “Obama does things that we all do” wouldn’t have as much appeal as “Obama does something never thought of during a presidential election ever” (Martin 17). This reminds us that at the end of the day, this is a business and sales still need to take place.
There are selective reporting times two which is lying by omission. This is when crucial information is completely not discussed in the selected and leaves the reader swayed to one side of the bias spectrum. Included in this is discuss topics which lean towards a specific point of view single narrative despite outweighing evidence of the opposing side. You get this type of biases in scientific reporting usually. They usually include the phrase ‘new study shows’ and will go on to describe outcomes a single study which is usually flawed. “These articles are especially common on websites with a goal in mind. The best-known example from recent years would be global warming. If a single study, no matter its flaws, was found to go against the accepted scientific consensus in any way, it was often picked up by fringe groups and reported as hard proof that climate change does not exist. These groups were happy to ignore the number of studies that concluded man-made climate change existed” (Martin 17).
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One blatant example of liberal media bias I have come across is a comparison of Hilary Clinton and Melania Trump wearing the color white. In an image of two articles being compared, the first article is praising Hilary for the color option claiming she wore it to represent “purity” and symbolizes the quality of woman’s right purpose. On the contrary, in the same article, they, in turn, proceed to degrade Melania Trump wearing a clothing option in white. She is being slandered with remarks of “Too many that outfit could be another reminder that white is always right”. It is clear where the writer of the article was standing as far as their political opinion goes.
Media can be either liberal or conservative. In some cases, it can be both, but which side has more of an influence on us in regard to media? In an article written by Stephen Turley, he states, “There is, I believe, an inescapable global consequence to these twin commitments of secular liberalism: inexorably, the secular liberal reimagines the world bifocal as comprised of those who embrace secular liberal values on the one hand and those who reject them on the other. Those who embrace secular commitments are by definition rational and liberal, while those who reject them are by definition irrational and repressive.” Stephan in the article believes that the media is much more liberal than conservative. He discusses an example photo in the same article of two athletes, one admitting to being Christian the other admitting to being gay and shows are reporter being uninterested in the Christian but asking the gay for more information. He used this example to back up his views on the liberal media.
In an article by Dana Nuccitelli, she discusses how conservative outlets were found guilty of bias in global warming coverage. Global warming is obviously a global issue that is often discussed across all media sides. She is claiming conservative media is bias against global warming discussion and opinions. In the article states, “Specifically, politically conservative news outlets like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the Wall Street Journal were responsible for the lion’s share of the false balance, disproportionately representing climate contrarians in their stories about the IPCC report (Nuccitelli 2013)”. The article itself is not biased she is simply discussing facts about how conservative cover major news reports.
I believe that the liberal side of media is more favored over the conservative side of media. Conservative beliefs have gotten a bad reputation throughout the years as you can see from Nuccitelli’s article. Conservative has a reputation for exaggerating the truth and manipulating media to look a certain way to appeal to their viewers. The Fox News channel, The Blaze Network, and Breitbart all lean favorably to the conservative bias. They constantly praise Trump, or any other republican for that matter, while at the same time denigrating the liberal. They also want to appear as non-biased, with Fox going as far as having their slogan as “fair and balanced.” The often have liberal commentators on their show but are often outnumbered. Fox also often criticized Obama for taking vacations and playing many rounds of golf but gave his predecessor George Bush, and subsequent president Donald Trump, a pass on this issue despite them playing more golf more vacation days than Barrack Obama. Trump is set to play as much golf in a single year than Obama did in eight, but Fox is failing to report this to their viewers.
In a poll done by Gallup, Americans perception of the media has changed in recent times. According to the article, “Thirty-two percent believe the news media are careful to separate fact from opinion, well below the 58% who held this view in 1984. Meanwhile, 66% currently agree that most news media do not do a good job of letting people know what fact is and what is opinion, up from 42%.” This being both liberal and conservative media sources. New generations are becoming more aware of bias media sources and information and seek what is real. Americans who describe their ideological views as very liberal, very conservative; have a postgraduate education, or are aged 65 and older are most likely to say they can identify an objective news source (Jones and Ritter 2018). Younger, less educated and moderate respondents are among the major subgroups least likely to say this (Jones and Ritter 2018).
In another article by Evan Siegfried of Think, “This idea that the media is made up of unselfconsciously liberal elites who don’t even recognize the biases they have against conservative policies and conservatives, in general, goes back decades, to when newsrooms were more or less homogenous in nearly every way.” This shows that conservative and liberal bias debates have been going on since the beginning of the media itself.
My view is on the matter is simply in the middle. I believe that both ends of the political spectrum bias because their ultimate goal is to persuade you to believe what they want you to believe. However, in the past and now conservative sides have shown to be slightly more untrustworthy. Liberals have a better reputation with those of the rising generations due to the “open-mindedness” of their views.
