Why is the news media so biased?
Thank you for joining us on Open Book Blog Hop. This week we’ve decided to share our opinions on something that matters to us. I’ve chosen the media.
NOT FOR POLITICAL COMMENT:
I remember as a child watching Walter Cronkite on the news and not even knowing what his opinion was on what ever news story he was reporting. I miss that. I am so sick of r
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Why? Rich men (some women but mostly men) run large news media outlets. According to the Business Insider, 90% of all news media comes from six sources. SIX? Of those six media sources, if you asked a person on the street what political party any given media outlet supported, people have an opinion and will state one. Back when the media was not politically motivated, people wouldn’t have had an opinion as to what political party news media supported. Today, if you’ve noticed, when George Stephanopolous reports on Hillary Clinton, he spins her in the most positive light he can. He doesn’t ask her the tough questions. He doesn’t comment negatively on the fact that she or her “colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. ” (FBI Statement on email findings)
When Stephanopolous reports on Clinton or interviews her, he skips topics that are “sensitive” or that address her “wrong doing”. (it was reported that he donated $75,000 to the Clinton campaign, which he later “apologized” for not informing viewers, but continues to interview and report on her which clearly show his bias. ) (MRC Newsbusters) But, when he interviews or discusses presumptive candidate Donald Trump, he regularly adds anecdotal comments and hits Trump with the hard questions. Now, I’m not saying that politicians shouldn’t be asked hard questions. They absolutely should be. But, if you ask one political candidate tough questions about what is being reported in the other media outlets, you had better well ask the other one to get both sides. We don’t get this from ABC News outlets. We only get ABC News’ slant toward the Democratic party. I watch ABC programs more than any other network, and this distresses me greatly.
In January, Chris Matthews, who has a television show titled “Hard Ball” asked Hillary Clinton what the difference between a democrat and a socialist is, and then quickly says, “If you don’t want to answer, that’s okay.” WHAT? THIS is hard hitting news? You don’t have to answer a question if you don’t want? Would Chris Matthew have allowed Trump to not answer a question? OMG! BIASED!
I can honestly say, I don’t give a precious damn what George Stephanopolous’ political views are. I watch the “news” to hear what’s going on in the world. I’d like to decide for myself what political party to endorse, whether I have the right to bear arms doesn’t come from the media it comes from the Constitution, my opinion on gay marriage and bathroom choice should come from me hearing both sides of coin and deciding for myself, not because some “reporter” and his or her boss wants to tell me what to think. It’s becoming increasingly and harder to do this when we are pummeled with biased coverage. I want the news from the days of old to come back. Leave your opinions to yourselves news people, just “report” whats going on without interjecting your opinions please. The same with “reporters'” views on gay marriage, which bathroom we use, who we love, how we vote, the right to keep and bear arms, salacious celebrity scandals and the like. If I want their opinions, I’ll ask.
What are you passionate about? Let me know.
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Good thoughts there, Patti. Over here in the UK recently we had a very biased view on TV regarding the EU referendum, so I totally share your viewpoint.
Thanks Stevie, I was wondering about that as I wrote my post.
I agree. My background being journalism, I can say that news media has always been politically biased. Walter Cronkite was just better at presenting his bias as news than George is. Cronkite focused on the bias-selected facts that he favored while ignoring facts that didn’t fit his agenda, but he didn’t out and out state his opinion. If commentators (I can’t really call them journalists anymore) would just do that, it would be a step in the right direction. You’d still need to go to a variety of different news outlets to get a whole unbiased view from the biased fragments, but at least you’d have facts rather than opinion. I can’t stand to watch most television news anymore because I get as much of my information as I can from various Internet sources (it’s a lot easier to verify the facts there than on broadcast). So I see their bias selection and it drives me crazy. We watch PBS on Friday nights mainly so we can mock their bias and it’s been kind of fun watching them freak out over this election. “We’re giving you the news and analysis that is unbiased, fair and unfettered by nasty commercial interests.” Oh, please! In what universe?
Yes, I agree. I’ve yet to see an unbiased news report. It scares me because when people go to the polls, they base their votes largely on someone else’s opinion because they rely on the news to give them the facts. Rarely will a news media outlet give viewers all of the facts, just the ones that support their agenda.
Also, where has fact-checking gone? I don’t know how many times someone will ask me if I read/watched/heard such-and-such a report, when that report may well be based on The Onion (as an example). I agree wholeheartedly with you that our news media has chosen to push their own bias out as news.
Thank you for posting!
Thank you for reading and commenting Caroline. I know my little post doesn’t change anything, but I hope at least it will make some people think about it a little bit more when they hear something.
I pulled the plug on cable tv a few year ago, and I haven’t missed it yet. We literally have to do their jobs for them. I am not paying them hundreds a month when they fail at their job.
I know what you mean. If only we had the reach they have! Things could be different! 😉
Once in a while I catch the BBC’s coverage of US news. The different style of reporting is refreshing..And I miss the days when CNN was new and actually reported news from all over the world.