Biased media is causing significant damage to today’s society. Media sources have the power to influence things as big as elections, and as small as any average day to day decision. Since 2016 with the election of Donald Trump as president, the United States has seen an uptick in the usage of the term, “fake news.” While there has been an increase in the usage of the term, the idea of fake news is something that, in reality, has been around for quite some time. Bias exists in most media forms and outlets that produce news. While this is the case, many people believe that they have the ability to spot biased forms of media.
In a book titled, “Journalism and Truth in an Age of Social Media,” by James E. Katz and Kate K. Mays, the authors talk about how fake news in reality, isn’t a new thing. They found that 84% of people believe they have the ability to spot fake news on their own. However, 67% of Americans look toward social media as their source of fake news, despite the lack of trust in these sources. As many as 14% have even willingly shared news that they knew was false. This is a concerning metric, and further increases the need for awareness, and a solution to the fake news dilemma.
FOX News:
Many of the issues surrounding biases in certain media outlets lie in the quotes and sources that they choose to print. Often, if a quote doesn’t fit the story, or writer and publishers opinion, it won’t be posted. After reading through FOX’s article, “Trump attorney concerned jury instructions could be biased toward prosecution: ‘Zero confidence’ in this judge,” by Taylor Penley, it is pretty clear where they lean. Some of the quotes are obviously biased. These include:
“This judge is the judge that determines the jury instructions. The jury instructions are the roadmap for non-attorneys and jurors to follow the law. It’s going to be critical and frankly, at this point, I have zero confidence in the fact that this person, who should not be sitting on the bench right now, will do the right thing and give jury instructions that are in an appropriate manner without any persuasion towards the prosecution” – Alina Habba, Trump’s Attorney
“There was no case… We’ve been sitting here. We saw no facts, and the last resort for the prosecution is going to be this judge with political motivations, going to give them instructions on how to decide the fate of a former president and the future president of the United States” – Alina Habba, Trump’s Attorney
Given some of former President Donald Trump’s past quotes referencing how this case is biased and / or rigged, it is clear to see why he chose Alina Habba as his defense. These quotes obviously lean towards Trump’s side in these legal battles. Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, is clearly backing her client, and FOX news is choosing to print these quotes instead of the quotes that support the prosecution. The judge in question, Judge Juan Merchan, is a well respected judge within the judicial system, and FOX likely knows that printing this will change some peoples opinion on him.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
CNN:
CNN, however, prints and releases some very different quotes regarding Trump’s trials. In CNN’s article, “Closing arguments for Trump’s hush money trial begin Tuesday. Here’s what to know,” author Devan Cole talks about the closing arguments regarding Trump’s court battle with the state of New York. The quotes here differ greatly from those of FOX’s. Clearly, these support the prosecution and New York state. Some of these biased quotes include:
“The other theme, she said, could be: ‘Look at the kind of people Trump values,’ with prosecutors arguing the former president chose to surround himself with people such as Cohen and Pecker, who were doing Trump’s bidding ahead of the 2016 election.” – Cole and Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
“And even if you do not rely on them, the third theme is going to be, ‘You don’t have to, because everything is corroborated either by other witnesses or documents or records or Trump’s own words.” – Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
“These are his people, he chose them. And he shouldn’t now get the benefit of, ‘Because they’re flawed you can’t rely on them.’” – Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
These quotes given by a source in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office are clearly leaning towards the prosecution. CNN, generally a left leaning media source, knows their audience. They know that if they don’t print quotes that support the prosecution, their readers may pivot to other sources.
Unbiased News: Example
Not all news is biased. There are some pretty good examples of unbiased news in the media. For example, an article from NPR’s newsletter, “Up First,” Suzanne Nuyen talks about approaching the final results of Trump’s Trials. She includes quotes from people who support both sides. Nuyen included the following quote:
“NPR’s Domenico Montanaro tells Up First that respondents had very different takes on the trial. One told NPR producer Janet Woojeong Lee that the trial affirmed for him that nobody should vote for Trump. Another called the trial a ‘farce.’ Montanaro says this is the world we live in. ‘People have very different views of our politics…especially of Donald Trump. And those views are, for the most part, very locked in.'” – Suzanne Nuyen
This examples gives two sides of the story. One side which believes in the defense, and one in the prosecution. In the article, Nuyen never picks a side. She reports on both the defense and the prosecution, allowing for fair and even coverage on the events.
Bias in Media: Yellow Journalism
While this court case is just one example of bias in media, specifically news media, it is just one small example amongst thousands that are posted each day. Readers are far more likely to read or view media that shares their own thoughts and ideals. The following videos from PBS speaks on the ideas of, “Yellow Journalism,” and how it can be used to upsell another story by talking about a historic example of this.
As seen in the video above, it is pretty clear that historically, some news sources and outlets have a history of changing headlines, and even changing the news a little to sell to their target audience. In the past, papers were more bold about it, printing headlines and information that was often just a flat out lie such as, “USS Maine Sunk by Spanish,” as explained in the video above. Exaggerated news is not a new thing, it’s just used differently now. Biased quotes, biased sources, and other ways of changing a story are very common now.
Why Biased Media is Bad
News media has the ability to influence the media like no other source really does. The media continues to influence and further divide the readers that take it all as truth. The examples above demonstrate that. Historically, stories have been exaggerated since people started getting their news from media sources, often to influence their readers in one direction or another. The Yellow Journalism section above is an excellent example of this. People should be taking in news media, and making their decisions based on fact. In today’s climate, it is almost impossible to find a news source that isn’t biased, one way or another.
Users should be able to filter through any media source, and find something unbiased to make informed decisions on. Until that happens, extremely biased news media will continue to force decisions from their readers, who may not have all the information that could be available to them.
Written by Sean Kelley