Media Bias As A Shift In Society

The media is biased in both direction depending on the specific media outlets you may access like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. The media, including CNN, is biased more towards liberal values. The media’s motive is to make money even if what they’re promoting is wrong. According to Student News Daily, there is media bias by a selection of sources. Even though CNN chose sides the liberals, Fox News sided with the conservatives. For example, they provide bias by omission, bias by spin, and bias by labeling because in general they support liberal beliefs and sometimes publicly dismissed conservative beliefs. “As for the 2008 presidential campaign, media attention focused on the Democratic race for president because of its historic nature. The nominee was either going to be Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.” In the 2008 presidential election, Oprah Winfrey received praise for giving Barack Obama the boost he needed to win the election. However, she did receive harsh criticisms from others viewers for turning her back on a female candidate. “Oprah Winfrey is credited with giving Obama the boost he needed to overtake Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, although she faced a backlash from some viewers for turning her back on a female candidate.” Another example is during the 2016 presidential election Pew Research stated that the most of CNN’s stories about Trump were negative. According to a major study out of Harvard, “A major new study out of Harvard University has revealed the true extent of the mainstream media’s bias against Donald Trump. They found that the tone of some outlets was negative in as many as 98% of reports, significantly more hostile than the first 100 days of the three previous administrations.”

The media selectively chooses what they want to release to the public to program the majority of people that watch the news regularly to think a certain way. Most people are socialized to support liberal bias and adopt liberal values because the media deliberately promotes liberal bias. In the modern age, there is media bias especially on social issues and the economy. “And the political press in the U.S. has an overwhelming leftward tilt, mostly on social issues, but also on economic matters.” Another form of media bias in the 2008 presidential election is “bias by placement.” For instance, “During the 2008 presidential election, media outlets were criticized for helping Barack Obama win the White House while portraying the John McCain and Sarah Palin in a poor light.” In this case, the media was accused of downplaying John McCain and Sarah Palin while supporting Barack Obama.

Conservatives are misunderstood in most newsrooms like CNN and MSNBC. The mixed and hostile coverage leaves conservatives rightly distrustful that the news media will cover them fairly. This breeds the perception that the mainstream media is targeting conservatives, and this perception has truly harmful consequences. The mainstream media puts down conservatives political views in order to popularize liberal values. An example is that “The most crucial role of our press is scrutinizing those in power and those who want power. Dr. Carson, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and the others all deserve intense scrutiny of their policy proposals, their past and their stated beliefs. Dr. Carson has portrayed the recent news media scrutiny of him as a witch hunt, and (especially when some of it is unfair) conservative voters believe him. This enables him to dodge accountability.” The mainstream media, especially the more liberal news stations, attacked Ben Carson verbally because of his conservative political stance and opinions. “Democracy needs a trustworthy news media. For conservatives to trust the news media, it needs to better understand conservatives.” News media influences society as a whole. If they release mostly negative information on the news, then the majority of people around the world will have a negative outlook on world and life.

MSNBC was founded in 1996 and based in New York City. MSNBC is an American basic cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage on current events. They are owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which are both owned by Comcast. Outside of news reporting, MSNBC features hosted news programs such as “All In with Chris Hayes”, “Hardball with Chris Matthews”, “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell”, and “The Rachel Maddow Show”, hosted by liberal pundit Rachel Maddow. MSNBC also has moderate conservatives, namely Morning Joe’s, Joe Scarborough, co-hosted by liberal commentator Mika Brzezinski. This shows that MSNBC is a liberal-based news platform.

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According to MSNBC, “these media sources are strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation.” MSNBC is more preferred by a liberal audience. A survey was conducted in 2014 that 48% of MSNBC’s audience is consistently or mostly liberal, 33% mixed, and 18% consistently or mostly conservative. For instance, MSNBC used strong headlines in articles, “GOP senator says he’s ‘concerned’ Trump was ‘involved in a crime”, “Cohen gets 3 years in jail for covering up Trump’s dirty deeds”, and “Says President Donald Trump is ‘talking about exterminating Latinos’”. According to Media Bias/Fact Check, all three articles were eventually confirmed false.

CNN was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable, satellite television channel and website. CNN was the first 24-hour cable news channel. However, by April 2016, a CNN executive officially described the channel as “no longer a TV news network” and instead as “a 24-hour global multi-platform network.” CNN has multiple stations in many countries around the world. CNN has been labeled for providing fake news by Fox News, President Trump and many of his supporters.

Fox News was the main source for 40% of Trump’s voters during the 2016 election. Another survey from the Pew Research Center claims that when it comes to choosing a media source for political news, conservatives strongly support Fox News. 47% almost half of the consistent conservatives exclaimed that Fox News is their main source of information for government and political news. Fox News presents issues from a conservative perspective because the majority of Fox News stories are pro-Trump. For example, Fox News posted headlines such as “They Wanted It to Blow Up: Limbaugh Says Success of Trump-Kim Summit Caught Media Off Guard.”

Taking a case of the president Richard Trumka in ALF-CIO, the president has a history of human injustice. This ranged from incitements that lead to killings of people. However, the media ignored the news and did not report the happening as they were happening. These issues are against the press responsibility of unveiling the truth so that necessary action is taken. This is on the other hand indirectly supporting wrong doings to continue happening, and the common citizens are the ones that keep suffering from the injustices. At the same time, the media should remain neutral and identify themselves with integrity in their work. In some instances, the media are not given enough power by some government constitutionally, and if so, their duties are influenced politically in some ways (Orcutt, 2012). This is to prevent some unjust activities happening from the government from leaking to the public. They are limited regarding intimidations and a lot of regulations of duties during licensing. The public which hence suffer is denied the right to information that is vital for a developing country.

According to the research done, the majority of the Americans still have no confidence in the media regarding reporting the exact and accurate news. 44% of the Americans believe that the press has shown the credibility of reporting reliable information throughout. However, the majority who are 55% did not agree with these and claimed the media in one way, or the other manipulates the exact information. The majority view bias of the media, 47% of the Americans believe the media are liberal, and 13% believe the media is conservative. However, 36% of the public believe the media is just. This shows that actually, the media need to improve their duties so that the above doubts from the public reduces.