The media has played an essential role in the history of the United States. People rely on media outlets for news and other important updates. Therefore, there is an implied commitment of trust between the news anchor or writer and his or her audience. For most of America’s history, however, there has been media bias. The subtleness of the partiality made it difficult for most Americans to notice. The problem today is that the American public is so polarized that people are questioning every news material from the mainstream media outlets. According to a Gallup/Knight survey, 45 percent of Americans found “a great deal” of bias in reporting. Among Republicans, the share of individuals with a negative opinion of the media’s objectivity was 67 percent (Fletcher). This essay will explore media bias in mainstream outlets and analyze examples of the same in detail.
How American Media is Biased
American media is biased towards progressive-liberal values. While many people might attribute this Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency, left-leaning media has existed since the media was transformed into an industrial complex. Mainstream media was transformed into an urban-minded outfit with little regard for conservative America. The resultant bias can be attributed to several factors. First, the headquarters of the mainstream media outlets are mostly found in metropolitan areas such as New York and Washington which are highly populated with liberals. Secondly, most people enter into journalism to tell stories that need to be told. In practice, this leans towards the underdog which is, in this case, the liberal movement. The third decision is the hiring practices of major media outlets. By hiring from elite colleges, media houses are more likely to get liberals than conservatives. The interaction of the above factors has molded the left-leaning media in America.
The liberal bias could best be understood by analyzing the stories covered by mainstream media houses. Covering the lives of people in conservative America, for example, would be of no use to a left-leaning media house since it would challenge its values and the message it spreads. Americans generally have stereotypes about the inhabitants of conservative America. The knowledge does not illustrate how much they have traveled but rather what liberal media houses have told them. The issue of gun control and gun right is one of the most divisive in the country. Both sides have logical points which they stick to without fail. The problem, however, is in how the media covers the topic. In most cases, the gun-control side dominates the discussion. More time is allocated to “educate” people about the dangers of people buying guns at will. On the hand, the gun-rights side receives mostly negative coverage. Incidents of defensive gun use, for example, are common in conservative America. However, it is hard to find any published incidents in mainstream media. The reason is that such stories do not reflect the media houses’ interests and beliefs.
Mainstream media neglects some parts of America so much that they do not relate to the stories shown on TV. The media is so concerned with urban and elitist issues that problems of rural America receive no attention. An example of this is the scant coverage of mill workers in areas of Kentucky and Ohio. Besides struggling with intermittent employment, workers have also suffered from declining health and opioid addiction. This group has been hit by economic turbulence in the country the most. The lack of attention by mainstream media has created an “us vs. them” mentality. These sentiments are highlighted in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll in which 60 percent of rural Americans interviewed stated that mainstream media respects people like them “only a little” or “not at all” (Prince).
Examples of Media Bias
Example I
Link to Article: https://theintercept.com/2018/09/14/google-china-prototype-links-searches-to-phone-numbers/
The article is a piece of investigative journalism introducing the world to Google’s activities in China. The author claims that Google has reached a compromise with the Chinese government for the former to operate in the country. The flagship product in the Chinese market is an Android search engine codenamed “Dragonfly.” The search engine would censor information accessed by the user. Terms such as human rights and democracy cannot be accessed through the search engine.
Despite the implications of the agreement on the freedom of information, mainstream media outlets in the United States underreport the story. Google has been given a free leash to follow its profit objectives despite potential human rights violation under its watch. Mainstream media displays two types of bias in this case: omission and story selection. Bias by omission involves leaving out part of an article or a series of articles over a duration. Free enterprise is a founding principle of liberalism with the right to property coming before all other rights. The media ignores the facts involved in Gallagher’s expose´ because they disprove liberal claims. By underreporting this story, the media denies the public of a chance to know of Google’s immoral activities. The public might never know the extent of Google’s Chinese activities because the media chose not to report about it. The bias of story selection is also evident in this example since the media houses opt to report about stories that advance their agendas.
Example II
Link to Article: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/kavanaugh-hearings-partisan-reporters-making-it-worse/
John Goldberg’s article is a critique of the country’s media. The harsh but frank review is in light of the Kavanaugh nomination saga. American media personalities claim to be independent and objective, but the saga showed how partisan they all were. Left-leaning media houses were so against the Supreme Court nominee that they jumped to report even the most inconsequential evidence. Goldberg argues that this behavior has made mainstream media lose credibility. In essence, it explains what Trump has been saying all along about media. The narrative explored in the article represents bias by spin. The mainstream reporters referred to focus on one interpretation of events while excluding the other. The coverage of Kavanaugh’s case involved reporters making their ideological perspectives look superior to others and making subjective comments about objective facts. The effect of such reporting is that it polarizes the public. The audience either completely agrees with the reporter or are completely against him or her. The lack of middle-ground creates a toxic atmosphere as was the case during the Kavanaugh case.
Conclusion
President Donald Trump has hugely criticized American media due to its partisan coverage of events. Despite the President’s sensationalism, the media is left-leaning and has led to a lot of misinformation among the public. It is the duty of the media to be the loyal fourth estate. While an instant overhaul is impossible, mainstream media should take proactive steps to achieve objectivity in news coverage and reporting.
Works Cited
Fletcher, Paul. “Report: Americans see News Media as vital but failing to live up to role.” Forbes, Jan. 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulfletcher/2018/01/16/report-americans-see-news-media-as-vital-but-failing-to-live-up-to-role/#542dca6bf835. Accessed 25 Oct. 2018.
Prince, Richard. “Rural America wants respect from media.” The Root, Jun. 2017. https://journalisms.theroot.com/at-capital-gazette-lack-of-security-was-deliberate-1827269493. Accessed 25 Oct. 2018.
