Political Biases In The Media

Political Biases In The Media

By. Martin Borys

In today’s world there are so many ways to access the news, it is on phones, iPads, tablets, laptops, television, radio, newspapers, word of mouth. And with all of these sources of the news there are even more broadcasting it to all these different types of media There is so much social media, news outlets, talk shows and everything depending on what you listen to or read could be distorted depending on the station that’s reporting. An important question is how having such political partisan news outlets affect the political dialogue? There are a million stories out there and a billion ways of telling or explaining them. All depending on the different news coverage whether they be liberal, conservative, religious, or neutral.

Media coverage of one story could have one sided views and record and report what they want to make the story sound good in their view. But who actually has the whole story anymore. Most news just spins the story in their favor to get their viewers. People that watch the same news stations wouldn’t notice the biasness or the one sided stories leaning more towards one political party since it’s the regular news they watch and get all their information from. Its always insightful to look up news stories from different sources to gain a wider perspective through online news, journals, and social media

 

Journalism’s purpose today is to provide knowledge and understanding about what’s happening in today’s world. In an article by Shafqat Munir, he states “Journalism informs citizens about the country’s political diversity” (Munir). The primary purpose of journalism is to ensure our citizens are well informed for our social and political dialogue and structure. Journalism attains to find balance in the stories that affect our lives.

The Kim Davis story is a great example because of the controversy over how she wouldn’t issue any marriage licenses because of her religious views. Conservative media portrayed her as a hero for her fight of religious freedoms, while the Liberal media portayed her as a religious zealot content to flout the laws of the United States. Kim Davis chose to defy the Supreme Court of the United States after they ruled that marriage is a right that should be granted to all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation. Ms. Davis is an elected public official whose job it is to uphold and comply with the laws of the united states. Nowhere in her job description does it say that she must do this unless her religious beliefs prevent her from doing so. This story was picked up by news outlets across the country and depending on the political biases of the news outlets it was reported and spun in many ways to make either her look good or vice versa for the people who were suing her in order to get the marriage licenses that the law now allows.

Today there is so much going on everywhere in your neighborhood, state, country, and world. There is so much coverage of everyday events that are reported and told by many diverse news stations. Think about how many different news outlets you use and ask yourself if you can believe everything they say? There are so many political partisan news outlets that give stories without all the info in order to spin the story in their political direction.

Fox news has a more conservative view on the world and their news reports clearly show a large conservative influence. Fox has had a reputation of just reporting what they believe is good news and what they want to hear, instead of reporting uncensored real news stories. During a court appeal of a Fox News reporter “FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves.” (Fox News).

There is a lot of distortion of the news when it comes to the political views of these news stations. Some decide to turn their backs on one side of a story to make it look better from another view. If Fox news is distorting the stories and spinning them to fit one ideology, then why should people still listen to what they say? There are plenty of other news outlets to get information from. Even if you still have your old habits of watching the news you prefer, then if you hear a strange story or don’t believe it then search the same story on another news outlet and fill in the gaps you’ve been missing.

Works Cited

"Fox News Admits They Lie and Distort the News, so Why so Pissy?" Fox News Admits They Lie and Distort the News, so Why so Pissy? Accessed September 23, 2015.

Munir, Shafqat. "Purposes, Functions and Obligations of Journalism." Accessed September 23, 2015.