We Hear What We Want To
Unfortunately, media bias is all throughout our news, so it leaves us with almost no choice but to pick a side and listen to it.
Whenever we decide to read an article, turn on the news, or go through our social media, we make a decision. That decision is the angle in which we decide to take in news. Whether or not we mean to, we almost always will take in the news that aligns best to our ideals. The only downside is, we might not be getting the entire truth.
For example, as an Arizonan, we know which news outlets will give us which type of news. 3TV is known to cater towards a liberal audience, while FOX10’s reputation is to cater towards conservative viewers. This was also very apparent if you viewed both outlets during election season and many examples can be found online. Such as this YouTube video showing FOX10 bias.
On one end, we see a video showing how FOX news is very biased against Barack Obama, but was fully supportive of Donald Trump. But on the other hand, even this video showing a news sources bias, is biased in itself to be technical. As politics have gotten more and more divided over the last few years, CNN has taken the side of Democrats and even though they are showing facts and proof of FOX bias, it shows their support for the other side. Here is another example.
“The Daily Show” hosted by Trevor Noah is a comedic news show about politics. It is very similar to the content of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and these shows also go against the conservative point of view. While these news shows are both informative and entertaining, they are still biased towards one side because of how they deliver the news. This is apparent because there is of course many shows, podcasts, and journalists who make their ideals very clear. It is an interesting thing to think about because we live in a world today where there is absolutely no shame in slamming people or groups that we do not agree with whether it is just an argument on Twitter, or a reporter live on air. Politics have become so divided that nowadays we just expect outlets to make their intentions very clear so we can choose what to read or watch.
Someone that immediately comes to mind is a very controversial person by the name of Kaitlin Bennett. She is known for being an extremely over the top and pretty harsh conservative. She has disrespected Asian people because of COVID, she has disrespected the Black Lives Matter movement, and has defended terrible actions of terrible people. See, my bias is coming out pretty clearly in just writing about who she is.
Here is an Instagram post by NPR, who is also very liberal leaning but has a strong reputation for being factual. This post shows how politics have shifted ever since the Obama era and have become more of an argument than anything.
Lastly, to look at news bias, here’s a graph by Michigan University that shows where outlets lean towards based on their content.
Overall, politics has really taken over news in the last decade. Unfortunately, politics seems more divided than ever which leads to more arguments and picking at each side. While it’s still out there, unbiased and correct news is a hard thing to find as it seems all of our top and most accessible news sources have a side they support. I, like many others, am a victim of this and have almost accepted that at this point, I’m going to be a biased news consumer and continue to trust sources that I agree with.
