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Media Bias Research Paper

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The media is a unique institution in American society. They are mostly for-profit businesses, but they serve a public purpose- informing the American people about newsworthy events (Lenz and Homan 142). They are the only private business to be protected by the 1st Amendment (143). The media- specifically the journalists that comprise it- are expected to be unbiased and neutral in their news reporting (Clark). This is to create an informed public; the bedrock of a functioning democratic society, as stated by James Madison and other Founding Fathers, is a people that have knowledge and the ability to acquire it (Chemerinsky). Unfortunately, the American people have a decreasing faith in the objectivity of the media: according to a recent Gallup …show more content…
Different terms have different connotations, and even if they are synonymous, they can have differing impacts. An “illegal alien” and an “undocumented migrant” are the same thing, but they have different implications and evoke a different tone. Which term a news outlet uses may show where the bias lies. Some news outlets may avoid certain words altogether: BBC, for example, refrains from designating someone as a “terrorist” because it contains “political overtones” (“Terrorism”). BBC is a British news source but it widely used and trusted by Americans and it is worth noting. American news sources can be much more toxic in the words they use. It has long been an argument from conservatives that the media are “politically correct” and refrain from telling the whole truth by using euphemisms (Weigel). Journalists are not supposed to let their opinions get in the way of the news they are reporting, but the words they use, or refrain from using, can hide the unfeigned, unfiltered truth from the public. Take, for instance, the Fox News article “Seven Highlights from Bombshell IG Report on the DOJ, FBI Clinton Email Probe.” The article is blatantly biased towards conservatives- even the title, calling supposedly incriminating evidence in the case regarding Hillary Clinton’s Emails a “Bombshell” (Re). The article claims that those being investigated had “escaped …show more content…
Media sources can either openly or covertly support a side, leading to news that is unfair and unbalanced. One such way is financially. Most news media- especially what is know as ‘mainstream media’ or MSM- are not independently owned; six corporations, in fact, own 90 percent of the media (Lutz). News outlets owned by these corporations may be swayed to support whom the corporation supports and condemn who they condemn. CNN, for example, is owned by Time Warner (Lutz). Time Warner donated $562,795 directly to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, $385,242 to the DNC Services Corp, and $138,730 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (“Time”). During President Trump’s first 100 days in office, CNN’s news reports about him carried a negative tone 93 percent of the time (Kass). Walt Disney Corporation, the owner of ABC, donated over $1,739,105 to Democrats during the 2016 election cycle (Lutz; “Walt”). ABC’s news reports on Trump were also 93 percent negative (Kass). Comcast Corp., owner of NBC, donated $523,350 to Hillary Clinton and $682,497 to the DNC Services Corp during the 2016 presidential election (Lutz; “Comcast”). While conservative news outlets did not help finance Republicans as much as liberal media accredited to Democrats, there was financial support involved. Most notably, News Corp, owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, donated $701,055 to Republicans during the 2016 election cycle (Lutz;

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