Matthew Levendusky's What Do Partisan Media Actually Say?

A liberal is a person that believes that the government should provide equality for all, while a conservative is a person that believes in limited government and that the government should provide the necessary freedom for people to pursue their own goals. Over time, it has been argued, mostly by conservatives, that there is a liberal bias in the media. Liberals have combated this idea with the belief that conservative media is devoted to making efforts to invoke fear and division in the general public. Though liberals make a fine counter-argument, it is easier to observe that the media is liberal-biased. The liberal versus conservative debate can be compared to facts versus values. Another reason for bias within the media is that a significant percentage of minorities, or smaller groups within the population that are often thought to be poorer, politically identify themselves as liberals. To make these minorities feel like the government is on their side as well as everyone else’s, the media must accommodate the needs of these minorities. Because of this, the media becomes liberal-biased.

In the article “GOP-Fox Circus Act”, Reed Richardson argues that although both the GOP and Fox have conservative political values, they are ultimately harmful to each other’s agendas because of their differing political goals. Both organizations are lacking popularity in recent years so they are struggling to find new ways to gain an audience. The GOP wants to find a way to get their ideas to a wide variety of people, whereas Fox is promoting more liberal views to increase the ratings of their programs. On one hand, the GOP’s reputation is hurt by the inaccuracy of Fox’s reporting. On the other hand, Fox is tied down by the conservative views of the GOP, thus restraining Fox from gaining a larger audience. Journalist Reed Richardson wrote this article for The National, a liberal newspaper, in 2013, so the events and issues that he is speaking of are still relevant to this day. Due to the differences of political views between the author and the subject matter, there is plenty of room for biased statements and opinions. Does Richardson provide enough evidence of the harmful effects of the Fox and GOP relationship? Richardson clearly and meticulously establishes the problems that both organizations face in the pursuit of their political goals with the use of statistics, reliable sources, and thorough evaluation of events; however Richardson constantly provides the reader with a biased argument when discussing the current state of Fox.

Having served nearly thirty years at CBS News, Mr. Goldberg had earned a reputation as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. However, when he observed his own industry, he realized the liberal media had completely missed their mission to give honest news. After years of sharing his observations and promoting more balanced reportings, Goldberg soon realized that no one listened because they believed they were doing the right thing. The liberal bias continued, therefore Bernard Goldberg decided to take the situation into his own hands and expose the distortion of the media himself. Goldberg’s breathtaking and shocking best seller book, Bias, reveals the close-mindedness of the news culture and their mission to entertain rather than share facts.

Robert J. Samuelson’s essay, “Picking Sides for the News,” details the problem of citizens only hearing the news that they want to hear through statistics. Samuelson begins his essay by giving the reader the opinion of Americans in regards to news being reported. He goes on to say that Americans are increasingly choosing to listen to news based on “partisanship,” meaning conservatives listen to Republican news and liberals listen to Democratic news. Samuelson highlights the fact that most Americans are starting to not believe what they hear in the news, partisan growth resulting because of the distrust. Samuelson concludes his essay by describing why the reader should care. He believes the reader should care because the media’s bias’ are shaping

In New Hampshire in 2016, President Trump said in regards to the news media that "They're scum. They're horrible people. They are so illegitimate.” Having been quoted multiple times referring to the journalists and reporters in a similarly negative manner, President Trump apparently has diminished the nation’s trust in the press. The Trump administration is also notorious for barring certain news organizations, from access to events. In response to blocking prominent news organizations, including CNN and The New York Times, from attending a question and answer session with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, NPR wrote that “the relationship between the Trump administration and the news media has taken another step backwards.” By excluding typically adversary news organizations and including typically supportive news organizations, some argue that the Trump administration is inhibiting freedom of the press and prohibiting the truthful spread of information. On the other hand, it can be argued that adversary news organizations may distort events and quotes, causing unnecessary confusion and misguided

Press: Stupid Love,” Dowd attempts, and succeeds, at painting the President as a narcissist who lives off of the media backlash. She writes, “Trump could not live without the press. It is his crack.” (Dowd). By comparing Trump’s love of the press to that of an addict to drugs, she is able to set a foundation for her opinion that will be continued throughout her piece. She follows up with a paradox concerning how even though the media has bashed him more times than not, the President does not shy away. “Maggie Haberman tweeted In January, ‘Trump has frequently complained about my reporting, yet he remains the most accessible politician I’ve ever covered.’” (Dowd). This paradox of complaining, yet wanting more to complain about, leads to even more of a clearly painted narrative of Trump’s

In one of the republican debates Ted Cruz called out the moderator for asking questions that had tendencies of liberal policies. He said “The questions asked in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media.”, a big round of applauses came right after he made the statement, which made a point . And conservatives got tired of being questioned with a liberal influence, so they made a move. Trump certainly had a lot of people behind him thanks to favors and gifts. And even if it wasn’t with gifts, speaking about Trump means ratings so a lot of outlets started covering more and more his steps. Stephen Hayes, a Fox News Special Report panelist, tweeted about it, he said, “The number of publicly pro-Trump pols/commentators who are privately anti-Trump or at least not at all pro-Trump? A really big number.” This represented money for the news organization and even if trump wasn’t for the ideology they tend to favor they would still emphasize it because it is profitable. So, during this presidential election, bias media was a very popular theme, but that should push people away from the

Often media broadcasters tend to lean to this side, therefore giving them the image of being liberally bias. Chris Mathews and Keith Oberman from MSNBC are two examples of broadcasters that have been accused of delivering their news with a liberal twist to it. Journalists tend to vote on the liberal side of situations, but still say that while they are on the job they only tell the news in the fairest way and the way that will be least offensive as well as respectful to who it will be presented. In many cases however, this report can come out with an oddly left sided tone (thatliberalmedia.com). Since 1991 when Katie Couric became co-host of NBC’s Today Show, she has used her powerful spot in the media to praise significant liberal figures such as Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter. At the same time however, Couric has never been shy about complaining about “right winged conservatives”

On the third, Trump tweeted “The rigged Dem Primary, one of the biggest political stories in years, got ZERO coverage on Fake News Network TV last night. Disgraceful!”. Trump attempts to show the extent of bias in the media exposing that they didn’t report a major event. This tweet has bias towards Trump’s personal agenda against the media. Additionally, Trump exposes the strength of the media’s gatekeepers and how greatly they can impact which issues are talked about.

In the documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism”, Fox News began as a seemingly innocent, right-winged, news channel, with the slogan “We Report. You Decide.” However, as time moved on from the first airing of the news channel, it was as if Fox had followed a more biased and corrupted route than what had been proposed. It primarily discusses how Fox News, and perhaps other popular media news outlets, have begun to actively misinform their viewers for personal or business gain. Originally, Rupert Murdoch, a news corporation CEO, was deemed as the overall instructor of what was to be represented on the Fox outlet. However, at the time of his ownership, the news outlet was said to have had “zero news value.” Therefore, as Roger Ailes, a former media strategist for several Republican presidential campaigns, joined, and inevitably took over the channel, Fox News began to “evolve” into something called “fair and balanced” news reporting. Unfortunately, “fair and balanced” was far from the truth. In fact, after several examinations performed by both journalists and former Fox News contributors, it was discovered Fox News had been continuously using sinister tricks, such as

In Bernard Goldberg’s book, he talks about how the media slants the news coverage to the left. While he was working at CBS he accused the station of

In regard to gathering information or transparency, the 2016 election process taught us that the mainstream media were no longer the watchdogs that we rely on for uncovering errors and wrongdoings by those who have power; ergo, journalists climbed into bed with those they are supposed to be watching. Apparently, many in the media are grappling with their own souls and journalistic integrity. Recently, Obama accused FOX News for the Democratic Presidential defeat stating that, “Fox news in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the

Reliance on the media for news and ideas has always been prevalent. Now, it’s not uncommon to switch on CNN to view the opinions of political commentators on a certain issue. But does the public know who those “political commentators” actually are and what they represent? This is where the term, “Media-Lobbying Complex” comes into play so the viewers can know the other interests of these frequent faces of opinion in the media, who hide behind the First Amendment to defend their opinions.

This is similar to the Fox News. During O’Reilly and Jeremy Glick’s talk, O’Reilly cannot endure Glick’s political view, which against his, so he stop the show and call security to take Glick out of the room. Also like the media in China (which all get control by the government), the Fox News only reports the positive news that will make the republican president look heroic and great. Since when, did freedom of speech die in the United States? And since when did the American citizen can’t no longer able to see and heard the

The national mass news media, including broadcast networks and newspapers, are increasingly unable to fulfill their traditional roles as government watchdogs because neither broadcast networks nor newspapers have as great as a reach. Before cable and the Internet, the president reached the national public through national media, which desired to appeal to audiences covering the partisan divide. The major media outlets controlled the flow of news from Washington and the president’s access to what Starr labels “channels of persuasion.” The White House was able to exercise leverage in its media relations through selectively leaking news and granting exclusive interviews. Presidents were able to use the media to reach abroad and reach the national public. Now, however, neither broadcast networks nor newspapers have the reach they once did. A growing percentage of people no longer regularly follow the news in any medium, while those who do the most tend to be sharply divided along ideological lines.