Since the tragic events of Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, the issue of gun control has resurfaced as a hot issue needing to be addressed by a government able to make changes that could mitigate the chance of a repeat tragedy. Gun control is an issue with a powerful lobby of support and also citizens that fall polarized on either side of the issue. As a result, in the news coverage of the current state of the issue, with the latest update being gun measures failing the senate by a margin of six votes, different media outlets while reporting on the same issue, do so in different ways. This essay analyzes the coverage of the issue and debate from Fox News, which has a reputation for a strong right wing slant
In analyzing the April 7th, 2013 article, “Background check plan defeated in Senate, Obama rips gun bill opponents” one begins to see some grounding in the reputation that Fox News denies about it being slanted one direction to the other. This comes through in the article in discussion. By looking at syntax choices in the headline and comparing it with Fox’s competitors, there is, in the very least a different between their coverage and other media houses.
Their word choice in the headline “defeated” imparts a level of finality, which the debate is over. This is the same choice of words that CNN chose in their coverage, issuing a headline “Senate defeats gun background check proposal.” ABC News, used drastically different choices of words in framing the gun-debate, running one story whose headline read, “Background Check In Peril” in senate. Consistent with that is the headline they ran to cover Background Check’s bills defeat in the senate, “Gun Control Loses: No Expanded Background Check.”
This framing seems more in support of the measure than Fox’s coverage where a close reading of the story in analysis is consistent with Fox’s reputation for conservative coverage. Fox, however, does not acknowledge any bias in their reporting and operates under the slogan “Fair and Balanced.” Also noteworthy is the choice of including Obama’s response in the headline saying that he “Rips” those who were opposed to the bill.
When reading the story, Fox’s coverage seems more similar to reading a sports story where there is a clear winner and loser, and where perhaps the writer, who remains anonymous in Fox’s coverage but not the other major network’s, seems to be philosophical in favor of the bill’s defeat. While the other major networks ran pictures of The Senate or lawmakers involved with the bill, Fox’s choice of pictures included a featured photo of a handgun in front of a random sampling of driver’s licenses.
The framing of the story and photo create a consensus before even the first word of the story is read that favors opponents of the gun bill and cast Obama and supporters of the bill as adversaries before even the first word is read.
The first paragraph is wrought with language biases saying the Senate defeated a “vital background check amendment” and that this was a linchpin to Democrat’s gun control bill. ABC news took a dramatically different approach to framing the story, writing that a “Sense of pessimism was settling” among supporters of the bill, and that despite an aggressive push from Obama and families of Newtown shooting victims, the bill fell short of it’s necessary votes.
Though the whole issue of gun control is currently a topic of relevant debate because of the December, 2012 shooting in Newtown, Fox News first mentions the tragedy by attaching a strong bias to it, saying that the opponents, which they make mention of the fact that a few were democrats, claimed that this type of legislation would “not have prevented” incidents like Newtown.
The Fox New article fleshes out by quoting Obama’s response, but instead of using neutral constructions like “Obama said in a speech,” their verb choice is “accuse” a strong verb that it could be said casts Obama as antagonist in the context of the story.
“ ‘All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said, accusing the gun lobby of lying about the bill.’” Whether or not the gun lobby did lie about the bill, was not elaborated upon in the article, despite it certainly being newsworthy and relevant, not least because the president of the United States is accusing a lobby of lying to the American people to advance its self-interests.
While other news articles point that this is one piece of legislation and others are on their way, citing Obama’s appeal to the American people not to forget about their passion for the issue, Fox News implies that the defeat will silence the issue. “It’s unclear where supporters will go from here,” they article goes on to say. Following is a very telling sentence of the whole article:
He said the claims "upset" some gun owners who in turn "intimidated" senators.
The use of quotations in this manner causes the speaker, in this case Obama, to seem insincere or dishonest. People put words in quotations in this manner when there is an overriding doubt as to the veracity of their statements. Whether or not claims (from the gun lobby) did upset people or intimidate lawmakers, the use of quotations marks makes the claim seem less credible than if they had been omitted.
The article contains four specific instances of stating claims for why the bill would not have functioned or been effective gleaned from opponent’s criticism of the bill, while the argument for contain no specific rational for why it was being proposed and what it hoped to do. While in ABC and CNN’s coverage there is some development of the bill in question, Fox’s coverage does not give readers much of an understanding of what the bill contains.
The Fox coverage contains another addition not listed in the major networks—an alternate narrative that explains the defeat outside of Obama’s pronouncement that it was the gun lobby lying and intimidating. They cite an AP-GfK poll that showed forty-nine percent of Americans support stricter gun laws, which they say is down fifty-eight percent from January, implying that the American people, who Obama said in his speech, were 90% in favor of the bill, are no longer behind the actions being proposed in the Senate.
Fox News, in this analysis, was consistent with its stereotype of being biased towards right-wing agenda. While there is nothing wrong with right wing values, the conflict enters when one considers who they claim to be and how they claim they do their news coverage. In the article analyzed here, Fox news took a defensive tone, citing and justifying why the bill was defeated and seemingly agreeing through rhetorical devices and framing with the opponents of it.
Works Cited
"Background Check In Peril In Senate - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/background-check-peril-senate/story?id=18978861#.UXFTuyvwKYk>.
"Background check plan defeated in Senate, Obama rips gun bill opponents | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/17/background-check-plan-in-trouble-as-dems-call-votes-on-gun-bill/>.
"Loaded language poisons gun debate - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/31/politics/gun-language>.
"Senate rejects expanded gun background checks - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/17/politics/senate-guns-vote/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29>.
"Senate rejects expanded gun background checks - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/17/politics/senate-guns-vote/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+Politics%29>.
leaders, agreement of Senate. "Gun Control Loses: No Expanded Background Checks - ABC News." ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-vote-nears-background-check-bill-peril-18975627#.UXFVMSvwKYk>.
