Within the article, Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity by CQ Researcher, it is discussed as to whether media coverage is biased within the United States, particularly in the realm of political parties and their affiliates. While this argument does sound outlandish to many, if one were to grow up in one of the more liberal parts of the United States that does not follow Fox News religiously, they would see a clear pattern of news programming both on the liberal and conservative side that tends to favor United States politics rather than relevant international issues, domestic policies, and cultural interest pieces that used to be standard in news programming within the United States. The article makes an important distinction as to when the politically based programming began with the requirements instated by the government’s decision to abandon the Fairness Doctrine that required bi-partisan reporting and the presentation of opposing views, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). Since this decision the American news media has become a medium that blurs the lines of factual reporting to receive a partisan bias, which has called into question ideas such as media being a threat to democracy, fact checkers compromising their results for political effect, and all news channels being dangerously political in the far right or far left, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013).
In regards to the first allegation of blurring the factual lines of reporting in order to achieve the desired political slant, this practice has actually become commonplace in the American media, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). What Americans fail to realize with this drastic shift in the press is that losing control of the media is one of the first steps to losing the power of having a democracy. Many think that the nation is trying to influence these news stations to brainwash American minds to one end of the spectrum or the other, rather than having more than two political parties, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). The article argues against the dangers of this sort of reporting and how the time since 1987 has forced many news stations to become victims of only reporting one side of the issue rather than both sides of the argument, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). The detriment to this in American society is that now the country has a great deal of ignorant citizens who are not being given relevant reporting that exists in many foreign jurisdictions receive relating to culture, international issues, and political debates that are not biased.
The article highlights the potential for fact checking quality standards to be far more lenient then they have been in prior years, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). While this is a bold statement to make, it does ask many pertinent questions as to where our biased reporters are getting their sources and whether those sources are in fact entirely factual. What is alarming about this debate is that since the media has so much power within the United States and only a couple of channels control, the facts are the essence of the reporting. This is precisely why the author highlights the fact checking practices as a means for the media to remain pure in the United States and not compromised as it is in so many parts of the world that are under dictatorships, for example.
The article additionally highlights the danger of the reporting being too far to the left or right, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). This issue is not only prevalent in media reporting in the United States, but also in elections. The reason for this is that the divide between the Republican and Democrat parties is becoming too combative, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). Americans see this in elections and also how Congress interacts and fails to get important objectives passed based on the party divide, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). For this reason, the article expresses concerns on how all of this hostility is going to affect the media in coming years, which is an entirely valid point to make because the media becomes even more combative towards the right or left everyday.
All in all, the author does a great job in attempting to remain neutral on this heated subject matter. That being said, there was a section of the article that discussed how Democrats were being portrayed in a negative manner by Republicans, which makes it likely that there is a hint of bias in this article, (“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” 2013). What would have been more effective would have been to leave the Democrat and Republican debates out of the article and present a more uniform front about the facts of biased reporting in the United States. This way, the issues are presenting, but there is not a part of the Table of Contents dedicated to Republican bashing. It is through this process that the divide between the political parties becomes worse and then the media, in turn, over dramatizes the issues between the parties making for an even more volatile situation. It will be fascinating to see how the American media transforms in the coming years to the implementation of digital media through the Internet in combination with the traditional news channel aspect of reporting.
References
“Media Bias – Is Slanted Reporting Replacing Objectivity?” CQ Researcher. 3 May 2013. Web. 3 July 2016.
