In today’s society, information is the new currency. Everyone is hungry for the latest news, and many news outlets use this to their unfair advantage, spewing false information to gain more views and ratings. This idea is often called “fake news”. What does fake news really mean? The Cambridge Dictionary defines fake news as “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke.” This idea is often used by political figures who want the public to stop watching a news station that is speaking out against them. However, a large part of “fake news” that is often overlooked is bias in the news.
Fox News, a more conservative news outlet was compared to MSNBC, which is mostly left wing. In general, Fox News normally gives praise to Republican President Donald Trump, while MSNBC is more likely to criticize him. The two outlets were compared on their coverage of the trial and nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The compared articles were found by searching “Kavanaugh” on MSNBC and Fox News’ politics pages. The article that was analyzed on Fox was titled “Political Fallout From Kavanaugh Investigation”, while the MSNBC article read was “New Reasons to Question Brett Kavanaugh’s Credibility Emerge.” Right away, the articles are different. As predicted, the Fox article shows Kavanaugh in a positive light, while MSNBC attempts to discredit him and prove him untrustworthy. NBC states that “the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News.” Fox however, attacks Rachel Mitchell, one of the accusers, instead. “The accuser had a story where it changed a lot in terms of when it happened, how it happened, the number of people. It showed that she had very serious problems with her short-term memory and her long-term memory, and it showed that she had actually said things that were in contradiction with each other” was one of the quotes used in the Fox transcript.
When searching “Trump” on these sites, the same results showed. In one of their news clips, MSNBC states that President Trump can not learn from the past, even stating his “incompetence”. Fox’s article on people blaming murders on President Trump urged journalists to confirm evidence before making accusations. These are starkly different, and someone who is uneducated in politics might easily be swayed to one side without knowing all of the facts. This is an issue that while being hard to solve due to freedom of the press, still has some potential solutions. This issue is a prominent one, shown by a study from Cornell University. The study found out that “There is systematic bias in the quoting patterns of different types of news sources.” from comparing quoting patterns in the news.
While this issue is hard to solve because of freedom of the press, news outlets should be strongly encouraged to share facts with their audiences. A potential solution to this issue would be a law that requires news outlets to state when an article or news program is biased or not. The proposed law would require all news articles that do not classify as biased or not would have to include facts. This would make sure that audiences will know if their media is biased, while not interrupting the freedom of the press that our country holds so dear. Without reform of broadcasted news, people will continue to have their opinions influenced by biased news outlets.
Works Cited
Niculae , Vlad, et al. QUOTUS: The Structure of Political Media Coverage as Revealed by Quoting Patterns. www.cs.cornell.edu/~cristian/Structure_of_Political_Media_Coverage_files/quoting_patterns.pdf
“Blaming Murders on Trump.” Fox News, FOX News Network, video.foxnews.com/v/5804084233001/#sp=show-clips.
“Presidential Historian: Trump Doesn't Learn from the Past.” MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/presidential-historian-trump-doesn-t-learn-from-the-past-1344958531592?v=raila&.
Benen, Steve. “New Reasons to Question Brett Kavanaugh's Credibility Emerge.” MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, 2 Oct. 2018, www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/new-reasons-question-brett-kavanaughs-credibility-emerge.
“Political Fallout from Kavanaugh Investigation.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 2 Oct. 2018, www.foxnews.com/transcript/political-fallout-from-kavanaugh-investigation.
“Definition of ‘Fake News’ - English Dictionary.” FAKE NEWS | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fake-news.
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