Media Bias CNN and FOX News on the Healthcare Debate - Research Paper Example

?Client’s Criss English 102 22 July Hundreds of thousands of people watch news channels on a daily basis. These people start believing in what they see on these news channels. The views presented by the presenters are often enough to sway the people. It is an ideal way of controlling the minds of the people; their independent thoughts get swayed when they watch these news channels. Media bias can be of many types. It could be advertising bias which means slanting to please the advertisers, it could be mainstream bias which refers to reporting only those stories which are being reported on other main networks, it could be corporate bias which means selecting particular stories which would please only the corporate honchos of the media industry or it could be sensationalism which means showing the exceptional much above the ordinary for instance, making the viewers believe that airplanes crashes happen very frequently and they are as frequent as automobile crashes. There have been efforts made to correct bias but significant results are yet to be seen. This paper will shed light upon the slant of Fox news and CNN during the 2008 presidential election, how these trusted news channels present their biased perspectives will also be analyzed in this paper. Barrack Obama has been very critical of Fox news for more reasons than one, the President of the United States has even excluded the news channel from participating in his press conferences, it is also known that the President wants the other big media outlets to cut all their ties with Fox news because he thinks the channel fabricates the news and is biased in more ways than one. It is implausible to find negative articles about McCain and Palin and it is implausible to find positive articles about Obama on Fox news. Their website has had its own share of flak from the Obama administration. The channel has received flak on a no of occasions for unfair reporting. Fox news has become faux news because the news shown on the channel is either fake or has bias. “A more accurate statement is that Fox News does actually report on all news: You'll find negative McCain and Palin coverage on the site and in the story archive. What they don't do is feature it as prominently or for as long on their homepage when they do post these stories, and they keep negative coverage on Obama on their homepage for as long as possible.” (Faux News) There have been a series of controversies that Fox news has been involved in and many believe that a reputed news channel would never face so many controversies, the channel has been accused of having a pro-republican bias and a documentary by the name outfoxed proves the very same fact. Keeping all these facts in mind one must be aware of the fact that the channel does not make any attempt of presenting stories and events as they really are, they fabricate and add their perspective to these stories and events. The 2008 presidential election was no different, the channel did their best to defame and criticize Obama who after becoming the President got back with the same animosity and hostility. The website would often leave their homepage as it is which would contain defaming information about Obama. “Discussing the 2008 campaign for the presidency, Sammon said, "I have to admit that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched." (Is Fox News' Sammon a 'mischief' maker?) The channel has already lost its journalistic integrality and it is believed that they attack everyone and anyone who refuse to believe in their ideology. CNN on the other hand has been accused of having a pro-democrat bias. The channel hardly criticizes democrats and this has been seen on several occasions. The president was also racially abused on several occasions, several channels tried their best to defame and criticize him, in-spite of that he came out victorious. CNN has been accused of supporting Obama out and out, in the debates which were held prior to the 2008 elections the hosts of CNN consistently praised Obama, they supported him and hardly criticized him whereas an unfair channel would have presented the news and their analysis in an unbiased fashion. McCain on the other hand was consistently criticized by the presenters on CNN, the first time he was criticized for his pronunciation when the presenters were analyzing how the candidates fared in the debate. These are classic examples of bias and how leading channels favor some candidates and how the same impacts a nation, countless people must have watched that show and after watching it, they would have been easily swayed towards Barrack Obama and how he can transform the country into something better. “Such bias has been widely documented, both internationally and within the United States (Groseclose and Milyo 2005). Concern about bias has played a prominent role in many policy debates, ranging from public diplomacy in the Middle East (Satloff 2003; Peterson et al. 2003) to ownership regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (Cooper, Kimmelman, and Leanza 2001).” (Media Bias and Reputation) The constant portrayal of McCain as less intelligent than he really is heavily favored Obama, CNN’s coverage had every indication that suggested Obama was a safe choice and that’s how the people were convinced and the results are in front of everyone to see. Following is a statement which proves bias displayed by a presenter on CNN. “He got most of the vowels and consonants right though and it can be a little complicated (laugh)” (Politics and Media) In this particular case John McCain is being made fun of, he mispronounced the name of Pakistan’s Prime Minister, this clearly goes to show how the presenter is trying his best to portray McCain less intelligent than he really is. This also means that Obama is being favored and that people are being led to believe that Obama is the best choice and McCain who can’t even pronounce a name properly can never match the intelligence of Obama. Much has already been written about Fox news and their credibility in this paper, “So to claim that bias by Fox News means it is not a legitimate news organization is not a valid argument. If so, then there are no legitimate news organizations. For years conservative American's have decried Fox News' major competition, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, as being biased towards a liberal viewpoint. Independent research backs up the liberal bias claim.” (Truth is Reason) The presenters shift focus when a guest speaker tries to criticize the person who they have been asked to support. The changing of object at the expense of another person is a very common trick used by the channels and their presenters. On numerous occasions during the 2008 elections this happened on CNN and Fox. Conclusion The paper shed light upon how CNN and Fox have their own philosophies, both the channels showed bias towards one candidate or the other during the 2008 elections, Fox tried their best to defame Obama and faced the consequences, Obama after becoming the president stopped giving interviews to Fox because they constantly made up stories and fabricated news before the elections, he was even racially insulted on Fox and many other leading channels, CNN on the other hand went all out to support Obama, the presenters used shifting the object technique on numerous occasions to protect the current president. Fox news is being called faux news because their reputation has been tarnished, they have been involved in far too many scandals, CNN on the other hand is much more trusted than their counter-part. “Recently the network debuted a weekly half-hour series--Only on Fox--devoted explicitly to right-wing stories. The concept of the show was explained by host Trace Gallagher in the premier episode.” (The Most Biased Name) These were some of the examples of the conspicuous bias shown to hundreds of thousands of viewers on Fox; bias on CNN has also been comprehensively presented in this paper. It is very important for the people in the United States to realize that they are surrounded by news channels which try and misguide them, they should never get swayed and try their best to use their minds before making important decisions. Works Cited Cooper, Mark, Gene Kimmelman, and Cheryl Leanza. 2001. “Comments of Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Civil Rights Forum, Center for Digital Democracy, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Media Access Project.” Comments before the Federal Communications Commission (December). http://www.consumersunion.org/telecom/fccdc1201.htm. “Faux News.” Fox’s Uneven Coverage. n.p., Web. 21 July. 2011. Groseclose, Tim, and Jeffrey Milyo. 2005. “A Measure of Media Bias.” Q.J.E. 120 (November): 1191–1237. “Is Fox News' Sammon a 'mischief' maker?” Political Ticker. n.p., Web. 21 July. 2011. “Media Bias and Reputation.” American Troops Fought a Battle, University of Chicago. n.p., Web. 21 July. 2011. “Politics and Media.” Who Sets the Agenda? n.p., Web. 21 July. 2011. Satloff, Robert. 2003. “Rethinking Public Diplomacy in the Middle East.” Weekly Standard, August 18. “Truth is Reason.” Freedom of the Press. n.p., Web. 21 July. 2011. “The Most Biased Name.” Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt. Web. 21 July. 2011. Read More