In 2011, Donald Trump claimed, according to liberal media outlets, such as The New York Times or NPR, that women who have abortions should be punished. A few months ago, CBS News, another liberal-leaning news source, rehashed this information in light of the heated election this fall, highlighting Trump as a “raging misogynist.” By contrast, Fox News, a conservative media outlet, was quick to write an article bashing pro-choice advocates and other liberal outlets who attempted to defame Trump, claiming that Trump never even made the statement.
More recently with the endorsement of Kamala Harris, her past as the District Attorney of California came to the attention of several conservative outlets. Fox News in particular claims that Harris is to blame for “rampant crime” in California, highlighting potential negative consequences if she were to be president. On the other hand, liberal outlet Vox claims that there is much more to the story, and even champions Harris on her program to keep people out of jail and provide an opportunity for a better life.
So, what’s the real truth?
Misinformation is completely unprofessional and goes against the main goal of journalism: to share information that is accurate and factual. Are journalists spreading misinformation out of pure incompetence or are they trying to skew facts out of their own resentment for the other side? Either way, journalists should not be sharing biased information as news.
Oftentimes, news outlets will provide political commentary or reactions to new polls, events, or even debates. But, when they post it on their websites, it’s incorrectly labeled as news. In the “reporting” subsection of liberal-leaning CNN’s politics section, their newest article about Trump’s remarks to prosecute election officials seems to be more of commentary.
Whether it is the diction of the headline, or the overall belittling tone they use to describe Trump’s claims, CNN’s reports are far from factual. A lot of other big media outlets are getting away with this, too.
Additionally, news broadcasting networks often share data or graphs that are openly biased. Lately, outlets have been doing mock elections, but their results have been extremely skewed.
On September 8, Fox News posted an article showing data from The New York Times and Siena College. Fox News falsely claimed that Trump is holding a strong lead over Harris, adding that Harris is still struggling to find needed support, even after her boost of online support this August. According to the actual poll and headline from The New York Times, both Trump and Harris are neck and neck, with 48% supporting Trump and 47% for Harris. Even if Trump is 1% above Harris, the headline is misleading, and can cause some voters to interpret the data.
Data can be confusing, and it’s up to journalists to try to simplify it for readers, especially to support a claim. But when it’s completely biased and misinterpreted, it causes an outlet’s reliability score, determined by non-partisan outlet Ad Fontes Media, to go down.
Additionally, media outlets, such as The Onion, which is openly satirical, will frame political stories in a serious light, and readers will interpret it as real news, simply because it is too close to real news headlines. For example, their headline, “Stammering Democrats Unsure How to Accept Positive Feedback” may look like a normal article readers might find on a right-leaning media source. But, if readers aren’t careful about what they’re reading and where they get it from, they may get extremely skewed information.
Since journalists have become untrustworthy, readers need to be able to accurately identify potential bias, and should fact check the information themselves regardless of the news source.
A reliable source to identify specific media outlets with bias would be AllSides, which allows voters to view which side of the political spectrum your news source falls on, and presents a left, right, and center source for each topic. And although more time consuming, researching issues will help readers become accurately informed, especially if they’re voting.
No matter what information you are looking for regarding politics, even spending at least 10 minutes a day on AllSides, rather than your go-to biased news app or scrolling aimlessly on the way to school, will be beneficial to getting accurate information and becoming a well-informed civic citizen.
The County Chronicle strives to be a source of reliable information, backing up assertions with multiple sources and keeping things clear, concise, and unbiased.
