Talk About the Unthinkable
Opinion: Today’s media news coverage approach; biased reporting, partisanship, and politics increase viewer frustration.
Author: t.DeAngelo
I’m going to communicate this in the most tactfully way possible, so no one gets offended. That is unless you’re a journalist working for a major news network. As you may have heard, there are two things we’re never to discuss, religion and politics. Well, I’m going to do the unthinkable, carefully I might add, talk about politics media. Because let’s face it, the media today, on both sides, have gone completely insane. Even when you Google, “unbiased” or “bipartisan media coverage,” you will find each side of the aisle has established or injected content aimed to convince the reader that each is less biased or more truthful than the other. Expand your search to social media, newspapers, or subscription media blogs, and you’ll find the same, it seems inescapable.
I’ll caveat, I know journalists that work for major Networks, maintain a system of ethics and integrity; however, I don’t see it in the final cut. So at what point did mainstream media evolve into the monster, it is today? What’s the driver behind, now, what appears to be an opinion based platform? Do viewers think it’s okay or acceptable to listen to each entity while they openly lash-out and bash anything that helps further push their narrative?
This article alone won’t answer all these questions; however, there may be a few solutions.
Driving my point, when did either network feel, it was okay to go from this:
To This:
From This:
To This:
Possible Solution(s)
“Credulous Boomer Rube demo that backs Donald Trump”; “Villain of the Day”!
I’m speechless. I’m not going to bring up religion now; however, I pray that I’m not the only one fed up with each network and news outlet cramming their agenda down my throat. I’m intelligent and would like to form my own opinion, and the job of the Journalist is to, well, I’ll copy and paste so you can develop your personal opinion; News Flash! Noun. A person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism. A person who keeps a journal, diary, or other records of daily events. So I pulled together a three-pronged approach to hopefully deal with the problem in hand. This approach may help get you closer to an objective point of view that may help you form your own opinion.
Avoid Unconscious Bias
The first approach, continue to receive routine and regular exposure from any of the network platforms; however, do so cautiously and avoid unconscious bias. Understanding that much of the content you watch, delivery intent is to push their respective narrative or agenda. It sounds a lot like a crazy conspiracy; however, many news outlets today are completely subjective versus objective and don’t attempt to hide it.
An article from Brown University describes the two as the following, “…the objective journalist includes no judgmental inclination in reporting an event. Subjectivity, on the other hand, is the opposite condition, of being located within one’s personal feelings and opinions.” Several years ago, I was able to delineate the two by identifying keywords easily. As an example, opinion-based keywords include “prefer”, “think”, “feel”, “should”, “best”. While Objective words include numbers, dates, and statistics. It’s difficult to delineate from the two now, simply because lying is the new norm.
My point is, each side clearly states their respective position on political party preference. To alleviate this and gain a general understanding of the actual event, be aware of the unconscious bias. Meaning, if you are watching CNN, don’t solely isolate and assume the report is to drive intent, but draw focus on the potential for the relevant context of information, sometimes hidden.
Digital Journalist
The second approach involves a little work. Here you need to become an analyst and sift through the data. The website, Allsides.com, is a reliable platform to do this. They also identify party affiliation with each network (can’t comment on the accuracy; however, I do question a few of the network affiliations). Examples below:
Economic Headlines Example
(L) CNN – Consumer prices rebounded in June, but that’s not the whole story
(C) CNBC – Gasoline, food boost U.S. consumer inflation in June
(R) FOX – Food, Energy Inflation Soars Amid Virus, Jobs Uncertainties
(L) Washington Post – The U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, but fierce new headwinds have emerged
(C) The Hill – Economy adds 4.8 million jobs in June, surpassing expectations as coronavirus lingers
(R) Washington Examiner – Economy added 4.8M jobs in June, before surge in coronavirus infections
Take away or personal opinion – I can say with certainty, the U.S. Economy added 4.8 Million jobs for June. It’s difficult to say exactly why, other than the most obvious reasons, in May, many states were reopening, and there was an uptick in CPI (Short-run Phillips curve). https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-map-coronavirus.html
Simple, straight forward analysis, maybe even common logic. It’s important to note, subjective consequences regarding “reopening” were highlighted in several Left reporting platforms. The highlight detracted from the actual event, in that jobs were added.
Market Index Reporting Example
(L) US News and World – Stocks Plunge in Worst Day Since March as Coronavirus Cases Rise
(R) New York Post – All three major US markets sink as investors fret over long recovery
Take away or personal opinion – Did the stock market take a bath, or is this merely Left or Right sensationalism? A closer look suggests, the market indeed took a bath.
New York Post, while I appreciate your glass-half-full optimistic outlook, why not use your opening sentence as the headline? “The Dow plummeted 6.9 percent on Thursday in its sharpest one-day decline…” Now I’m more informed on the health of my son’s Pokemon stock.
In summary, the research didn’t take me five minutes, but I was able to extract enough information to form, in my eyes, a rational and logical conclusion drawn from with very little bias. Now, stockmarket panel experts could challenge my opinion, but I don’t care, I got the information needed to scratch the itch and will continue to monitor Pokemon stock.
Dig Deep
As a final approach, I’m going to dig deep. I was foolish to think that right after the 2016 election things would simmer down and be back to normal, the opposite happened. There is a full out war happening, and it serves as a paradigm shift resulting in a new low on coverage. So what I’ll do is to continue to look for the most unbiased source, and while looking at the chart below, recommend you aim for the middle.
