Media Bias and Fake News Essay

Media bias has been a problem for a long time to a point that the media are taking sides on social and political matters. It is important to address the predicament that is media bias because media that is not free can be the source of other bigger problems such as war. Some of the major causes of media bias media bias may include the need to publish the best selling stories and relatively low-pay for journalists. Reporters are at the helm of groups of people involved in perpetrating media bias. The media can try to address this problem by paying its journalists well and scrutinizing the possible effects of their publications. There have been numerous instances of media bias over the years from media channels such as "the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post" (Calderone 6). Some of the biased media are major news channels thus people may choose to believe the news they report even though they may be biased.

An article was published by "the New York Times on the 22nd February 2016, titled Analysts Question Viability of Deep Tax Cuts Proposed by Republican Candidates" (The National Interest 1). The article's allusion was "none of the Republican candidates has said how he would offset the revenues lost to his tax cuts, beyond unspecified cuts to domestic programs and repeals of some existing tax breaks,"(The National Interest 1), even though they have proposed tax steep reduction in taxes. The argument was compelling, except that it was completely untrue. Carson's proposal concerning tax reforms was already available in January of the same year. In the tax proposal, he had prepared a plan of how spending would be cut, detailing specifically the type of information the New York Times was claiming missed from his plan (Swift 3). The date of the publication of the New York Times article coincided with his release of the plan. Prior to publication of the article, Carson's campaign management made the reporter aware that a policy plan was available and publication of the article was unnecessary (Swift 5). However, the reporter ignored their plea and went ahead to publish the article. Regrettably, failure on the part of the reporter to heed the words of Carson's team led to a publication of a fake story. The whole scenario was perfect example unprofessionalism by reporters. A lack of apology on the part of the Times' further illustrated how biased they were as a news outlet. Such news may have had a negative impact on Carson's presidential bid because many people choose to believe the New York Times as an established media outlet.

CNN was also involved in another instance of being biased in a report on November 8, 2015. The CNN claimed that Carson's autobiography was questionable because there was no way to authenticate the events in the autobiography. Some of the acts discussed by Carson in the autobiography concerning his youthful days were brought into focus. One of them was an instance where "he stabbed a friend as a 14-year-old" (The National Interest 2). The CNN reported that the violent act "was at the core of Carson's story of redemption and personal growth" (The National Interest 2). The reporters claimed to have interviewed nine of Carson's childhood friends, neighbors, and classmate but none of them seemed to recall any such violent act. The CNN did not take into consideration the fact that Carson's entire universe was not only made up of the nine interviewees only. Unfortunately, the CNN did not conduct detailed research before questioning the story. Days later, one of Carson's former colleagues at the John Hopkins Hospital came into the limelight to defend the integrity of Carson (Anand 6). He admitted that he had knowledge of the story from way back when they were colleagues. He made it clear that Carson had narrated the story way before he had any ideas of running for president thus there was no way the story was a way of redemption. The CNN could have uncovered facts about the stabbing but it was too fast to slander Carson. The media channel ended up being biased on the basis that it fuelled a false narrative Carson after only investigating partially the life of the candidate. Therefore, distortion of facts by the media outlet may have led the public to believe that Carson was lying in his autobiography.

Another instance of media bias was a 3,300-word obituary that was published on 7th March 2016 by Lois Romano of the Washington Post (Student's News Daily 1). The obituary massively slandered Nancy Reagan, former U.S first lady, even though Lois made an attempt to praise the legacy of her husband. Lois Romano wrote in the obituary: "As the first lady from 1981 to 1989, Mrs. Reagan had a knack for inviting controversy-from her spending habits to her request that the White House abide by an astrologer when planning the president's schedule" (Student's News Daily 1) Romano did not bother to acknowledge in the obituary that Reagan was ranked first among America's "most admired women in the Year 1981" (Anand 10). She maintained a top 10 ranking in the ranking throughout Reagan's presidency. Romano's publication was more of a slander on Nancy Reagan's past and than an actual obituary. She showed her dislike of Reagan when she allowed her personal opinions about Reagan to form the major part of the obituary. The Washington Post gladly published the obituary, thus making it evident how the media have become biased. People may have chosen to believe the fake news despite being biased because some of the facts were true but they had been greatly exaggerated.

Conclusion

Overall, there have been numerous instances of media bias over the years from "media channels such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post" (Calderone 6). The Media's need to publish the best selling stories is the main reason why fake news is being thrown at the public. The media should try to address this problem by warning its reporters of the consequences of biased reporting. There is still the problem of the media favoring certain political parties which need to be addressed. All these problems need to be addressed by the media because they can lead to public animosity against the media.

Works Cited

Anand, Bharat N. "The U.S Media's Problems Are Much Bigger than Fake News and Filter Bubbles." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 5 January 2017, PP. 1-10. Business Source Premier. Accessed 27 January 2018

Calderone, Michael. "Journalists Need to Better Explain What Journalists Do. Including Me." Nieman Reports, vol. 70, no. 4, Fall 2016, pp. 6-45. Small Business Reference Center. Accessed 27 January 2018.

Student News Daily. Washington Post Slams Nancy Reagan in Obituary. [online] Available at: https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/example-of-media-bias/washington-post-slams-nancy-reagan-in-obituary/, 9 March 2016, PP. 1-2, Accessed 27 Feb. 2018.Swift, Art. "Six in 10 in the US See Partisan Bias in Media." Gallup News Service, 5 April 2017, PP. 3-5, EBSCOhost. Accessed 27, January 2018.

The National Interest. The Truth about Media Bias at CNN and the Times. [online] Available at: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-truth-about-media-bias-cnn-the-times-18581, 1 December 2016, PP. 1-2, Accessed 27 Feb. 2018.