Media Bias And Its Public Influence

Do today’s media hold a biased opinion? Political figure heads of modern day America have argued the subject of a biased liberal media for decades. The notion of the media being predominantly liberal is not unheard of because since publicly broadcasted news media first became common, the Republican Party was not yet one to rival the Democrats. The core argument presented is the possibility of a liberal media manipulating the American public and thus influencing them to vote in congruence with the ways of the Democratic political party. Thus far it is simple to see the media clearly holds a bias that is in favor of the liberal viewpoint. I believe the media should not hold an opinion because, it comes through in their coverage and thus influences some of the American public to vote in a way in which they would not have otherwise.

Narratio:

The American public has historically believed anything they have seen in the media. This can be seen easily, not only through political news coverage but as well in other media programming. Further proof of liberal media control comes in the form of faulty broadcasting. Liberal programming, which constitutes most of the media today, deliberately leaves out crucial news that casts a tainted image and tarnishes the reputation of democratic politicians. Furthermore, these same newscasters that fail to report honest news are projected as preachers of political problems and are perceived as public icons in the eyes of the mindless masses of America. In addition to the newscasters being liberally biased, the newspapers and magazines are also in congruence, which clearly reflects a discrete liberal point of view; all the while plastering discriminatory images of republican politicians on the front covers of their magazines. Finally, in recent years, conservatives have been able to obtain a network free of liberal political bloggers.

Probatio:

Although the biased liberal media is force feeding their opinions into the mouths of the unassuming people of America, part of the problem lays in the American public themselves, and their ability to make their own decisions instead of taking everything in the media as fact. Page, Shapiro, and Dempsey found that “in television news commentary, a single story is associated with over 4 percentage points of opinion change” (Page, Shapiro, and Dempsey 1987 вЂ" in Jordan 196). Therefore, if a single story is responsible for 4 points of percentage change, than a 95 percent comprised liberal media has the potential to make crucial changes in public opinion in just a short amount of time. A simple 4 percent of change with a single story reflects how easily manipulated the American public is. In correspondence, “Research offers clear evidence that what is presented in the media influences the policy preferences of the American public” (Jordan 191). Therefore, since the American public is influenced by what is presented to them in the media, and the media presents a biased opinion in favor of the liberal point of view, then one can only conclude that the American public is absorbing this obscured perspective and implementing it as if it were their own.

As well as forcing their opinions upon the American public, liberal programming deliberately eradicates the discriminating information from their broadcasts to keep clean the slates of the politicians whom they so strongly support. Such allegations can be proven in the case of “David Chang, [who was] the [money] donor who admitted to five misdemeanor election-law crimes and one felony count of obstruction of justice, and obscure contributor” (Malkin 48). This news was buried deep inside a June 3 edition of New York Times (48), deliberately meant to keep to keep the liberal slate clean around election time. What is also interesting is the lack of attention this scandal received from the campaign-ethics mavens, who are so eager to set off alarms regarding any republican mishap (48). Furthermore, Chris Galloway states that in today’s media “Modern conflicts are increasingly battles over images and ideas, as protagonists [news casters] seek to shape audiences’ views by managing the information available through the media” (Galloway Abstract). So, in attempt to further influence and manipulate the American public in the way which they desire, it is clear that the liberal news broadcasts and newspapers alike will stop at nothing to shape this perfect image of the political candidate of the Democratic Party by managing the information available through the media.

When discussing political news casters of major political networks, Donald L. Jordan came to the conclusion that “actors or news sources do indeed have differential impacts on public opinion and that in both newspaper items and television broadcasts experts and commentators wield heavy influence” (Jordan 191). Accordingly, these news sources use this icon status they have developed to influence the American public. This can be seen everywhere today. Every famous face from the actor to the politician and even the musicians are using their popularity with the public to pressure their fan base into agreeing with their political standpoints. Furthermore, the political networks are projecting their political analysts as being all knowing expert of public affairs. Even more, Jordan found, “commentators and experts had potent, statistically significant impacts on public opinion” (194). As this can prove, the American public turns on their television to see these all knowing speakers and immediately jump on the band wagon. As seen in the statistics one story goes a long way, especially if getting told from the same standpoint on 95 percent of the channels. David P. Baron hit the nail on the head when he stated that “interest groups seek to influence public sentiment and do so by advocating their position through the news media” (1). And the American public isn’t helping to stop this influence when they place the political analyst on a pedestal as if they are some kind of hero.

Not only is it the politicians on the news networks projecting their political viewpoints into the minds millions, but so are the newspapers and magazines that are pushing this liberal favoritism into our hands. It was Robert Bresler who noticed that “If you look at the major magazines such as Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's, they all reflect a distinctive liberal perspective” (13). Again, it is seen that liberal news coverage allows only one side to receive a fair hearing, and thus it is the American public that is left to suffer. Furthermore,