The Biased Media

The Biased Media

In America we value the freedom of the press. The press is the one place where most Americans go to get educated on issues facing their community, state, and most of all nation. Everyone knows that the media plays a major role in Americans' lives; however their role of gatekeeper is not completely understood. The press decides which issues to report and how to report them. In order to improve the nation and world, the media should present their unbiased findings to allow people to make up their own minds. However, this is not the case. The media often shows its bias. Their widespread exposure enables them to communicate their ideas to the public, regardless of the public's responsiveness. The elections of officials for the federal government during the late 20th century serve as prime examples of their bias. An analysis of surveys, media delivery, and reporter's testimonies, I have found that the media is actually more out of touch with mainstream America than the politicians they cover.

The media affects American interest towards politics by only showing the people what they want them to see. Even if there are many issues in a campaign, the media will focus on the one's they believe to be the most important. Other issues maybe completely ignored. Hence people become interested only in certain areas of politics since they hear about them very often. There is usually a much greater turnout when voting for the president than voting for a Senator. This is mainly because the media covers a presidential race much more closely.

Americans focus on what the media frequently shows us rather than the little heard of issues of greater importance. A large number of people do not follow local elections mainly because they do not hear about it on the six o'clock news. I think that many Americans do not even know their Senators' or House Representatives' name. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to find someone who does not know anything about the recent presidential election. Everyone knows about the Florida ballot disputes only because the media has placed so much emphasis on them.

There is so much media coverage in politics today that in order to be elected one must be appealing to the public. Years ago the only way people could find out about candidates and the issues they stood for was by reading a newspaper or listening to the radio. Today, anyone can turn on the television or go to a web site on the Internet and see the candidates themselves talking about their issues. With almost all American homes having at least one television, a candidate must possess a good personality, plans and ideas. Now, more than ever Americans place excessive importance on appearance. This means that a candidate has to appear successfully, competent and inspire confidence. When was the last time a president was elected based on appearances? It was probably in the 1800's with the election of Abe Lincoln. History shows what a great president he was. It sounds very superficial, but unfortunately this is true of our society. Candidates have to appeal to the public as much as possible, and appear comfortable on camera. However a candidate's appearance is not the only thing that plays a major role in getting them elected.

In 1984, the nation's economy was booming, most people were happy with their leader, and Ronald Reagan was up for reelection. Reagan had previously helped the nation cope with a recession, and had been in office when American hostages were released. With things going so well one wonders why anyone would oppose this popular conservative leader. However, former Vice President Walter Mondale disenchanted with the way things were going, ran for and received the Democratic nomination. Immediately, the press had found their new man. He was going to be the one to cut defense spending, to increase the reach of the government, and to make sure the government was there to consistently support the poor. In order to do this, at the 1984 Democratic Convention, Walter Mondale announced that he would raise taxes on the American people. The people were outraged, conservatives went wild, and the press sat quiet, leaving their criticism to a minimum. They were not as bothered by this news as one would think. Perhaps they were supportive of Mondale because, they thought taxes needed to be raised in order to help with the debt caused by new government programs and the rising costs of current ones. If this were the case then one would expect them to praise a conservative such as George Bush when he raised taxes in response to pressure from a Democratic Congress. Instead, they only pointed out that he had gone back on a promise, and refused to admit that what he did was put the economy on the road to becoming the strong system it is today. As for Reagan, when Election Day finally came around, the president had been reelected with 59% of the popular vote, and carried 49 states. He only lost Mondale's home state, and even that by a small margin. Despite the large majority that Reagan won with, he received no help from the White House Correspondents. Out of ten of these correspondents surveyed, all ten voted for Mondale while zero voted for Reagan (US News & World Report). At a time when the American people were clearly united, the media went against the mainstream and voted for the liberal. The American public was backing Reagan's policies, but the media was not.

Every morning and night, people turn on their televisions to be informed of what is going on in their country. Instead of getting the simple facts in reporting, they receive the media's personal spin. Many Washington reporters do not simply come out and say they are in favor of a certain policy, yet they deliver information in a way which makes the alternative appear absurd. "The new Republican majority in Congress took a big step today on its legislative agenda to demolish or damage government aid programs, many of them designed to help children and the poor," reports Dan Rather (Liberal Bias). After hearing such words as "demolish," the average American automatically believes that what the Republicans are doing is harmful to society. Instead of reporting that Congress repealed some government programs, or trimmed spending, the media insisted on sensationalizing the news and making it seem as if the Congress was evil. Not to mention when the public turns out to support a conservative view, the media then works to lessen its importance and appeal. One example is the Republican victories in Congress in 1994. When reelection time came up, and Bob Dole was running for president, the media played down the sweeping reforms that took place at the hands of Congress: the welfare reform, the lobbyist