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When one looks at the modern world, what is the first thing they see? Prosperity. Large, tall buildings that reach the clouds. Farmlands that stretch as far as the eye can see. People moving, interacting, spending, even ruling. However, just like some old tale, a book isn't always like it's cover. When one looks deeper into our society, they may find corruption, racism, sexism, homophobia, and the list goes on. All these people, all of these different minds and personalities, it proves that there was bound to be some bad. Yet, many seem to point fingers at the media for facilitating this behavior.
The root of this issue lies within politics, with most media aligning their content based on party affiliation. One side says something is racist so the other side says it's not a big deal nor racist, so that makes the others angry and the endless cycle of vengeance rages on. The media isn't innocent though, don't get the wrong idea. Some extremist media is the reason many people think the way they do. But most underestimate other's abilities to think for themselves, at least this is what I believe in my own personal research (Scrolling through Twitter fights between real people of different beliefs).
Political bias plagues our world. The general population feel compelled to choose a side because of the political party system George Washington once warned us about. In wake of this, our media has underlying corruption, most of the time to benefit a certain political agenda. To confirm my point, I pulled two articles from popular news sources about recent events that occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin where a 17 year-old named Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people. The only difference between the two is that both are viewed as extreme right, or extreme left bias.
The first article was published by CNN on Aug. 31, 2020. The headline reads, "Trump refuses to denounce violent actions by right-wing agitators". Left-leaning news have a tendency to attack President Trump, and is often seen as condemable by right-wing voters and drives the divide even further apart. I believe that this schism is what destroyed the fourth estate, and continues to destroy it to this day through feeding more and more people the idea of media distrust. The second article comes from FOX News, published on Aug. 27, 2020. The headline reads, "Suspected teen gunman Kyle Rittenhouse spotted cleaning Kenosha graffiti before shooting". To left-wing viewers, this article headline looks like FOX News trying to justify this killer as the good guy.
My main takeaway from all of this? Ethics in political journalism have been all but thrown out the window. There are very few completely unbiased news sources for politics in America, due to the pressure from outside the tank, and a couple of toxic sharks breaking the operation from the inside. Media outlets lost sight of reporting the news somewhere along the way, and if I had my complete guess (emphasis on the no-evidence-whatsoever factor) I would say that there may be some political figureheads pulling strings behind the scenes. Either way, when you stoop so low to call corruption, you can confirm that ethics at the very least, are long gone.
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| Picture sources: FOX News and CNN |
My main takeaway from all of this? Ethics in political journalism have been all but thrown out the window. There are very few completely unbiased news sources for politics in America, due to the pressure from outside the tank, and a couple of toxic sharks breaking the operation from the inside. Media outlets lost sight of reporting the news somewhere along the way, and if I had my complete guess (emphasis on the no-evidence-whatsoever factor) I would say that there may be some political figureheads pulling strings behind the scenes. Either way, when you stoop so low to call corruption, you can confirm that ethics at the very least, are long gone.
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