When Reporting the News becomes a Political Statement

Katie Gold

kg094517@ohio.edu

Over the last decade, political polarization has transformed the political landscape of the United States. Political polarization can be seen in the movement towards political policy extremes by both of the major parties in the US, especially over the last decade. This polarization has inevitably had major consequences and has led especially the media to be called into more scrutiny than ever before. Former President Donald Trump started his crusade against the media when he began running for office as a core tenet of his campaign, openly calling for the delegitimizing of major media outlets. His painting of the media as corrupt, illegitimate, fake, and against him has been a catalyst towards damaging public trust in journalistic foundations. 

The Daily Illini

Due to the inflammatory rhetoric from the former President, his supporters actively took to heart his message that the media is biased and against the former President when oftentimes, the media was simply doing their job in reporting the news. Pew Research Center found that much of the disconnect between the Democrats and Republicans can be boiled down to news media, citing "the two sides place their trust in two nearly inverse media environments". In turn, disregarding news that they seem is not positive towards their own views. 

Living through the Trump administration and its fallout with my extremely conservative extended family revealed to me firsthand the damage that the former President is responsible for in terms of media distrust. So often, I'll post an article online and a parade comments claiming the articles are from an untrustworthy source fill my notifications. And even more frustrating, my Facebook feed is filled with relatives and family friends fighting in newspaper comment sections over the bias in their coverage, or post about how the media 'hates the president' because they refuse to write anything positive about him. But what is perhaps most concerning is that simply reporting what is happening politically, good or bad, is seen as a political statement by journalists by so many on the far-right. 

However, this assumed bias due to the majority of reporting being about one person, or party isn't new. A Media Matters Report found that major media sources cited Republicans 2.5 times more from May-June of 2020, but this study result is typical when looking at the makeup of the government and where the power is, which at that point was still 2/3 controlled by Republicans. 

The reality of how so many imply bias by just reporting the daily news leads me to wonder if there is anything any public official, newspaper, or journalist can help heal. The damage has been on the back burner for years, and the Trump era has exacerbated this implied political bias in just reporting the news. The writing off of news and news sources due to perceived bias in reporting is dangerous to our society, but as journalists, we must not let this potential viewed bias from others get in the way of reporting the truth and holding those in power accountable, no matter their party.