Media Bias

Recently, I posted a link on social media to a CNN article critical of the former president to which a Fox News loyalist and devoted Trump follower objected. The response was “Of course CNN would report something like that!”. My immediate thought was “Of course Fox News would not report something like that!”.

Media bias is often misunderstood, with a common misconception being that outlets like CNN or Fox News simply fabricate stories. While talk show pundits like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, or Rachel Maddow may encourage rumors by devoting extensive airtime to debunked topics such as Barack Obama’s birthplace, widespread voter fraud, or the Steele dossier, outright fabrication in news reporting is actually quite rare.

Selective coverage — reporting on certain events, while ignoring, or minimizing, others — is the most common form of media bias.

For example, Fox News devotes considerable coverage to racial unrest, particularly if violence is involved, but very little coverage to threats and incidents involving right-wing extremism. While most major news networks broadcast the congressional hearings on the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, Fox News offered minimal coverage, with Sean Hannity describing the hearings as “dull” and “boring”.

In addition to ignoring newsworthy stories in their entirety, the omission of details is also a form of media bias. For example, when the Trump Administration initiated direct talks with the Taliban in an effort to end the war in Afghanistan, CNN coverage of this development included the fact that Trump was critical of Obama’s earlier attempts to negotiate with the terrorist organization, declaring that they were a sign of weakness. In contrast, Fox News portrayed Trump as bold and pragmatic in his outreach to the Taliban, without any mention of Trump’s about-face on the subject.

Another, more subtle, form of media bias exists in word choices, such as the use of “protest” versus “riot,” “Affordable Care Act” versus “Obamacare,” or “COVID-19” versus the “China Virus.” I describe this type of bias as “subtle” because viewers of partisan news outlets often become so accustomed to the subjective language that they are oblivious to the influence on their worldview. In a not-so-subtle example, Tucker Carlson described the congressional hearings into the January 6 capitol insurrection as “propaganda” and “a waste of time”.