In our classes’ Right Vs Left comparisons I found it to be incredibly interesting that all groups found that conservative news outlets like Fox, Newsmax, Oann, had a distinguishably more diverse range of stories that seemed to cover them in a journalistic way. However, as many of us analyzed, each more conservative outlet did have a slant towards extreme right views and overall presented more-so like propaganda than news when considered holistically.
On the other hand when considering CNN, Los Angeles Times, and MSNBC the same could be said to the slant in news coverage. Overall, these stations tended to present the news in a more balanced way; however, the slant came from opinion pieces and choice of topics to present, rather than the specific writing.
Additionally, I found it interesting that my classmate from group 3 (MSNBC vs Newsmax) found both sites hard to follow unless you were already a politics junkie or ‘in the know’ about current events. This brings up a good point that the majority of folks don’t necessarily think in any particular slanted way, left or right, that news outlets should be educational and present information in an easily digestible way.
One news outlet that I wish that we compared is PBS because I believe that they do a good job in presenting informative balance reporting. But as we saw with the presentation analyzing CNN from group 2, which is supposed to be more center, they still had overtones of political ‘bias’ or slant to the content of their reporting.
Because I am a journalism major and I do watch a ton of news, one thing I look for in each news organization is how much they actually talk to both sides and how much they are able to reflect each voice in their reporting. A good example of this kind of thing is the recent interview by Michael Barbaro of Republican Representative Tim Burchett. At the end of his interview Burchett praised Barbaro for the conversation and fair questions. I personally think this is how both sides should leave a story or interview - feeling like they’ve been heard and also challenged to think in a meaningful way.
