With the recent presidential elections finally coming to an end, it’s crucial to analyze how news channels depict the presidential candidates and the biases that proceed. This information can help voters understand which news channels have inherent bias, and how to ensure the voter base is more educated. With this being said, this article will analyze news channels from both the left and right.
To preface, the news channels that will be analyzed are Fox News and CNN.
Right wing news outlets
The most popular right wing news outlet is Fox News. With one point three million people in the U.S streaming the network, it was consecutively the most popular republican news source from 2014 to 2021 (Mastrangelo 2021). Knowing that this news source is highly influential for the right winged demographic, it makes sense that they favor Trump. After the election, Trump was stated as a victorious man who finally received his justice, insinuating the previous election was stolen from him. Then when regarding Vice President Kamala Harris, they make it seem like she’s having a hard time believing he won, stating ‘she has yet to concede the race’ even though she had openly stated she would concede the race that next day at Howard University. They were not inherently lying about the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris had not conceded the race, but they made it seem like she was a ‘sore loser’ instead of it just being the case that she had planned to concede the argument later.
Left wing news outlets
CNN has been ranked the overall number one news platform consecutively for eight years, with one hundred and thirteen million viewers tuning in annually (CNN 2024). The portrayal of the elections through CNN was a stark contrast to Fox news. They mention Vice President Kamala Harris as level headed and accepting her term loss. They view Trump however, as ‘not fit for presidency’ bringing up impeachment and felony charges.
Fake news or altered news?
CNN and Fox news are great examples of ‘news with preference’. Both CNN and Fox news are guilty of not telling the full story. Trump has felony counts against him, and Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t announcing her acceptance to losing the race till later, but you won’t hear CNN and Fox news bring in both sides. Both news channels tell half the truth in order to support their preference. Although the facts being provided are not fake, they are stated without background knowledge or an understanding of what caused the fact. This may not be as bad as spitting out fake news, but it is leading our nation into a polarized society. A polarized society has harsh effects, leading to divided families, divided cities, and a divided country. This division historically has been the common denominator that starts civil wars. It’s crucial to understand what’s causing this division, the harm these divisions create, and how to solve this in order to maintain democracy. So, before jumping to conclusions, research and understand both parties, as well as the general reasons certain groups support certain parties.
