Those who oppose liberal media bias believe this is not the truth; they have a different opinion on the issue of bias by omission in the media. A number of conservative Americans have recently suggest that the media are choosing one side over the other, and leaving unwanted facts out to improve or support their personal beliefs. However, this is not true, the media is reporting information and stories based on the media board’s feelings and opinions on the issue at hand. As previously discussed, an example of bias occurring was the 2017 presidential election. When discussing positive and negative media effects on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaign. Patterson acknowledges the opposing side in his article: “News reports on her policy positions trended negative by a ratio of 4 to 1” (Patterson par. 5). This is showing the blatant favoritism of Trump in the news and that during this time in the election Hillary was less favored. Patterson was showing readers proof of Hillary’s negative media. Patterson as well as current society want their points to be supported. Society today is looking at the media in this light. In the article, “Will the Media Be Crushed?” Bayles also addresses the opposing side by stating, “Much of the media -- not all of it -- is very, very dishonest. Honestly, it's fake news” (Bayles qtd. in par. 1). Bayles quotes the current President of the United States, discussing the fallacies and untruths of the media. Patterson pointed out how obvious the unfairness was during this time. The media was in favor of Trump; therefore, the media covered at a higher rate of negativity on Hillary rather than Trump. In addition Patterson was showing the example of media bias by omission, although this is not the only form of bias Americans should be aware of with their news networks.
Counter Argument:
Americans believe that media uses many forms of bias, one of the major ones is bias by omission; this entails ignoring facts that one believes are “not” important. As well as being presented, the information is only told through one point of view of one side or the other. The media claims that they are not bias, and they’re not leaving the other political side out but just reporting what is needed. In the article, “Will the Media Be Crushed” by Martha Bayles states, “Intemperate statements like these from government officials provoke fears of looming authoritarian controls on the media” (Bayles par. 2). During this article, Bayles is pointing out the issue of the media looking through one side. Bayles points out in one issue that the media follows a big influence of the government and tends to look at the situation only from their perspective and not others, therefore that is the way it gets reported to the American people. The media claims they are covering all news evenly, and covering both sides an equal amount (Patterson par. 4). The media does not believe they are bias, but instead believe they are as fair as they can be. Controversy about media bias was discussed during the 2017 Presidential election. In the article “Bash Both Sides Equally” by Thomas Patterson states, “She led in the polls during nearly the whole period, which brought her favorable coverage” (Patterson par. 4). Patterson’s reason for stating this is to show his hopes and intentions of how the media did not favor Hillary Clinton, but she souly had reasons to be publicised in the media on her own. Patterson talks about the beneficial subjects that made her the topic of discussion in the media as well as the risky political moves that got her coverage in the media. In essence, there are those who believe this is not the truth and that the media does choose the interviews and facts publicised to go in the direction of their personal believe.