Blog Post 4! : News Sources!

Hey There! It's Will. I'm here to dish out some more information on politics in the United States. Today, we are looking at the "corrupt" media.... Wait what?

**DISCLAIMER
I like to point out that, as with every source. I have bias. I'm definantly what someone would consider a liberal. I swing that way ;) So yea. I try my best to be as unbiased as I can be. But please keep this in mind when you are reading my little blog post.

The media, is basically the various platforms and sources that you would look at in order to be informed of the newz.   Whenever you are getting information about anything that isn't entertainment, it's considered the media. It's important to realize that every source has bias, and it's watchers will reflect that bias when they go in to vote. So, when choosing sources to get you information, be responsible, and make sure you really are informed about the news.

Examples of media platforms include :

• CNN, Fox News and various other Television channels. This is how a surprisingly large amount of America's citizens stay informed. Think of it as news on the telly. 

CNN News. 

Fox 

• 

The Press! : Think Newspapers, magazines, and to an extent, news sources online. Examples include : New York Times.  Online examples include : Google News, Breitbart, etc. 

• 
  

• Social Media : Think Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit and... idk Instagram(not sure about that last one). This isn't a specific source, but rather a platform for people to share... stuff(sorry I don't really know how social media works). You can get information on the news from Social Media, but I wouldn't hold any weight to it. It's really a place for people to express their beliefs, rather than a place to get information on the news.  If you want to see how easily it is to get unreputable information on the social media, checkout the video that Trevor Noah did on it. 

I guess we should probably listen to this guy. 

Okay, I hope you kinda understand what the media is, and know a few examples of it. Lets move on to the real purpose of the post :) 

Okay, So Mr Quesadilla(keeping his name anonymous) told us that we have to do some some investigation around conflicting news articles. We would have to look at news sources that sway on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. For my blog post, I decided to be as basic as possible, and chose the two sources that everyone knows : Fox News and the Cable News Network. So, lets get a bit of background on each of them.

(If you want the REAL news, watch the video above)

Lets start off with Foxy News. 

Fox News is our liberal *cough* conservative news source. Much of their news has a conservative spin on it. Most of their readers are typically conservative.While most people know Fox for their television news, I decided to look at their online news articles instead. Just so you can get a gist on what they typically cover, here are some of the headlines they had when I checked(November 5th, 2017). 

Look at this face. He (was) the face of Fox.

• At Least 26 killed in Texas church massacre. Denounced by trump as an act of evil
• Stand by me actor sparks fury with response to paul ryan offering prayers
• Legendary Sports broadcaster Vin Scully won’t watch another NFL game due to anthem protests.
• Yemen ports closed after 17 killed in Aden attack compared by Saudis to ‘act of war’
• Iowa mom, 18, charged after 2 year old twins found naked outside near highway.
• Women under fire after criticizing traffic reporter at” politically correct” tv station as inappropriately dressed.
• US sanctions are hurting Christians two.
• Transgender Lesson gets New York 7th-grade teacher suspended.
• Veterans back legalizing medicinal marijuana in American legion survey
• Why trump’s tax plan has me feeling so optimistic.
• Trump should confront china on North Korean nukes during his Asian trip

While many of the articles are just general coverage, if you take a look at those last couple articles, you'll notice a bit of a bias. I try not to judge a book off its cover(or an article off it's title), but, it's quite obvious that that particular fox news writer did introduce some bias into his article.  If you look into the articles, they typically cite conservative sources and speakers, which introduces bias, and makes it hard for you to be completely objective about whatever your covering. 

OKAY, Now lets switch to the next source : CNN. 

CNN is my left wing news source. They are what I would consider the antithesis of Fox news. They typically put a more liberal spin of the news.   While CNN is usually a bit to the middle of the politician spectrum, it's important for readers to realize that it, like all news sources, still has bias. Here are some headlines that I found as of November 5th, 2017 : 

My Lord and savior, Anderson Cooper

• Texas Parishioners described as merciful and forgiving.
• American Woman wins nyc marathon for 1st time in 40 years.
• Trump says “era of strategic patience is over” for North Korea.
• Netflix cuts ties with Kevin Spacey
• Self-driving cars could make jaywalking legal .
• America’s unyielding plague of gun violence.
• Liberals are still obsessed by trump’s victory
• Trump’s clinton allegations assault rule of law.
• Student loan benefit on the chopping block.
• iPhone X review, the future takes getting used to
• Electric vehicle tax credit gets spiked in the House tax bill
• Northern Lights
• Man Killed in 1983 for “socializing” with white woman.
• Retired Marine : America was prepared for me when I had to come home.
• Trump’s approval rating hits historic lows.
• Brazille : I found no evidence Democratic primary was rigged.
• Two of the 5 deadliest mass shootings in the modern US happened in the last 35 days.
• When there isn’t a crowd.

Just taking a look at the articles posted, one can believe that there is less bias. But if you read into the articles, you'll find a liberal spin on some of the information. I've found that CNN will have conservative sources, but will take their worst points, and explain how they are wrong, rather than showing the whole source.

Okay, now we have introduced our competing news sources, it's time to introduce the topic!
The current event I chose for my fourth blog post is about the Graham-Cassidy health bill.  This was a republican proposal, shifting the responsibilities of healthcare funding to the state governments, while reducing the overall Federal healthcare spending.  This proposal was met with much disagreement with both the republicans and the democrats. The democrats, who are in support of stronger federal government and more government programs to improve standards of living, are very opposed to the bill, since it reduces funding to the medicare. Centrists and center-republicans are in support of the bill, since it helps bridge and compromise between the republicans and the democrats, while hardcore conservatives scrutinize the legislation, believing the federal government is overstepping its powers offering nationwide healthcare incentives.

Graham and Cassidy presenting their bill. 

Here are the main points that CNN brings up :

• To get the 60 votes it needs to repeal and replace Obamacare is currently an impossibility in the current Senate.
• Many of the states that will lose federal funding under Graham-Cassidy are democratic states that would be receiving a large hit, unable to provide baseline health care for it’s citizens
• Many of the states with a larger Republican base would be receiving more funding.  However, many of the states that supported trump(who supported the implementation of this bill) would be impacted dramatically.
• Many republican senators didn’t believe the bill would be supporting the republican agenda
• Unsure if republicans will really move on. Trump said Tuesday that he was “disappointed” in several senators, in an apparent reference to McCain, Paul, and Collins”

Here are the main points that Fox News :

• “Collins stated that Graham-Cassidy bill, was “deeply flawed. Many steadfast conservatives oppose the bill.
• The bill got some last minute revisions in hopes of getting more support.
• The legislation is largely seen as a Hail Mary pass by Republicans to make good on their years-long promise to eradicate Obamacare.
• Would implement a block grant program that gives funding to states which would provide leeway for each state to handle funding independently.
• Paul said the plan would further increase the nation’s debt and doesn’t “repeal a single Obamacare insurance regulation” such as essential health benefit rules.
• The bill needs 50 votes to pass, with Vice President Pence potentially casting a tie-breaking vote. Pence said he’s “all in” for the plan. .

So, After reading the fox news and CNN articles, I have come to the conclusion that, at least these specific articles, are both not terribly biased, and actually bring evidence from both sides. It was surprising actually, neither article showed definitive bias, that would've swayed my opinion. Both sources used evidence from the different political spectrum objectively. It was refreshing to see this, since the news has become very polarizing recently. However, just to make it clear, there still is bias. Fox News still chose more sources that aligned with the conservative legislation, while CNN chose more sources that didn't want the legislation to pass. It's nowhere near as bad, here is an example. For the fox news video, skip to the last 30 seconds.

Just because I only showed a Fox News video here, don't think that CNN is any saint. They do have a political bias, it's just much less blatantly obvious. 

Conclusion

Media is weird.This whole news thing is super complicated. Maybe its just best to live under a rock anyway. I could ignore all of Trumps twitter posts, which would be nice.