Going forward, FH will shine a spotlight on blatant media bias when we see it.
Conservatives have complained bitterly for decades that the mainstream media is biased. In 2016, they used their votes to elect a non-politician outsider as president who has candidly and repeatedly called out that bias.
Unfortunately, despite President Trump’s many accomplishments thus far — accomplishments that have benefited all Americans (e.g., booming economy, historically low minority unemployment, tax cuts, defeating ISIS, etc) — a Media Research Center study found that broadcast coverage by the mainstream media has been 90% negative. A Harvard University study found the news coverage to be 93% negative.
The media have criticized Trump for calling some in the mainstream media the “enemy of the people,” and we agree he should tone down such inflammatory rhetoric. But given the media’s biased coverage of him, we understand his frustration and complaints.
Here are a few very recent examples of blatant media bias …
After the Florida mail bomber was arrested, Trump immediately condemned his terrorist acts. While CNN immediately ran two chyrons on live broadcasts stating “Trump has no plans to claim any personal responsibility for inciting serial bomber” and “Manhunt for serial bomber going after Trump’s targets,” implying in both cases that President Trump was somehow responsible for the heinous acts of a madman.
In the mainstream print media, the Washington Post’s headline read: “Bomb suspect outspoken supporter of Trump.” Not surprisingly, when we went back to the newspaper’s June 15, 2017 edition reporting on the Republican baseball practice shooting, the headline “Congressman shot in Va.” contained no reference at all to the shooter being an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders.
After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting this past weekend, Trump immediately condemned the murders and advocated for the anti-Semitic perpetrator to receive the death penalty. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jerod Kushner, practicing Jews, also condemned the horrific attack. But the mainstream media immediately tried to blame Trump’s stance against the Honduran caravan heading to our southern border as incentivizing the synagogue shooter to commit mass murder because he had railed against HIAS (a left-leaning Jewish organization) support of refugee migration into the United States.
Unsurprisingly, in today’s Wall Street Journal front page story, “Grieving Pittsburgh Mourns Victims,” the newspaper reports on the synagogue shooting and the shooter’s social media habits but omits any mention of the shooter’s anti-Trump postings.
The mainstream media reach millions of people everyday who tune into or read their reports. They have an obligation to report the news fairly and without bias. Otherwise, their bias contributes to division and strife in our country.