A divided media: Have journalists gotten more

BETANCOURT,

ITTED SUITS and pristinely perfect smiles, news anchors provide Americans with daily regurgitations of politically polarizing rhetoric. Every story is an opportunity to propagandize, every day a new way to skew reality; the dilution of ethical journalism reveals infections of partisan bias through the media.

Whether it is liberals complaining about Fox News or conservatives fighting CNN, Americans are acutely aware of the bias that proliferates the media. A recent Gallup poll revealed that around 60% of all Americans have little to no trust in mass media.

Part of the rise in bias can be attributed to the organization of news media as a whole. Large media companies, as they exist today, are not the valiant arbiters of truth that they portray themselves to be. These businesses simply chase clicks and dollars, competing to produce stories that will gain them the most views, attention and profit.

“I believe there are certain stories, such the Watergate scandal, that can be considered true journalism, without excess bias being instilled into them,” Quill & Scroll faculty sponsor

FAna Zuniga said. “However, journalism is a business, and at the end of the day what sells is what will be published, which obviously leads to bias.”

However, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review, money is not the primary cause of the media’s growing bias, rather, it is the pursuit of connectedness within a publisher’s overall narrative and “brand.” Mass media companies create a political “image” for themselves, a biased framework for all of their stories. In turn, people who view the world through a similar framework will find a particular network’s reporting appealing.

“I think mass media reports news in a way that appeals to their target audience,” senior Jazzmin Chaves said. “I wouldn’t trust news coming from a source that I know tries to appeal to a certain group of people.”

The aforementioned “branding” inherent to modern journalism was strikingly visible during its coverage of the Biden administration’s recent motions to forgive student loan debt. Outlets like Fox News and the Washington Post, having branded themselves conservative, ran segments and wrote stories denouncing the plan as fiscally irresponsible, while ignoring the ways it will aid many struggling Americans. Their liberal counterparts, like CNN and MSNBC, equally reported on brand, uncritically praising Biden’s