The conversation about politics today is often times the elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about it because it is an argument that seemingly doesn’t produce a winner. The extent of political conversations today starts and ends with a sigh or a chuckle. Because of this frustration, it’s fair to assume that we observe the political landscape from afar, at times it is entertaining; however, sad that our country is divided on almost every political headline. The culprit? Media bias. We are surrounded with news outlets who claim they are journalists, but overtime they have become opinionists. It’s such a messy situation that we don’t even want to do anything about it.
Whether it’s Fox News leaning to the right or CNN leaning to the left, viewers are only consuming information that is geared to fulfill their opinion. Often times we hear people complain about one station or the other, when the news they are receiving is bias as well. It’s not our fault, and quite honestly we cant escape it. It is so easy to consume news today at the hands of our cell phones. Whether it’s scrolling through Twitter or receiving an alert, we don’t even need to make an effort to take in this information. Many think that the verified check on Twitter signifies the truth; however, it isn’t so clear cut. These outlets are telling you the truth that they want you to hear, not necessarily what is going on.
Then the new term was born. “Fake news.” President Trump created the term to relate with the 62% of people who believe that the media is biased. He is a controversial president, it’s hard to even mention his name without feeling uncomfortable because of the wide range of emotions. No matter if you love or hate him, or just don’t care at all, he has a talent of making people believe what he says. For the population on the right, President Trump’s Twitter page serves as their news outlet. His words jump right over the media outlet’s and onto our screens. It makes you think one of two things. Who is more credible than President Trump? But at the same time, who is more biased than President Trump? The point is that we cannot escape a news source that doesn’t filter the facts into their views. The big fad was fact checking, but that leaves me wonder. Can’t fact checking sites be biased as well? If our media wasn’t so swayed by political parties, our conversations for political would be much more bearable. Now, like the 66% of American’s who believe the media doesn’t separate fact from opinion, we are left guessing what really is the truth.