There is one thing I would like to say to everyone. Political affiliation must be nonexistent for journalists. Sorting yourself into a group that opposes another group brings division. If you identify yourself as aligning with a certain political party, you are automatically biased. You can not hope to maintain a balanced narrative if you are an aligned Democrat, Republican, etc. I have seen this with the modern mainstream media several times.
No matter what the situation is, most media anchors I have witnessed cannot resist providing their own opinions or subliminally making them known. I am content with the fact that all journalists should only provide the facts of a story along with any lingering questions that concern everyone.
Political affiliation is an obstruction to non-partisanship, no matter how small it may be. News and media anchors must not be biased in favor of a particular party, and if aspiring journalists are, they should forcibly remove their bias as soon as possible and face the fact that there are two sides to every story. An example is the analysis of two different political candidates who are competing against each other for President of the United States. Both of them should be represented equally in the media.
The backgrounds and political intentions of both should be thoroughly researched and should receive the same amount of public exposure by media outlets. They should not focus on one candidate over the other for the most part unless that candidate’s background has more information than that of the other. Unless it is an interview or a political discussion show, anchors should not voice their opinions; they should state the facts of both sides and be done with it.
Additionally, if they give a question to the viewing public, they should make sure that it is not something that would suggest taking a side or disparaging the other side.
And this is the system we have today. I take immense displeasure in knowing we have this two-way system to politics, but we all have to cope with it, at least for now. I personally believe that aligning with these “parties” or groups is wrong because it affects how we process things and creates bias to an extent. This is why I identify as independent in terms of politics; I can not let party bias affect me when forging opinions after certain political issues come to light.
However, I do have to take certain aspects of an issue into account, analyze them, then make my decision or opinion. Some would argue that I borrow elements from both the left and right while doing so, but I do not see it that way. When a Democrat or Republican publicly speaks, I listen intently to what they have to say and then analyze their speech and whether or not I agree with it. I do not talk about politics with my friends too often, but I will certainly convince them that my political ideology is quite reasonable.
I must reiterate: journalists cannot be biased and must represent people equally in the media. Too many media outlets do this and it is not right because it divides as human beings instead of uniting us.
Everyone must take everything into account when it comes to interpretation and avoid writing something off as nonsense simply because they do not like it.