When it comes to news, where do you go? Fox, NBC, CNN are just a few of the news outlets that I'm sure many of you refer to when there is breaking news. But when it comes down to it, who is more reliable?
We all know almost every news company takes a political stance despite preaching impartiality. This neutrality issue isn't new either; it has been present since the beginning of newspapers. Back then, newspapers were used as political weapons in order to attack opposing politicians. Editors would write or publish content that directly attacked politicians or editors of competing newspapers. This is still prevalent today, but perhaps not so straight forward.
Recently, multiple news outlets have come forward with who they are endorsing for president. Risky business move? Perhaps, but this isn't the first situation where news companies have come out and supported a particular candidate. So with certain news companies picking sides, does this mean they are tailoring their news to their opinion as well? In my opinion, yes and no.
A plethora of news outlets have been commonly known to project their political stance in their news coverage regardless if there is an election taking place or not. The two television news companies most known for this are MSNBC (Democrat) and Fox (Republican). You don't even have to watch a full 10 minutes of each channel to known that a large quantity of their news coverage is biased. Being biased isn't necessarily a bad attribute either. Although, when people claim they want impartial news, but continue to go to biased news outlets to receive their news, they thus contradict themselves.
So who is more reliable? Conservative news sources or liberal ones? In my opinion, there is no for sure answer to that question. Both news sources are going to cover what they want, how they want depending on the company's or reporter's viewpoints. My best advice for receiving the most unbiased news available is to research the specific story on multiple news sources and compare and contrast the coverage. Yes, they all will probably have the same topic and basic information, but if you examine closely you'll notice subtle differences in language usage and the order in which the information was presented. Minuscule differences like these can make an article extremely biased or semi-neutral.
At the end of the day, news will never be unbiased. It is almost impossible to be 100 percent impartial in the news and will continue to be so far into the future. You are the ultimate judge when it comes to your news and how you receive it. "You hear what you want to hear," this is a common and extremely true statement. You go towards the news that you want to hear and news companies will continue to tailor news to attract a certain demographic and type of audience in order to stay relevant and successful. So to those of you who cry about the media being biased: it has ALWAYS been biased and just because one news sources does not present the news to your liking, it does not mean that it is not reliable and true. So please never go off of what one news source is saying. Do your research, educate yourself on topics of your interest, and always seek the truth.
