This might shock you: media is not designed to tell you how to think of something, no matter how hard you might think so. Let me explain.
Media is interpretive. This might be hard to believe, since the media is supposed to deliver facts, but it is true.
The media will deliver you the facts, and you will make your own conclusion. You tell yourself what to think, the media does not. The media will tell you what to think about, but not how to think about it.
You hear all the time about how the media is so biased. But, for the most part, this is untrue. Of course, there are outlets that are focused toward a certain opinion, but most are not that way.
The people who are saying this are usually uneducated in how the media really works, or not hearing the information that fits their opinions and beliefs. No one who is a trained media professional would want to be accused of being biased.
Look at the comments section on your local news' Facebook page. You'll see people fighting each other, telling each other that their opinion is wrong. You'll see them insulting each others' intelligence and calling each other names. You'll also see other people getting involved and taking a side.
But, which person is actually right? The answer is neither.
The fights are usually based off of opinion. We cannot go out and tell someone that their opinion is wrong, even if you might think it is. The only thing that we can prove right or wrong is a fact. Opinion does not apply to any "right or wrong" argument.
Keep in mind that you don't usually see the news station account getting involved in these arguments.
If you see a story on the news, you will form some kind of opinion on it, whether you think so or not.
Even if a story is completely made up of facts, someone somewhere will interpret it as something that it's not meant to be.
I work in news, and we get viewer comments all the time. One of them that stuck out to me was a woman complaining about the way we framed a story to present a man who was recently released from prison as a "hero."
All that was written in the script for the story were straight facts: details about his sentencing, when he was released, his age now and when he was arrested, and information about the people that were also arrested.
The story did not present him as a "hero," it simply gave details about his release. But, this is the way that the viewer interpreted the information given to her.
It's much like the way we interpret anything else. What one person interprets as offensive may not be offensive to another person. Just remember that people will complain about literally anything. Something is offensive to everyone.
So, the point is, give the news a break. Sometimes it's difficult to stick to only the facts. They are not "trying" to be biased. It's just in human nature. Don't yell at them for something you took the wrong way.
