American Media and Politics

American Media and Politics

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Since the birth of our country, the media has played an important role in our lives, with newspaper, radio, TV, and the internet. From pop culture to politics, the media covers all walks of life. As a democratic society, the media serves as part of our political foundation. Our founding fathers recognized it as an essential importance to our country and its democracy. The media also tells a story about the American people. Despite the many criticisms of the media, it serves as a key to our American identity as well as provides an important foundation in our political establishment.

The media holds an important role in our country and the political system we, as a people, have come to love. Without the media, we would not be a democracy. It provides us Americans with the transparency and accountability that is needed to keep our leaders in check. Because of our elaborate media, our population is knowledgeable when it comes to our politicians and the issues facing our country; a privilege that many around the globe don’t get the opportunity to experience. It creates a forum for political discussion and education, as well as a place where our politicians can get the feedback they need in order to lead our country into prosperity. Yet the media does pose a problem in our lives. The media uses their power to try to promote their ideology, they choose the issues we read about, and they can limit the discussion. They also hold the power to veto our candidates. (Weisbrot) Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election is a good example; she was a qualified candidate who connected with the Democrat base. Yet when the media was not ignoring her, they constantly ran negative stories about her, a key reason in her loss of the Democrat primary elections. With the power that they media holds, they sometimes scare our leaders; they distort what the politicians say. Even with these drawbacks, the media is an overall positive aspect of our society; without it, we would not be a democracy.

As much as we would hope to have an unbiased media outlet, the fact of the matter is that none exist. Our media of today seems to tilt to the left; in the 2004 election, 52% of journalists supported John Kerry, while only 19% supported George Bush. (Media Research Center) Only about 6% of journalists claim to be conservatives and liberal journalists outnumber them by 5:1. (Media Research Center) And, unfortunately, this translates into their coverage of our political system. People have to go to multiple outlets to find an accurate reporting, and in today’s world, that is very difficult. Most people can only go to one source, falling into the ideological trap. The media finds any way to show their opinion; even distorting the view of the American people. For example, during the Tea Party protests, Fox News ran multiple positive stories over-estimating attendance numbers, while MSNBC ran negative stories and tried to downside the attendance. This bias coverage leads people to gravitate towards their own opinion; conservatives watch Fox and liberals watch MSNBC (of course many watch other programs as well). We as Americans have a “selective awareness”; we tend to see what we want to see. (Wilcox) We try not to step outside of our boundaries, especially our political boundaries. As a country we also don’t want to find out that our ways are wrong or that sometimes there are better ways of doing things. We go to the side we support and we only follow them; those left behind, the “undecided” crowd, tend to fall through the cracks. This translates into an effect on our political process.