IndexDoes the Media Have a Liberal Bias: Analysis of ExamplesUsing Logical Fallacies and Lies to Promote an AgendaConclusionDoes the Media Have a Liberal Bias? Bias is something that pervades the content of almost every single piece of media, even if it isn't apparent at first. The pattern of bias can range from outright lies, to a more moderate omission of information about a topic, to subtle use of generic terms, to an annoying and easily missed sneak premise - a logical fallacy in which the person making an argument uses a modified definition of the word to make their argument seem stronger. While many conservatives and liberals argue that the media is biased in favor of the other side, this essay will delve into how each side of the aisle can use some of these techniques to attempt to distort their worldview. Spotting more subtle errors in someone's writing or speech in real time is more difficult, but most of the time people try to use more obvious methods. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Does the Media Have a Liberal Bias: Analysis of Examples The easiest biases to spot in the media are blatant lies, which are often based on general terms. A great recent example of this is the claim made early last year by the special interest group, Everytown for Gun Safety, that eighteen school shootings occurred in the first forty-five days of 2018. To everyone in the country, when you hear that there was a school shooting, people are thought to have been killed, or at least an armed assailant attempted to kill people. You don't imagine that a school resource officer accidentally discharged his firearm in the parking lot or that a student committed suicide with a firearm just off campus. However, Everytown for Gun Safety used the term “School Shooting” to mean any type of firearm discharge, whether intentional or accidental, that was within a certain distance of a school. This claim propagated unchecked through liberal media, such as the aforementioned NBC article, in which they finally backed down at seventeen and clarified the definition they were using, after being criticized by centrists, moderates, and pro-groups. weapons. The Washington Post, a liberal newspaper based in Seattle, which rushed to help regain liberal journalistic integrity on the topic, later published an article directly shutting down the claim. In this case, even politicians like Bernie Sanders and Bill de Blasio retweeted, without ever deleting or clarifying, the complete and absolutely false news. This is a great example of how the left wants to hear what they want to hear, and people don't care so much about the facts as how much a completely unchecked statement can help advance their narrative. This is quite exacerbated by the fact that most fact-checking websites, such as Snopes or Politifact, are left-leaning. In this case, Snopes never even rated this blatant lie (they published a more explanatory article about it, which somewhat defended the claim) and Politifact rated it mostly false instead of the much deserved and often distributed to conservatives “Pants on Fire”. Another great example of liberal bias is the recent government shutdown. As a libertarian it's really easy to see the similarities between the government shutdown in 2012 and the most recent one, in 2019. In the only other majormodern-day shutdown, then called a fiscal cliff, Barack Obama refused to sign a CR (Continuing Resolution) that would fund the government unless it includes funding for Obamacare and lets payroll and income tax cuts expire of the Bush era. To an impartial eye, the root cause of both shutdowns is surely Congress's use of continuing resolutions as the primary method of funding the government (instead of a fixed budget, which would go forward by default but not shut down the government) .The use of a continuing resolution causes the government to shut down every year that no agreement is reached, and becomes the leading method of funding the government in a bipartisan manner, but in the liberal media, the Republican-majority Congress , led by John Boehner, has been intensely maligned by CNN. Although the Republican Congress has been heavily blamed for the 2012 shutdown, the liberals who would point the finger at Congress for the 2019 shutdown are currently nowhere to be found. The Republican president has been consistently portrayed by the center-left mainstream media as essentially the sole cause of the shutdown, as in this CNN article. This is a great example of liberal bias, since even though a lack of bipartisanship is necessary for a shutdown to happen, it always seems to be the Republican Party's fault when the government shuts down. Even with that being said, conservatives and their news media are nowhere near biased. The use of logical fallacies and lies to promote an agenda There are numerous examples of far right bias every year, but in my opinion the most recent extreme An example of this was the attempt to smear Dr. Christine Ford by of the right-wing media. Even before she testified before Congress, conservative media already knew how they were going to report it. They were prepared to try to protect Brett Kavanaugh at all costs. Articles were already claiming she was a liar, untrustworthy, or were as extremist as the Washington Times, claiming that Brett Kavanaugh was the real victim and that Dr. Christine Ford was definitely not a victim. This was an event that I think conservatives were much more biased about than liberals, but sometimes there are events where both sides are equally biased. A great example of a situation where both sides of the island omit information, lie, or make up an event was the confrontation between Covington Catholic School student Nick Sandman and Native American elder Nathan Phillips. This event is an example of something that I and many others would call non-news. In the liberal media, people lied about Nathan Phillip's status as a Vietnam War veteran, omitted the fact that members of the Black Jewish Israelite movement were using racial slurs, xenophobic statements, and inflammatory rhetoric toward children at Covington Catholic School , and chose to ignore the other guys besides Nick Sandman who were doing the "tomahawk" which I personally find offensive. In conservative media, Nick Sandman was just short of being heralded as a hero (essentially just for going on a field trip), and both Nathan Phillip's character and credibility were attacked. Both sides made this incident a major story before videos from alternate angles were released. This is an event of late where I have somewhat succumbed to the initial bias of the liberal media. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Conclusion In conclusion, I would say that most of the media content, 57(1),.2018.06.004