Is Media Biased Against Trump?

Analyzing Coverage and Bias

Is legacy media against former US President Donald Trump?

In order to answer this question, there are several big areas that require exploration.

1. How journalism works

2. How propaganda works

3. How social media works

4. How democracy works and the traditional role of the press

5. The distinction between Op-Ed and Journalism and how mixing the two on the same channel causes immense confusion (and distrust!).

6. The current state of the media ecosystem (the unfortunate consolidation of corporate media, the ability of bad actors to pollute the information system, varying levels of bias in publications, social media feeding people individual bias, etc)

The massive deluge of conflicting information being thrown at us everyday has left us all asking "who can you trust"?

And then ultimately being so confused that we throw our hands up and decide that "no one can be trusted!".

There ARE excellent sources of expert/fact focused reporting and it just takes some work to figure out which ones those are.

RULE #1 - KNOW YOUR SOURCE

It's absolutely essential to understand the SOURCE of your information.

If it's an individual, what is their incentive for sharing the information (sadly, some social media influencers are paid by bad actors to spread misinformation!). 

If it's an organization (easier to research), it's understanding the AUDIENCE, MISSION and REPUTATION for each publication and what "product" they are producing.

Some customers want an "unbiased/factual product", others want "extremely biased left-leaning content" or "extremely biased right-leaning content" others want "conspiracy content" and these publications give them what they want (whether it's factually true or not)!  

Others are somewhere in between (Center-Right, Center-Left)..THOSE are the sources to go to. They may not be completely unbiased, but they get very close. And they put a very high value on sharing factually correct information. 

For me personally, I try to find the sources that are at least TRYING to be fair/unbiased.

Yes, they exist! (Just look at the various media bias charts for a list of media that sit in the middle). 

Media Bias Chart

View an interactive version of this Media Bias Chart on AdFontsMedia.com

Plus you've got some great fact checking sites and media watchdog groups (be aware, some watchdog groups lean liberal or lean right so do your due diligence here).

I personally find this one to be good but there are many other good ones: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

With above link, you can quickly search each news outlet (FOX, Reuters, AP, CNN, ABC, etc) to find a report about their reputation and ranking for bias.

How To Prove or Disprove Media Bias?

Right-wing media is constantly accusing the "mainstream media" for having a negative bias against Trump.

So how do you prove or disprove?

This article claims it CAN be proven through scientific analysis:

https://sps.columbia.edu/news/media-biased-against-trump-researchers-have-answer

Without a doubt you can find many examples of "negative" coverage so it would be easy to believe and spin that story. But with proper context about how journalism works, how propaganda works, the confusing mixing of news & opinion and the current state of how corporate media works... it becomes far murkier and more difficult to prove or disprove with an overall statement. 

The only way to prove or disprove is to go one by one through each media entity and look at their reputation AND to look at a media bias chart! 

The answer comes down to.. it depends on the source!

First, Some Questions:

1. Why would Fox, Trump and right-wing media make the claim that mainstream media is out to get them? (How do they benefit by making these accusations and making the public believe this? What's at stake?)

2. A common propaganda tactic is to repeat a falsehood over and over which makes people start to believe it's true. Is that what's going on here? Or is the media truly out to get him?

3. Is it bias against Trump or is it simply the function of journalism.  If Trump makes a statement and journalists fact-check that statement and find that it's false, is that considered "negative"?

4. Is opinion being confused with journalism? 

5. Are there legitimate "journalistic" reasons for the negative coverage?

Conclusions

1. Trump is a God-send to ALL media. He is a ratings magnet!

This article goes so far as to claim media is FOR Trump: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/media-isnt-biased-against-trump-biden-liberal-news.html

2. "Negativity Is Not Bias" - It is not the job of journalists to make someone look good or look bad, but it can sometimes appear that way. 
Source: Teaching Media Bias: The Case Of The Trump Presidency 

3. As public watchdogs, journalists have an ethical duty to warn the public on various matters of public interest. Perhaps their most important role is to keep politicians/power in check. If you happen to admire someone who is getting a lot of negative coverage, it is natural to blame the messenger. 

4. Without a doubt you can find many examples of "negative" coverage of Trump, so it would be easy to believe and spin that story. But with proper context about how journalism works, how propaganda works, the confusing mixing of news & opinion and the current state of how corporate media works... it becomes far murkier and more difficult to prove or disprove with an overall statement. 

Resources

Resources below -- the most neutral I could find:

PBS segment - provides good context.

"Is the media fair to Donald Trump?"

"Pulling back curtain on how journalism works"

This is interesting:

Additional Resources

"How Trump Shaped Media"
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/how-trump-shaped-media

Is Social media biased against conservatives?
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54698186

Really long, hard read. "How press covered Trump" - a bit disjointed. Assumes reader is well informed.
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/coverage-trump-presidency-2020-election.php/

Trump vs Media
https://pressgazette.co.uk/trump-vs-media-freedom-of-press-distrust/

Older (2015) article but very detailed accounting of media coverage at that time of Trump
https://ballotpedia.org/The_media%27s_coverage_of_Donald_Trump

According to this masters thesis, this student from Netherlands makes the case that the New York Times has an ideological bias against Trump:
https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/40388/Pan-Yunzhao.pdf

A good overview of information gathering in general. (Book preview).. good list of watchdogs: fake news, propaganda and plain old lies.

And if you want to believe media is biased, you can find examples like this (Keep in mind that NYPost is right-biased): 
https://nypost.com/2022/06/23/usa-today-demoted-me-for-a-tweet-because-the-companys-woke-newsrooms-are-out-of-touch-with-readers/

Let's Get It Right: Fact-Checking In The Age of Mass Disinformation - Be A Fact-Checking Ninja! 🥷

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