Slanted Media Coverage of the 2016 Election- Advocacy Journalism at its Worst
When the world was young, and we were working towards attaining a degree in Communications/Journalism at James Madison University, there was much discussion in our news writing classes about “advocacy journalism” and how it should be avoided when reporting on the news. In these classes, we were told in no uncertain terms that our own biases should be set aside, unless we are writing commentary or editorials. While it was understood that, as human beings, it is not possible to be completely objective in our writing, it should nevertheless be the ideal towards which we should all strive when reporting on the news.
So much for the teachings of those halcyon days of college life, back when ideas and ideals, striving towards the making of a better world through honest discussion, expanded our horizons and broadened our world view. Who would have thought then, when the 1970s were turning into the 1980s, that both the ideals of unbiased reporting and honest discussions on university campuses would go the way of the dinosaur? Yet, who today can honestly admit that there is such a thing as objective journalism within the mainstream media, or that a free exchange of ideas on our university campuses is possible in this era of indoctrinated political correctness?
On September 22, 2015, we posted an essay called The Gotcha Game- How the Media Controls Elections ( http://www.drewnickell.com/?p=312 ), where we elaborated how the media plays an active role in determining the actual results of elections across the country in its practice of excessively-biased reporting. Label this effort to bring down Trump, from the major media, “Exhibit A” as proof of this reality.
Back in early June of this year, we posted an essay entitled Selective Scrutiny-the Death of the Fourth Estate ( http://www.drewnickell.com/?p=767 ). In this essay, we discussed how the mainstream media will rake a Republican nominee- any Republican nominee- over the coals in attempt to de-legitimize his candidacy, regardless of who he happened to be, while a Democrat nominee can violate the law, peddle influence on a massive and felonious scale, all without a peep from the major media. Label this effort to bring down Trump, from all supposed sides of the major media, “Exhibit B” as further proof of this reality.
Today we find that this bias emanating from all mainstream media outlets, both in print and on television, is as rampant as was once the bubonic plague in Europe, centuries ago. Cases in point…
Last Sunday, on Chris Wallace’s morning talk show, Hillary Clinton unashamedly and unquestionably lied, by indicating that FBI Director James Comey had stated in congressional testimony that she had been completely honest with the American public concerning her use of a private e-mails server and the number of devices she used while Secretary of State, as well as her own testimony before a congressional committee investigating Benghazi, last fall. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Mrs. Clinton knew damned well that in her interview with Chris Wallace, she was lying through her teeth. If one hasn’t been listening to Fox News, one wouldn’t even know about her persistent prevarications regarding all of these issues, because the remaining venues of news reporting suggest that this habitual lying on the part of Hillary Clinton is merely a figment of Fox News fantasy, and a vast right wing conspiracy who is unfairly assailing the former first lady.
It’s not unlike a bank being blamed for armed robbery, isn’t it?
Compare that coverage, or lack thereof, with the incredibly-negative and aggressively-intoned coverage of each and every word emanating from Donald Trump’s campaign, and what stands clear is that the mainstream media- all of the mainstream media– is seizing upon each and every opportunity to twist, spin and utterly slander anything and everything that Donald Trump says, just to cast aspersions on his own candidacy to a degree not seen in this writer’s lifetime. Granted, there are occasions when Donald Trump deserves such scrutiny, but why the obviously odious double standard?
This same mainstream media, so in bed and under covers with the Democrat Party’s nominee, has already come to a place where they are prepared to say ninety days in advance, that Hillary Clinton has already won the election hands down, based upon poll after poll after poll and a growing list of former Bush operatives and other Republi-can’ts who have condemned Donald Trump for- now get this- his style ! In other words, since Jeb Bush lost “big” to Donald Trump, these insiders are going over to the other side, to teach voters a lesson about who is and who isn’t a worthy candidate.
Any objective delve into the various polls’ samplings and methodologies reveals that twice as many Democrats are routinely polled as are Republicans, and the comparatively larger polling spreads between the two candidates are directly correlated to comparatively smaller numbers of people being asked. In other words, even the polls are skewed to a pre-determined result that there is no way Hillary can lose- no way, whatsoever.
What can’t be squared, given the overly-biased reporting and collusion that exists with the mainstream media, the polls that indicate the impossibility of a Trump win, and the treachery of Republi-can’ts conspiring to sink Trump’s campaign, is the fact that while Hillary Clinton typically draws in the hundreds to her own events, Donald Trump routinely draws in the thousands.
So, is this election truly already in the bag for Hillary? Well, the news is that…
…nothing, nothing, is a lock, despite what expert observers would have us believe.
-Drew Nickell, 10 August 2016
© 2016 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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