Throughout history, our beliefs have been dictated by what we hear. However, most of the time, our sources are biased and confuse their opinions with the truth.
The way information is biased is very clearly displayed when you look at different news sources and their take on the same topic, namely sources that hold a political bias, like CNN and Fox News. We all know that Democrats and Republicans do not have the same views on the climate crisis, but this is very obvious once you take a look at how they discuss climate change on their broadcasts. In addition, they strongly disagree on the topic of economic regulation.
Reading from different sources will help you understand the issue from various perspectives. Only receiving the biased takes of politically influenced new sources will skew your view of the world according to someone else’s beliefs.
According to a study by the University of California at Berkeley, when consistent Fox News viewers began to watch CNN for one month, they were “More likely to agree that if Trump made a mistake, Fox News would not cover it.” The study effectively displays how news sources often let their beliefs skew the information they put out. There are many prominent differences in what the news channels put out to their viewers based on what they want them to believe.
When CNN and Fox wrote about the new climate regulations, they focused on very different aspects to persuade their audience to believe the same. Fox News journalist Thomas Catenacci wrote an article titled, “Biden’s latest climate rules crack down on manufacturing, ignoring industry warnings of economic devastation,” while Ella Nilsen and Jen Christensen, CNN journalists, wrote an article titled, “EPA is cracking down on deadly air pollution with a new rule – but it’s not strong enough, some experts say.”
In their titles alone, they have vastly different concerns about the same bill. Fox is more focused on the ruling’s economic consequences, while CNN worries it is not doing enough to help the environment.
Many people read headlines instead of the news and believe they are well-educated on a topic. However, the headline says nothing about the body of the text. Fox’s article is a direct example of this—it states that to have a climate-successful future, you must “Focus on innovation, not regulation.”
It is easy to assume the beliefs of a group of people when you are not informed. It would be easy for a Democrat to think that Republican news sources, like Fox, spend the majority of their air time and articles focused on dividing issues and trying to convince their viewers to agree with them. The primary problems covered by Republican News include deregulation, lower taxation, and an overall focus on the economy.
While they cover a lot of this type of news, they also include their concerns about climate change and the importance of acting now and, to some extent, calling out Republican politicians. It is not entirely biased, though their ideology does shine through.
The same is true for the Democratic party. A CNN article on the new air pollution bill focused primarily on the consequences of air pollution on the health of the American public. “As temperatures rise with climate change, the health problems related to this pollution will worsen.”
The angle is very different from the Fox article. It focuses less on the economic consequences of the issue and far more on the impact on the public. Both articles had a semi-negative take on the bill, though they both concentrated on the problem that was more relevant to the ideology of their political party.
When you look at ideas that are more focused on by those in the Republican party, like the economy, the same is true. For example, a Fox News interview with Stephen Moore, a conservative writer and television commentator, states, “What triggered the inflation in the first place was the massive six-trillion dollar spending spree by Joe Biden.” The spending spree in question was the stimulus package Biden signed off on in 2021. While Democratic reporters tend to cover stimulus in a more positive light, the Republican reporters viewed it as the primary trigger for inflation.
There is a big gap between their views on the issue, and this is displayed very clearly when you read CNN’s take on inflation. “Overall inflation is down by around two-thirds since its peak; the prices of key household expenses like gas, egg[s] and airline fares have gone down,” A quote from Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary, says. Still, the article acknowledges that “ ‘Food prices kept going up, …’ Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, told CNN. ‘[But] There is the rate of inflation, which is coming down.’ ” This points out more of the overall scope of the issue rather than villainizing a politician.
As we grow and mature into adults, we form opinions about the world around us and need to discover who and what we can trust. No news source will tell the absolute truth. The people giving us our news are humans, too, and will have a bias. That does not mean what they say is entirely wrong. It is vital to weed out the truth from the swarm of opinions flying at you on a daily basis. What matters most is finding what you believe in the midst of all this and discovering whom to trust.
