Recently President Trump had a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi regarding the debt ceiling expansion, a critical aspect to avoiding a government shutdown and securing funds for disaster relief. This would probably sound like a good thing. Trump is finally looking to work with the Democrats to do what’s best for the country and the people. But, as always, the media had something to say about the meeting, and different sources painted two completely different pictures of this discussion. The obviously anti-Trump CNN decided to take this moment of bi-partisan cooperation to portray Trump as a traitor to his party and backstabber to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. There are two major flaws that make this CNN article less than transparent. The writer purposely chooses to leave out any quotes from the Republicans he bashes. He never let’s them speak their peace on the agreement. The second massive problem is the writer focuses on a picture of Trump and Schumer in a friendly embrace, but he has no context on the timing of the picture, so he decides to make an assumption that the picture is post-negotiations because it plays into his plan of painting Trump as a Republican traitor. He also goes in to excessive investigations on the details of the picture, pointing out every little thing that makes it look as if Trump and Schumer are buddy-buddy. The issue is he never states any facts on the deal. He just portrays Trump how he wants so people will think the same way as him. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have a FOX News article about the same discussion. The difference this article has to the CNN article is a glimpse of fairness and acknowledgement that bipartisan cooperation is a step in the right direction for the Trump administration. The FOX article never denies the fact that Trump and Schumer came to an agreement on the debt ceiling. The reason the FOX article seems a little less biased is because they acknowledge both sides. Unlike CNN, they give Paul Ryan a voice of his own so that he could explain that he wasn’t mad at Trump and that he fully understood the goals of Trump. Ryan even conceded that it makes total sense for a president to open a dialogue with the other party. So where were these Ryan quotes when CNN was penning their article pitting Trump against Ryan? Did they just forget to include them? Its articles like these that make the bias in the media completely blatant and obvious, yet somewhat understandable. We know why CNN and FOX penned the articles in the way they did. Trump has been waging a public war against the media for months, and CNN has been his main target. Obviously their not going to pander to the president and write what he wants to hear. They’re going to try to paint him as evil because in their eyes, he is their number one enemy. FOX News on the other hand has been one of the few sources that has gained he acceptance and occasional praise of Trump. Obviously to keep up this reputation with the president, they are going to with what he wants to hear and make him look like the leader the country needs. Neither of these sources lied. They just included or excluded certain information to paint the picture they wanted. Its the loophole to biased writing that has always and will always be ever present in the media.

 

Cillizza, Chris. “A Donald Trump picture you need to see.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Sept. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/09/06/politics/trump-schumer-photo/index.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

Chamberlain, Samuel. “Ryan won’t back scrapping debt ceiling amid reported Trump-Schumer pact.” Fox News, FOX News Network, www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/07/ryan-wasnt-furious-at-trumps-debt-ceiling-deal-with-pelosi-schumer.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.