One National Review article talks about how Pres. Obama basically insults a few [citizens], making it appear as though our commander-in-chief doesn’t realize who he is truly serving. Another story talks about how Obama served Japanese food to the South Korean president.
Other stories covered how he has promised to [save or] create a certain amounts of jobs, and [questioned the constitutionality of health-care reform]. Needless to say, if one read only their articles, then you would come to the conclusion that Pres. Obama [cannot] connect with the public, can’t create jobs, and doesn’t even know how to choose the right cuisine for foreign dignitaries. In reading these articles, the bias in the articles is explicit. The writers don’t just hook to the right, they swing that way. If it were a game of bowling, one would see the ball go straight to the gutter, no curve involved.
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Fox News did a fairly good job of staggering its sources and having a fairly balanced approach. In half of the article I looked at, they used the Associated Press, which is a fairly [centrist] news organization. Other sources were from Fox News itself and they were slanted more to the right.
In the Associated Press part of Fox News, they painted Obama as a man who is trying his hardest to get things done. The articles talk about his tax credit for businesses that hire veterans, him cutting down on frivolous spending, and attempting and failing to get the jobs bill passed.
In the FoxNews.com pieces, one talks about how bad Obama’s stimulus package is going in green jobs creation. Another article talks about the relationship between House Speaker John Boehner and Obama.
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One CNN article talks about how Pres. Obama is being beaten by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a [Reuters/Ipsos] poll if the two candidates were to run against one another. They fail to illustrate the magnitude of the result, saying that Obama only lost [six percentage points] over a span of two months. That is a large number to be losing [to] one of the opposition’s candidates.
Other articles show how much work Obama needs to get elected and that he is in trouble, but they are afraid to say it outright. In all of the information they use, it is pointing to Obama losing support in the voting process, and yet they fail to convey this information fully.
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John Oestling is a student at Colorado Christian University. In October and November 2011, he examined news coverage of Pres. Obama in National Review, Fox News and CNN. The above reflects some of his conclusions.
