‘Don’t believe everything you hear and see on the news?’

‘Don’t believe everything you hear and see on the news?’

Have you ever heard ‘Don’t believe everything you hear and see on the news?’ This saying is very much factual because the media is very biased. What the news decides to cover is usually based on what will give them the most ratings and bring in the most viewers. In my opinion, the media is not a reliable source because it operates off what the networks want. This causes them to sometimes fabricate or twist the truth to make their stories or what they are reporting on juicier. According to an article on Investor’s Business Daily, A post-election survey of 1,000 voters by McLaughlin & Associates found that “a forceful plurality (48%) of respondents believe the media coverage is unfair and biased” against President Trump; Even 16% of Democrats agreed.
They were deciding if the media is more biased towards progressive-liberal values or conservative values is challenging because the media is biased towards them both. There are so many different media outlets that the media can’t be identified as a whole.
Liberalism focuses on the political standpoint of a moral philosophy based on liberty that we should put equality before the law and it would be governed (society) consented. Liberals are optimists (open-minded); they are always open to new ideas and very diverse. We have seen several issues of this in modern media, such as same-sex marriage, making abortion illegal, and civil rights (example: police brutality).
The main objectives of the Progressive movement were addressing problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption.According to the article of Lumen Candela on the progressive era, the movement was guided by the notion that removing the corrupt representatives from offices was one way of establishing firm democracy in the United States. The movement also sought to regulate business unites such as monopolies and corporations through the application of the antitrust law. The progressive era had two major outcomes. Firstly, it outlawed the manufacturing, selling and distribution of alcohol. Secondly, it enfranchised women with the right to vote. Activists joined efforts in the process of reforming local government, education, medicine, finance, churches, railways, and many other areas of development in the United States. The progressive movement was highly supported by middle-class professionals such as teachers, ministers, lawyers and the business people..

Conservatism, on the other hand, focusses on the freedom for the individuals. Conservatives believe that every person has the right to life, liberty, property, and freedom from arbitrary forces (Regnery). Unlike the liberals who focus on the general moral philosophy, the conservatives believe that individuals should have the ability and freedom to follow their dreams, to do what pleases them and to freely enjoy the fruits of the whole process. All these are meant to protect citizens from the arbitrary oppression by the government. The conservatives also wish to protect the individuals from speaking up their mind and address what direction is necessary for the government to take. They also seek to protect the right to worship where the citizens are allowed to choose religion as it pleases then and not to be coursed into a specific religion(Regnery).
The other pillar for the conservatives is the philosophy of tradition and order. Their main goal is to protect virtues that have existed in centuries and have been the key player for social order and morality. They believed in the existence of a society whereby people are driven by order and rebel against the forces of evil. The conservatives also embrace the rule of law(Regnery). The conservatives believe in the notion that the legal system should be a simple and predictable system which can be easily understood by the subjects. They also believe that the law should apply equally to all residents, including the top government officials. Finally, conservatives have a strong belief in God. They believe the God means adherence to the broad concepts of religion which include applying justice for all and applying the virtues of fairness, charity and adherence to the duty calling(Regnery).
As I discussed earlier, media has been very biased because they report thing which seems to favour their interest. Therefore, various social media platforms have supported progressive liberalism, while others support conservative values. This brings out a negative picture of the media which does not stand with what the truth is. Researches have reported that most of the liberal democrats more politically active on medial social platforms compared to other groups (Anderson and Jiang). As a result, they are likely to post their biased feelings which are taken for the truth by the readers and the media personnel. The report on social media has become useless to the readers because the producers are quick to post information without verifying its truth.
In conclusion, media biases have affected the United States a great deal. This is because it has been the root cause of the conflict experienced between the liberals and conservatives by posting biased report which seems to praise or destroy the image of one party at the expense of the other.

Work Cited
Anderson, Monica, and Jiang, Jingjing: Liberal democrats more likely than other groups to be politically active on social media. FactTank, News in the Numbers, November 5, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/05/liberal-democrats-more-likely-than-other-groups-to-be-politically-active-on-social-media/
Lumen Candela: The Progressive Era: 1890-1917. Boundless US History, 2016.https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-progressive-era/
“Media Bias: Pretty Much All Of Journalism Now Leans Left, Study Shows.” Investor’s Business Daily, November 16 2018, www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-bias-left-study/.
Regnery, Alfred: The Pillars of Modern Conservatism. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, April 3, 2018, https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/the-pillars-of-modern-american-conservatism/