“Teen Sweethearts believed to be on Bonnie-and-Clyde-Style Crime Spree Across the South”
Why do the exact same crimes have alternate headlines? Where the white couple got compared to one of the most romanticized relationships known to man, the black duo got called dangerous and had their crime blatantly stated. They should be exactly the same.
This is a constant theme in the media with people of color, majorly black or brown, and white people. People of color are belittled while white people are made to seem innocent of a crime they obviously did.
This comes in all types of situations, if the victim was white then it is made into a tragic article about the loss of an amazing human and the suspect is a monster, as they should be. However, if the victim was black then there had to have been something that happened beforehand or the victim was an alcoholic and that means they deserved it. The suspect is a hero. Why? Because unconcious racism say so, of course.
Our country needs reliable news now more than ever before. We need sources that are equal with their headlines and don’t let pent-up racism overcome their reliability. It is necessary to have news sources that are fair with their topics because now, more than ever, are we following the news. But do we really know what is reliable and what’s not? The media and the rhetoric spewed by various news outlets has engulfed our minds. The big role it plays in our society is important, especially for children because they are our future. Media bias can be traced back decades but now is it at its largest numbers.
We want to follow what’s going around in the world, but in a sensored and prejudiced perspective. Complaints about bias in part, reflect an idea about the media’s purpose: that newspapers and other dispensers of public information exist to transmit objective. The progressive movement promoted the idea that the proper function of the media was to instruct and shape the opinions of voters too uninformed and irrational to be trusted with making the right choice based on facts alone but now it is being used to brainwash our people from a young age and harm their upbringing.
As the Dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, has put it, “In a democracy, indeed in any intelligent society, the media and politicians have to lead. The media should be introducing us to new things, interesting things, things we don’t already know about; helping us change our minds or make up our minds, not just pandering to lowest-denominator wisdom.” Yet at the same time, the news presented in the media has been that of distort. News articles present people of color as thugs and gang members, but allow white people to have senior headshots and professional photos rather than the mugshots they had to take. The citizens of our country have to dig for the truth.
However, Citizens have numerous options for news and information, and numerous alternatives that challenge, balance, and correct the favorable biases of the mainstream media. More importantly, this new media world means that in a democracy ruled by the people, the responsibility for sorting out truth from fake, lies where it should; with the free citizens who have the civic duty to seek out and evaluate information before voting for a party or policy.
Media bias is no longer an excuse for neglecting that responsibility. The decline in credibility rating for most news organizations, is well, a scary one. The believability ratings for local TV news are higher than those for the three cable news outlets. Yet, most Americans do not rely on local news but on ones like, Fox. And we all know what they say about Fox. Eliminating bias is not possible, but the news could be held more accountable. We can start believing our new outlets rather than turning to social media websites for the real news. We shouldn’t allow fake news to be a reality. We should challenge it. Stop watching unreliable news sources, and research which channels are more credible.
Magazines and action news channels need to stop beating-around-the-bush and have articles and segments that tell the real story rather than their white-washed version of it. Stop “College football player released on $1M bond after stalking & shooting his 16-year-old cheerleader ex-girlfriend” and put “College stalker/murderer kills his 16 year old ex-girlfriend and gets away with it” don’t forget to add his mugshot instead of the extremely adorable photo that got sent to you by his mother.
Instead of using “alternative facts” the media needs to use the real facts and present viewers with the truth.
Our country will never reach its true potential if we keep allowing the media to brainwash us. With today’s technology we shouldn’t make it this simple to run laps around us with words.
We aren’t getting our news from pamphlets in town square. We aren’t sitting around, unable to know what is going on!
Our people have voices and the rights to use them! We make it simple to find the correct information but with easy access sources like CNN and ABC we tend to forget that bias media exist.
I don’t want to live in a world where people of color are made to seem monstrous and white privilege can get you out of jail time you deserve. I don’t want to see the news sugarcoat obvious plotted and planned murder with a relationship. We need a system that supports what the people have been fighting for since the early 1900’s. Equality. Unity. Freedom.
In America we say “Justice for all” but in mainstream media they “Justice for white” and that has to change.
