I have always found the relationship between the media and the white house very interesting. It is completely understandable how the white house could get very frustrated with a group of individuals who are monitoring their every move and criticizing every mistake made. I also believe that the importance of an accountable media is underestimated. They are the sole connection between politicians and the people that they govern and one of the only institutions that keep politicians in check.
In the reading, it discussed how many presidents and presidential candidates throughout recent history have believed that the media has been against them. This includes candidates from both sides of the political spectrum from Hillary Clinton to George Bush and Bernie Sanders. This notion made me realize that the media, as a whole, is not really for anyone because that isn’t their job. The media is responsible for calling out faults more than it is responsible for giving praise. I think its particularly easy to call out the media for being biased, though I don’t believe its accurate. Because there are two sides to the current media, with some channels being conservative and some being liberal, the news is not really consistent anymore which makes it hard for the people to decipher what is really going on within the government.
That being said, media also has to be held accountable for being accurate. Not often to media channels go out of their way to make any corrections on mistakes that they have made, which I think is a major problem within media. I also think people have to reconsider what actually is news. When people begin to take sources such as Breitbart and Huffington Post for news, that’s when problems arise and people’s idea of what is actually occurring becomes skewed. In other words, when people start listening to what they want to hear.
I completely agree with you that we must reevaluate what is “news” and what is opinion-based writing. In my opinion, it is valid to write on politics from a particular party in mind, but that must be differentiated as an op-ed rather than a “news” report or headline. There are differences.
in my opinion, the media is supposed to be watching leaders and ensuring that they are following the laws. There are going to be differences based on party and one needs to learn how to distinguish actual news vs opinion-based pieces.
I agree with you on the news giving more criticism than praise. I believe that the media is a way to hold politicians accountable for their actions and bring light to what they are doing so the public knows. However, like you said, there are two sides of the media which is becoming very polarized and therefore it’s hard to decipher what is going on in the government.