Somehow the human race has gotten so divided that we can’t even agree on what is true anymore, regarding our news outlets. Fox News is often seen as a more conservative news source. They are the most popular news channel in the country, and they have a reputation for being pretty biased, usually leaning towards spreading conservative political viewpoints. CNN, however, is on the opposite side of the spectrum, raising many questions and ideas that would be considered mostly liberal. Let’s take a deep look at these two.
Fox News was founded 26 years ago by media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, who wanted a conservative cable news station. The channel quickly grew into the biggest news outlet in the U.S., averaging 3 million yearly viewers. They also gain a revenue of $1.8 billion per year. Many have found Fox to be very controversial, usually being in favor of the Republican party and portraying the Democratic party in a negative light. 65% of people who identify as Republican say they trust Fox. The biggest controversy recently has been about their most popular anchor, Tucker Carlson. After making xenophobic statements on the topic of immigration, Carlson was sued for hate speech. His lawyers defended him, but not in the way one would think. They stated that the, "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.'” Their lawyers defended Carlson by saying that any “reasonable viewer” would not take his statements seriously, which is, in fact, extremely scary due to the high likelihood that almost all of the viewers believe him and the other anchors on the network. Carlson is one of many other anchors on Fox including others of note: Bret Baier, Harris Faulkner, Ainsley Earhardt, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.
CNN, founded in 1980, was the first 24-hour news channel and the first all-news channel. They average 1.8 million viewers each year, drawing in $714 million in revenue. CNN has also received much criticism for using the “Breaking News” headline too often in order to get more viewership and also for usually speaking out against the Trump Administration after being mostly unbiased in general in previous administrations. Anchors of the show include these people of note: Jim Acosta, David Axelrod, Dana Bash, John Berman, Wolf Blitzer, Pamela Brown, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Van Jones, John King, Don Lemon, Michael Smerconish, Jake Tapper, Chris Wallace, and Fareed Zakaria.
Which news network do you prefer, or do you not like either? Do you want networks to share different opinions on different matters, or should they all be unbiased, so the listener can decide for themselves?
Click here to vote which network you watch or go to the ‘Vote Your Mind’ page on the newspaper’s website.
- Jacob Francy