As I had mentioned in a previous post, one of the purposes of my blog will be to take a look at news stories as they come out, and attempt to point out the biases that exist. Well, I will give a crack at it today for the first time! Now, it will be a Fox News article that I'm covering. That is certainly not to say that I dislike the network or anything like that. It is simply that they published a rather important article this morning, and upon reading it, I noticed a few things that, in my opinion, were unnecessary and/or unneeded.
The article (which can be found here- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/23/whats-end-game-lawmakers-seek-way-out-obamacare-showdown/) is named 'What's the End-Game?'. The story covers the current political issue of the Affordable Care Act, its repeal and/or editing, and extending the time the government will be able to stay upon and work on it. There seems to be concern on both sides about the law, but there is disagreement on whether it should be totally de-funded or simply 'cleaned up'. This story has clear ramifications in that it deals really with almost every citizen of this country, businesses and the way the benefits the provide for their employees, doctors and their wages and who they provide care to, and taxes, just to name a few. But in some ways, the stories merit is undermined by the ideological leaning of the author.
The first and most obvious sign of bias in the article is its constant use of the term 'ObamaCare'. While the term is common, it is often used in an almost derogatory way, both to voice displeasure of the legislation while blaming President Obama for its inception. To me, I would have thought calling the bill by its actual name (the Affordable Care Act) could have taken away a lean that is used against the left-wing throughout the article. The article then seems to characterize the Democratic party, stating they they 'naturally want to strip out provisions de-funding the health law.' This early statement seems to reinforce the sentiment that Democrats don't want to see the Affordable Care Act touched while the Republicans want to see the whole thing taken down brick by brick. That couldn't be further from the truth, and the article even touches on it a little later.
Though this article was not all that biased and actually quite informative, it still had issues. To me, the average reader would have benefited much more if the story read thus: In Congress, there is currently a debate as to what should be done with the Affordable Care Act. While both Democrats and Republicans that something must be done, there is disagreement within the GOP as to if it should be edited or simply de-funded. Talks will certainly continue over the next few weeks, and we will see which way the Republicans intend to go. Stay tuned.
If it was written similar to that, then the story could be looked at objectively. But perhaps that's not what the media wants? The sooner Democrats and Republicans, both who are politicians and citizens, realize that they are Americans first, the sooner issues like this one can be handled productively.
I actually just commented on a blog of Brandon Schmidt's and he, too, uses a fox news article to articulate the bias in the news. I personally think that articles are more beneficial by stating the correct information, like saying the Affordable Care Act instead of Obamacare.
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