GOSHDARN LIBERAL MEDIA, WITH THEIR FACTS AND SUCH

In nearly every American news outlet, there is some form of bias. In recent years, these biases have become more and more evident with the continued polarization of the American Political sphere. To look at true media biases, I searched “Trump immigration Fox”, “Trump immigration NBC”, and “Trump immigration NPR”. The point of this was to look at discrepancies in coverage between a traditionally conservative source, Fox, a traditionally liberal source, NBC, and a traditionally unbiased source, NPR. 

FOX

Fox’s immigration article covering Trump discussed his recent comments surrounding his recent comments that illegal immigrants “are getting the hell out or they are going to prison”. The angle that they took with this article was that the undocumented people that he is targeting are dangerous criminals such as MS-13. Fox displayed Trump as an American who was a strong leader that wants clean streets. An example of this bias is speaking of MS-13 and a quadruple homicide. This plants in everyone’s mind that all immigrants are violent criminals, which pushes Trump’s policies of tighter immigration laws. Fox covers Trump as much as anyone. Most of their stories are either coming from Trump himself or Trump’s people. The amount that they are sighting Trump rather than other experts or even elaborating on what he is saying, points to the possibility that Fox is being used as a PR campaign from the Trump camp. 

NBC

For the sake of consistency, I chose to go with a NBC article that covered the exact same comments from Trump. However it had a very different feel than the Fox article. This article had the goal to poke holes in the claims that Trump made about deporting “Tremendous criminals”. It questions the claims for statistical proof then claims that even a “DUI” could result in someone being deported. An example of a bias is the way in which this article frames that “even a DUI, driving under the influence, could result in deportation proceedings.”. That sentence frames that very minor crimes report in deportation, when drunk drivers kill 1000s of Americans every year. NBC covers Trump almost as much as FOX covers Trump. Most of NBC’s stories are a product of their media team because they are looking for the ability to poke holes in any Republican story while remaining truthful. 

NPR

NPR has always been a personal favorite for news because while it has as much excitement as watching the paint dry, it is in general the most unbiased major news outlet. The article I found discussed the ramifications of increased deportations of people who have mandatory ICE check-ins. It seemed to have little bias if any, just reporting and interviewing a women who is directly effected by the increase of deportations. NPR doesn't cover Trump near as much as other outlets, they focus on covering both local and international news and how those stories effect the American people more than staring at Trump waiting for him to blink. Most of their stories are found through their own reporters and media team because of the lesser focus on Trump. 

If I was Trump advisors, I would tell him to not change anything about how he pushes stories. That is because Fox will always back you up, NBC will always bash you, and NPR will always be playing in a little hipster coffeeshop that has some guy named Stue working the register. It will be interesting to see how these news outlets continue to cover stories as the polarization of American politics continues. 

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/18/trump-illegal-immigrant-criminals-are-getting-hell-out.html

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/18/trump-on-bad-immigrants-theyre-getting-the-hell-out-or-theyre-going-to-prison.html

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/03/522424593/immigration-dragnet-gains-support-after-migrants-are-arrested-for-crimes

Only one question remains... Who set the agenda?!?!?!?

Donald Trump’s agenda and policy stances has caused a shift in the Republican party towards the far right. Throughout his campaign he continually too more and more nationalist stances. What was really interesting about this was, while receiving push back from the Republican party, the Republican party slowly but steadily both the constituency and officials began to follow his issue stances.

Trump’s issues

Throughout the campaign, Trump pushed anti-immigration and anti-trade agendas. One of Trump’s most famous policy stance is his push for a wall on the southern border. This was one of his first major policy platforms, and it really help set the tone for a much more nationalist campaign than many were expecting. Another one of Trump’s nationalist policy stance, is his stance on the middle east. During the campaign, while speaking at Fort Dodge, Trump in regards to the middle east he would, “Bomb the shit out of ‘em. i would just come those suckers.” This is a staunch uptick to what we were used to in Obama and even Bush. The final major nationalist policy stance that Trump has, is in regards to trade. He is for leaving NAFTA and PTT. His goal is to make sure America is buying American instead of outsourcing jobs. 

Traditional Republican Stance

Republicans, in general, are traditionally in favor for as little government involvement as possible in the private sector economy, a reformed immigration platform with strong borders, and a strong military however not an over reaching military. Their views are fairly similar to Trump in regards to immigration and military, however Republican views are much less intense an absolute. In regards to trade, Trump’s views differ greatly from the traditional Republican establishment. Republicans are for as unregulated of a free market as possible, while Trump wants to heavily regulate and tax international trade. 

A Republican Shift

Throughout primary season, many Republican establishment members tried to distance themselves from Trump because of their ideological differences. However, after the Republican constituency continued to support Trump, and he gained the party nomination, the establishment began to shift in their views and support for Trump. For example, under Obama, Mitch McConnell wouldn't support Syrian intervention, but under Trump, Mitch McConnell has already tweeted his support for the Syrian missile strike. Now the question remains as to whether this is a strictly partisan response and an attempt to preserve a future with in the party or if it is a genuine shift in feelings toward a very serious international relations issue. 

The media

With how Trump talks about the main stream media, it’s not a surprise that they aren't the nicest about his policy stances. After a quick NAFTA google news search, every respectable news source bashes it as a terrible idea. Searching for articles about “Syrian intervention”, only Fox news had support for the decision, and one could very easily lump Fox to the Republican establishment. I think that it’s the media who does most of the agenda in regards to Trump’s policy stances, because most of the time it is from a news source that we are getting the information about Trump’s issue. Since they are the source that means they have a chance to spin it and set it up however they like. 

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bomb-isis-2015-11

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/politics/kfile-top-republicans-syria-trump/index.html?sr=fbCNN040717kfile-top-republicans-syria-trump0830PMStoryLink&linkId=36309418

2016: The Alec Baldwin Election

Pop culture plays a huge role in how we think about politicians. From songs to television shows and everything in-between, our opinions are shaped greatly by these medias. Donald Trump has bore the brunt of pop culture’s wrath. Even before Trump ran for office, he was a huge hit in realm of pop culture. For example, he was the guest of honor on a Comedy Central Roast and was also “stone cold stunned” in a special round of WWE. So now it is no surprise that he is still a very prominent face in pop culture. Nearly everyone is trying to take a shot at Trump, but I thought the best representation of Trump in pop culture, was in Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night Live has made fun of Donald Trump literally once a week for the past year or so, so I tried to pick a skit from them that encompassed everything they were trying to say about him. The image that SNL (Saturday Night Live) was trying to portray of Trump is someone who has no idea what they're doing, someone who is just a puppet, and someone who has a very fragile ego. Each person who came in to speak with Trump would say something about the promises he made, and he would freak out because of how big the promises really were. At one point, he tries to google, “What is ISIS?”. This  is an attempt to show that Trump has no idea what he is doing in the middle east and no comprehension of foreign policy in general. SNL also wants Trump to look like a puppet. During his meeting with Pence in the skit, Trump needed reassurance that Pence would do all the work for him. Finally they portray Trump as egotistical because he needs confirmation from Twitter about his cabinet nominations as well as isn't willing to even really hold a meeting with Mitt Romney. 

This portrayal goes against almost everything Trump wants you to think of him. He wants to be seen as the man with plan who knows how to solve problems. Trump wants to be seen as a confident mans man who has been successful at all phases of life. By going after his intelligence, ego, and ability to lead, SNL is affectively altering the way people think about Trump. Obviously staunch Trump supporters don’t care about what SNL and Alec Baldwin have to say, but when it comes to people in the middle ground, these satirical critiques are just planted in people’s head and they will begin to look for them in real life. Most importantly, it has started to affect Trump himself. He has spoken out recently against SNL. That just shows that they have gotten under his skin and since then, SNL has amped up the satirical onslaught.

Sources: 

http://www.today.com/popculture/donald-trump-criticizes-alec-baldwin-s-impression-him-calls-snl-t105694

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWSLlz0Fdo