Last week I wrote my commentary “Mending the Rift” about the need for Americans to be open to other people’s ideas and not be afraid to discuss political matters. The purpose? To foster community in our nation, to understand differences and gain insight on other possible solutions to our nation’s problems.

This week, I hope to comment on our need for unbiased media or at least for Americans to approach multiple media sources in order to be open to political discourse. 

From my own experience, I grew up watching and reading Fox News, reading and absorbing primarily conservative biased news promoted by Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly. 

My younger adolescence was filled with praise for Congressional Republicans and relentless criticism of President Obama. 

Omniscience of facts favorable to moderate or liberal ideology was and is the Fox News way and made me, what I call a “conservative news victim.” 

This adolescent development period of my life is similar among many in this country. Yes, we have the conservative Fox News, Brietbart and the Daily Mail non-stop viewers, but the same happens on the flip side. 

If CNN, the New York Times or the Huffington Post are your regular news source, you likely fall under the category of my self-created phrase, “liberal news victim.”

According to them, President Trump might as well be Satan and the Democrats are the people’s champion on literally anything that is, has or ever will happen, in spite of few accomplishments over the past three years. 

I am in no way implying that news sources are equally biased, because we all know that there are many more liberal-biased sources than conservative, but I am stressing that we be wary of these biases. 

We must recognize the loaded commentary, personal opinions and “true” news we hear, see and watch. We must identify and contemplate the perspectives and opinions that they blatantly leave out. 

The action statement to this piece? GO! Recognize and identify your news source partisanship and then seek to expand your news sources. 

I find reading articles from the Washington Post, Fox News and NPR to be a nice blend of liberal and conservative news sources. Try it.

Should I have to read three different articles of the same topic to find the truth behind one story? Most certainly not. Sadly though, that is our current state of American journalism. 

Getting these different news sources will help our society to be more welcoming of each other and our respective beliefs. We will be more informed as a society on facts, instead of pseudo-facts laced with personal opinion. 

And if the American people show that we won’t just listen to one-sided propaganda, maybe, just maybe, our news will once again head back to unbiased journalistic ideals that they pledge to uphold. 

Share