Which News Do You Use?

The skew of the news continues to amaze me. I feel like it's gotten more blatant (First with Trump; Then with the pandemic).

Fact of life: There's more stuff going on in the world than any one person can keep up with.

Corollary: What you do keep up with will affect your view of things.

I like to take screencaps of Fox and CNN at the same time to compare.

CNN felt that the virus and hypocrisy in the government remained top concerns when I grabbed this (or that they'd get the most clicks...). 

This was what showed on Fox at the same time. They looked more concerned with lawlessness, protesters, gun rights for self-protection, and bias at CNN.

I revisited both sites in the afternoon and my findings were consistent. CNN put Covid in big letters. There was a story about OK's governor testing positive and the controversy behind Trump supporting Goya because they supported him.

Fox continued to show they support Trump and what protesters were up to.

A quick note on Trump and Biden: Both are going to screw up. They're human.

Let's pretend Trump and Biden each do 10 things in a day: 5 good and 5 bad.

What do you suppose readers of CNN will think if CNN posts 3 good things from Biden and 3 bad things from Trump?

What do you suppose readers of Fox with think if Fox posts 3 good things from Trump and 3 bad things from Biden?

I feel like it's gotten to the point where if you only watch one source for your news it will skew your thinking. 

There's a correlation between the types of news and types of jokes I see people post on my social feed...

This is the type of meme someone who watches CNN may post.

Whereas this is the type of meme people who watch Fox tend to post.

Can you see the humor in both?

Now, I'm not claiming that someone who only follows CNN or Fox will agree with them 100% and be identical to everyone else who follows that page. In my life, I have noticed that people I talk to who follow one site or the other tend to bring up the topics that hit the front pages of those sites more often. I haven't pulled out a tally book and tried to form quantitative data to prove the social connection, but I do have my screen caps.

A few days later, here's CNN:

And here's Fox:

I've noticed that I have an increased tendency to click on stories that are either shocking or I've already followed other stories that tie in. I believe that people (me included) have a tendency to like to follow 'storylines.' The more you read about one topic, the more willing you are to keep going down the rabbit hole.

My own bias: I tend to prefer CNN. I'm not saying they're unbiased, but I feel like Fox is more alarmist and spins things far further. Plus, CNN tends to have more random links. In this side-by-side, I clicked on the "Wendy's launches a rewards program" on the CNN side.

I like finding those random tidbits.

I do read the actual news articles, too. CNN posted an article I found interesting about the CHOP zone in Seattle and how it broke apart. It felt more balanced to me than many things I've read lately and I could see talking points for both sides. The CHOP zone was a storyline on both CNN and Fox (though I think Fox posted articles more often, but I have no data to prove it).

One of the story lines I see that keeps hitting Fox is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I feel like she and "the squad" pop up there while I almost never see her on CNN.

And then a few days later she hit CNN. 

I hadn't started writing yet, so I thought, "I guess I have to throw that screen grab in now, too!" It proved me wrong that she "never" showed up on CNN, but notice why it hit CNN and what the other link above it is....

I find it dangerous to read the comments whenever I see these articles as I'm scrolling through my Facebook feed. Internet comments tend to be a troll cesspool.

I bet that guy reads Fox news.

I find most people don't want to believe that what they read influences their own thoughts and stances on an emotional level. We all want to believe we only look at the facts and arrive at the truth.

So for my final screen caps, I want to show competing headlines for the same topic. Fox and CNN even used some of the same pictures!

Notice how Fox phrases things in the link to their story....

....and notice how CNN phrases things in theirs.

You can see from the screenshots that I grabbed the pictures at the same time (9:55 with 53% battery!).

I don't have the time or energy in my life to always read two articles of everything and compare notes. Most people don't.

I do believe it's important to be aware of what you're reading, where it comes from, why it might be imperfects and how it can affect you.

Which is why it's important to read things that will build you up and give you life. Like the Bible! It gives me Hope by reading it each morning. Reading only the news is like eating a steady diet of junk food. It will leave you with indigestion and a sense of depression.