We’ve all heard the keywords: fake news, political polarization, and media bias. Nobody wants to believe that the group responsible for keeping the public informed might be acting with the interest of the party they affiliate with in mind, but as time goes on it’s become abundantly clear that that is exactly what many news sites are doing.

Media has become increasingly polarized over the years as more people stray away from identifying with issues they care about and instead align strictly with the views of the party they associate with. In order to cater to a larger audience, media networks will tailor their articles to appeal to a certain political party. The problem begins when people only read articles that align with their political views which leads to being overall misinformed. 

If someone wants to be the most informed on a topic, they wouldn’t only talk to one person if it was known that that person was biased, they would talk to as many people as they could to find out the most information they could about this topic. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t want to be informed, they instead want to be kept in the dark about anything that makes their party look bad. 

According to Pew Research, people who identify with the Republican party are much more likely to distrust certain media sources than Democrats. This distrust of the media is further enforced by Donald Trump’s insistence about the overbearing presence of “fake news.” While false information is an issue in todays society, the bigger issue at hand is bias. Trump consistently cites Fox News as a credible source when in actuality it’s very right leaning and filled with controversial headlines intended to provoke people and therefore extremely biased towards the republican party. With Trump constantly praising Fox news as a reliable source and Fox News’ existing bias could lead to the blatant underreporting of Trump’s shortcomings.

Media plays a very important role in today’s politics because it’s where the majority of people get their information which will ultimately decide how they will vote in upcoming elections. Choosing to leave out information or deciding not to report something because it will make the party they associate with look bad is a disservice to the public by mainstream news networks. 

With election day approaching it’s more important than ever to make sure the information you are getting is accurate and coming from an unbiased source. While it’s certainly more comfortable to read news that reflects the political party you identify with in a positive light, it’s better to read news that gives an honest portrayal of the current political situations.