Sophie Ali Final Paper

Sophie Ali

Professor Williams

26 March 2014

Oh, For Fox Sake: The Most Trusted Names in News? 

 

Race has always been a topic of interest, a source of contention, or just another variable often used to categorize individuals. Further, it is one of the biggest factors that gets spotlighted, or avoided all together, in high profile stories ranging from missing persons coverage, to murder cases, and terrorism attacks. Consequently a disturbing trend is on the rise: racial profiling. News media are unfairly taking the negative behaviors of one person and transferring them onto all people of similar appearance. These news stories and television stations are only cementing the gap between races, and little is being done to stop this. While not all news media in the 21^st century U.S. perpetuate a pro-white, anti-minority sentiment, major stations such as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC have a biased tone to their reports.

What if Zimmerman had attended a rally for Martin? [x]

United States journalism has never been an objective business. In fact, these days there seems to be a formula that news media follow in an attempt to beat the competition and gain more viewers, all in order to fuel the money machine. “Getting the ‘good’ story first, relying on expert sources, reducing events to two-sided reports, questioning aggressively politicians and leaders, and personalizing” are all aspects of the storytelling method that delivers us our news (Campbell, 143). A majority of the racial profiling problem stems from the reduction of events to two-sided stories which pits two people or groups against each other with one clear winner: criminal versus noncriminal, offender versus non-offender, and white versus nonwhite. However, the grey areas common to realistic new stories are driven into nonexistence by media and that creates an idealistic mold for every news case to fit into. Because the real world does not work on a black and white scale, we deserve to be presented stories that use a full spectrum of colors, stories that do not label entire races as good or bad, or encourage harmful stereotypes.

  Fox News claims to be working for Americans, but in reality their opinion-to-fact reporting percentage indicates otherwise. [1]

All individuals have an opinion and despite their wish to remain neutral at times, they cannot prevent some form of bias from slipping in. News anchors, relaying stories to us through our television screens, should try their best to keep this bias at bay, perhaps by focusing less on their own commentary and opinion or interviews and more on factual reporting. As logical as that seems, especially with news media’s outward goal of only presenting the facts to the public, that is not what CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are doing. A study by State of the Media found that at CNN, 46% of airtime was commentary/opinion, 55% of airtime was commentary/opinion at Fox News, and a shocking 85% of MSNBC’s airtime was commentary/opinion, leaving only 15% for factual reporting (Jurkowitz). It is not new knowledge that these three major news stations are known to have a conservative ideology, and they have been known on several occasions to veer from the issue at hand to address more personal concerns. In 2013, a Fox News anchor famously issued a verbal attack on an author, simply because of her individual issues with reconciling his religion and race with that of the topic of his book. Incidents like this could be avoided if there was less focus on interview segments or even if there was less power given to news anchors, who are only supposed to relay facts in the first place.

Fox News’ affiliates are often called out for their racially insensitive comments. [2] [3]

 

 In February 2012, a high profile murder case was featured on every major news station in the United States: the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. It is important to note how the two men involved were characterized, Zimmerman as the “white Hispanic” and Martin as the African American. Before any investigation could be completed or any conclusions drawn as to what happened on the night of the fateful shooting, news media seemed to have answered the question for their viewers. Sticking faithfully by the “reducing events to a two-sided story” method, a winner and loser had already been declared by CNN, and it was no surprise that the “white Hispanic” won out. A term that had never been thrown around before the Zimmerman-Martin incident, one had to wonder if the inclusion of white as a descriptor was necessary. A racial profiling trend seems to have permeated these major news stations and it will only grow if viewers willingly consume what they are offered.
 

When news broke of Zimmerman's sudden interest to participate in a celebrity boxing match, people were outraged at his audacity to refer to himself as a celebrity. However, not much attention was paid to his confession to fight anyone, including black people. Had the case been reversed, with Martin confessing to fight anyone, including white people, a greater uproar would have ensued. [4] [5]

Racial trends in news media are becoming more prominent and so are the studies investigating them. Robert Entman, a professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, highlighted several media trends regarding race including, “whites are overrepresented as victims of violence and as law-enforcers, while blacks are underrepresented in these sympathetic roles,” “blacks in criminal roles tend to outnumber blacks in socially positive roles in newscasts,” and “blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to appear as lawbreakers in the news - particularly when the news is focusing on violent crime.”A change in the structure of news broadcasting begins with educating ourselves on the unfairness of the current format and accepting that stereotypes and prejudices may exist in America today, but realizing they should not be the norm, especially in mainstream news. “Fox News' [along with CNN and MSNBC’s] racial crime coverage is hurting people” and feeding into what they are projecting is wrong and regressive for our country (Powell).

 

What if Zimmerman had been black? Racial Profiling unfortunately influenced the reporting of the Zimmerman-Martin case in 2012. [6]

            The coverage disparity for races extends beyond crime stories, often infiltrating the airtime given to missing people cases as well. Dr. Mia Moody, assistant professor of journalism and media arts at Baylor University, says “National media coverage of missing women is unequal when it comes to race, with missing Anglo women receiving more attention than black women.” Unfortunately, race, social class, and physical appearance play into the amount of attention a case will receive and this significantly hurts many women’s chances of being found. It goes deeper, affecting missing children’s coverage in national news. A 2010 research report compared the proportions of missing children cases in news reports and official reports from 2005-2007. They found that the coverage of missing children cases might be disproportional based on race and gender, with “non-African American cases having 80.5% coverage” in the television news sample and “African American cases having 19.5% coverage” (Min, 213). It is obvious that the claims of a racial bias presence in the news are not personal and occasional, having been backed by countless studies and professionals.

Television shows such as The Simpsons often parody news stations like Fox. The edited image shows a city being distorted and harmed by the effects of Fox News. [7]   

  Efforts to counteract the inequality from broadcasting stations like CNN are in existence and gaining popularity. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on Comedy Central blatantly calls out opinion-based newscasts like The Bill O'Reilly Factor in a sarcastic and humorous manner. An episode entitled “Black Friday Profiling”addresses actual, modern day adversity faced by African Americans in high-end retail stores. The profiling that plagues them can be partly attributed to racial stereotypes that are only intensified by news media that play off of them. Jon Stewart references other racial issues in the episodes “The R-Word” and “Weak Constitution.”
 

Don't let Jon crack under pressure. While there are some efforts to counteract the racially biased news networks, more could be done. Perhaps by bringing similar shows to local channels than everyone can watch rather than cable networks like Comedy Central. [8] 

         Do not accept everything you hear as the absolute truth: that appears to be the underlying message of the countless studies done regarding race in media. Nonetheless, it is easier said than done when television news is accessible and convenient and tells us what to think, requiring little effort on our part. As technology advances however, and younger generations turn to the Internet for their news, more opinions are heard and racial profiling in news stories is called out. Websites and news stations like Democracy Now challenge the notion of opinion based news and are a step in the right direction for Americans. At the end of the day, racial profiling is not going unnoticed, with articles like “If Caylee Anthony had been black, would you know her name?” appearing left and right (Alexander). “Race and the Press: The Local Story,” a 2001 conference held in Washington DC, stressed the importance of media helping narrow the gulf between black and white citizens, rather than widen it. A panelist added that the problem “is that we still see a white person as the default person, a regular person” (Fernandaz). Now is the time for news media to do their part with their ability to reach the masses, and assist in helping Americans step away from that ideology.

Does it matter? Racial bias from news media actually does translate in real life and perhaps affects it as well. [9] 

Works Cited

Alexander, Keith L. "If Caylee Anthony Had Been Black, Would You Know Her

Name?" Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 July 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-caylee-anthony-had-been-black-would-you-know-her-name/2011/07/06/gIQAtTW23H_story.html>.

Baylor University. "Missing Women of Different Races Receive Differing Coverage

from Media." Baylor University Media Communications. N.p., 8 July 2010. Web.

20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=76462>.

Campbell, Richard, Joli Jensen, Douglas Gomery, Bettina Fabos, and Julie D. Frechette.

Media In Society. Boston: Bedford, 2014. Print.

Fernandez, Daniel E., and Kenyon S. Weaver. "Journalists, Scholars Argue Racial Bias in

News Coverage." Journalists, Scholars Argue Racial Bias in News Coverage | News |. The Harvard Crimson, 29 June 2001. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2001/6/29/journalists-scholars-argue-racial-bias-in/>.

Jurkowitz, Mark. "The Changing TV News Landscape." State of the Media. The Pew

Research Center, 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/special-reports-landing-page/the-changing-tv-news-landscape/>.

Min, Seong-Jae, and John C. Feaster. "Missing Children in National News Coverage:

Racial And Gender Representations Of Missing Children Cases." Academia.edu. N.p., 10 July 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://www.academia.edu/857391/Missing_Children_in_National_News_Coverage_Racial_and_Gender_Representations_of_Missing_Children_Cases>.

Powell, Brian. "Fox News' Racial Crime Coverage Is Hurting People." Media Matters for

America. Media Matters, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. <http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/23/fox-news-racial-crime-coverage-is-hurting-peopl/195567>. 
Stewart, Jon. "Black Friday Profiling." The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Comedy Central.
           21 Nov. 2013. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.             <http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/kqm9ge/black-friday-profiling>.