This summer has been an long and busy one. When looking to continue writing and putting out content for this site once the school year started, I faced a couple of problems. I want to cover issues that matter and that are also subject to bias. A major problem that then comes along, is also wanting to cover issues that are not just focusing on Trump and his nonsense. AKA the seemingly most covered and most polarizing issue in the media as of the last few months.
As always, I encourage you to check any information I may give you in this post yourself. The articles I used are below. I didn't analyze most of the information in the FOX articles, simply because they didn't cover the issue, the only way it was acknowledged was through an article they call a "halftime" that is just a document full of articles and information from other sites, not unlike what we do here.
Trump belatedly pays tribute to McCain and orders flag to fly at half staff-The Guardian Behind Trump's decision to finally praise John McCain-CNN
original flag lowering article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/27/trump-orders-flags-flown-at-half-staff-until-mccain-burial.html
“Halftime”: Trump Folds On Flag-FOX
The main points we'll be covering in this post are as follows.
John McCain died at the age of 81 on August 25
Trump was silent most of the day following McCain’s death
The flag was originally only at half mast through Sunday night and went up Monday morning
After several complaints, Trump put out a mainly logistical statement ordering flags to be lowered once more.
First things firsTYou can tell a lot about an article and a publication's bias through just examining the headline they use. While it's not always obvious, this issue in particular seems to be quite telling.
Right from the start, it's easy to tell The Atlantic doesn't approve of how Trump and his white house handled the situation. While that alone doesn't constitute a left leaning bias, the generalization used in the jabbing title is enough to give a pretty good idea of what stance the author has regarding Trump.
The Guardian seemingly has the least biased headline. It's difficult to say that our president was late to honoring a late congressman without painting an awful picture of them, but the author tried their hardest. CNN also leaves less room for bias in it's succinct headline. It also lends itself to a more analytical and less flat journalistic style.
Finally FOX's jabby line creates the notion that Trump was showing a sign of weakness simply by agreeing to honor a member of his own party with customary tradition. Keep in mind, this headline isn't even for an article a FOX staff member wrote! What purpose could they possible have for painting a picture like that in 4 words?
The Basic Facts of the Matter
It's hard to spin the date and age of someone's death, so there's not a ton to analyze here; however, the CNN article doesn't ever just blatantly state said facts. They mainly reference his death throughout the article, assuming that if you were reading it, you would have already known of McCain's death. They turn immediately to Trump's handling of it, referencing his "agenda", like he was trying to push something instead of paying his respects. The statement links directly into our next point.
The Start of the Tug-A-War
Despite most of America crying out to honor Mr. McCain on both sides of the isle, Trump refused to speak on the matter despite being prompted by reporters multiple time throughout the day.
The Atlantic paints a picture of Trump not unlike a toddler throwing a tantrum while CNN and The Guardian stay mainly factual despite The Guardian taking a shot at the president's golfing habits.
Even when Trump did acknowledge the matter via tweet, critics were fast to point out that he specifically adressed McCain's family rather than the late congressman himself. Some articles even report that the white house drafted a statement for him to read, but Trump refused
The issue most have with President Trump's behavior regarding the matter lie in him having the white house flag go back up sooner than is customary
The Atlantic comes out guns-a-blazing on this, calling the White House "petty", while The Guardian is purely factual and CNN adressess the criticism he faced on the issue.
After long deliberation, Trump releases a statement stating that the flags will be lowered once more. The statement has little to say other than pushing the logistics of the matter.
Critics like The Atlantic call out Trump's need to mention their political differences, despite it not being the time or platform to. Twitter didn't take well to the statement, saying it reeked of insincerity and was the very least the administration could do.
Overall, most outlets on both sides of the aisle could agree that the White House didn't handle most of this very well, despite FOX hardly adressing that there was a mishap in the first place.
Once again, I strongly advise you to check out the stories yourselves, as The Rundown is not meant to be a sole source of information, nor is it meant to be a journalistic institution.
Was this a good topic to cover? Do you have another story you want covered in full but haven't had the time to check out? Please contact us! A contact form is located on our home page. We are also starting a email list for those who cannot follow us on twitter. If you would like to receive notifications when new stories are up, leave your email in the contact form on the home page!
/psst....if I were you, I'd start watching for episodes of Pod Save CHS that may or may not be on its way..../
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