Entry #2: Beware of Slanted Reporting

So often, we find ourselves watching the news and believing every word they speak. However, many news sources have a bias on certain subjects such as politics that they will not state directly. Instead, these news sources will try to hide the bias under the surface so as to indirectly state their opinion. In this post, I will show you an example of slanted reporting and how to know whether or not it is bias.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/17/report-bill-would-set-8-year-path-to-residency/

Go ahead and take a look at the above article. It is from Fox News. It seems as though this article was just written to inform the audience about Obama's new immigration plan. But notice that almost all of the opinions of Obama's immigration bill that they source, are from Republicans.

The one quote that somewhat supports Obama's immigration plan is from Ali Noorani. Although, Fox News even goes on to say that Noorani believes that Obama is not paying enough attention to future immigration systems.

Another piece of evidence of slanted reporting, is there attack on Obama. They cite one of Obama's quotes and announce that he will get the bill past regardless of Congress' opinion on it. This makes the President look selfish and not willing to work as a team. However, on several occasions President Barack Obama has tried to receive Congress' approval and has announced in many speeches that he wants to work with Republicans and Congress. He even signed the NDAA act saying that Congress wanted it passed, so in order to work as a team and receive their approval when he needs it, he signed it. The NDAA act was completely against his beliefs as President but he still wanted there to be mutual respect and teamwork between him and the rest of the government.

Additionally, there are only two small paragraphs about Noorani's belief. The rest of the article is based off of Paul and other Repulicans' beliefs. The composition of the article is designed in a way that it mostly contains Republicans' opinions on the immigration plan. Also, Fox News adds Noorani's argument as a way of showing that even some democrats are skeptical of Obama's plan.

As you can see, this article is a clear example of slanted reporting due to its one-sided reporting. The source is not credible due to its indirect bias. Fox News uses these hidden methods to impact and persuade their audience in a certain direction.