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Opinion

Left-wing media bias already in high gear for 2024

Star Parker Founder & President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education
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The race for president in 2024 is well underway with contenders fighting to get an early advantage. Former President Donald Trump has already declared he’s making a third bid for the White House, and his former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has also tossed her hat in the ring. As more contenders join the scrum, keep an eye out for mainstream news coverage and its partisan leanings. Straight Arrow News contributor Star Parker warns that left-wing media bias is already in high gear for the 2024 election.

This all ties back into why Americans largely don’t trust the media. It’s not a secret, yet media is our Fourth Estate in the Constitution, and yet we don’t trust it. In fact, a 2020 Pew Research report examined the trust of Americans when it comes to the individual news programs; none of the 30 sources they studied from CNN, Fox News, and even PBS was trusted by more than 50% of all American adults. 

At the end of the day, so many Americans still go to these news outlets to obtain their election information and learn more about candidates. And many times the election coverage can be so subtle in how it manipulates the viewers that it’s almost impossible for the casual viewer to catch what is happening, even if they’re readily on guard, even if they already have suspicions. This is twisted what we’re doing as a Fourth Estate. We saw this in 2021 with one of the oldest and most watched news programs in the country, “60 Minutes.” 

“60 Minutes” was covering well, you guessed it, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And not just on any issue. They were covering the governor’s response and actions in the midst of that omicron COVID, that wave that came through after the delta was sweeping across the country. Yet “60 Minutes” in that moment with an elected official selectively and… spliced and edited their showing of a speech by the governor, and they completely changed the message. Might have to look up this story, but even Democrat mayors and local leaders… they were appalled. They were taken aback by what they saw. And immediately they declared that wait, this coverage is inaccurate. That’s not what happened. 

Yet “60 Minutes,” oh no, their false claim that season was viewed by an average of over 9 million Americans on each of their episodes. And that doesn’t include online viewership, which could be another couple of million. So we’ve got to be on guard. We must be on guard in whatever we watch because the 2024 election coverage has already begun, and thus so has the relentless and deceptive workings of the left-wing media.

Most Americans get exhausted by election coverage and political ads polluting everything they watch, from football games to YouTube videos, etc, etc, etc. While one would think there’s a break after the massive media spectacle that was the 2022 midterms, that a break was going to be there…well, that break is pretty much over. Which means a liberal, unchecked power machine that is most of our media is already revving up their biased influence. 

Take Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for instance, who is currently expected by many to run for president and to be a frontrunner. Well the news agencies have recently begun their cycle, rotating this door of talking heads to denounce DeSantis. One of the most recent examples was John Hope Bryant, a panelist on MSNBC. He not only declared that DeSantis is racist – really? – okay, here we go again, which we can always expect from the Left to say about anyone that they disagree with these days, they’re just a racist. Well, but Bryant went as far as to use the Bible in his twisted accusations, quoting that, the Bible says “A house divided can’t stand.” I wonder why they’re always dividing us? Supposedly this party is about this higher ideal. We actually are about truth. And you’re right, divided because truth and light and dark don’t stay well together. But then he attempted to tie in that DeSantis is sowing chaos, and how DeSantis’ actions are helping China and Russia. This from a talking head on MSNBC. 

This is all just one more example of what you can expect to find almost anytime you turn on these news programs for the rest of this year, and go on to the next year, and it seems like an endless cycle. And while Florida is a big state, the agenda of the media is why you will continue to find more and more negative coverage about DeSantis compared to any other Republican governors such as Abbott in Texas, Kemp in Georgia. Huh-uh. All eyes on DeSantis, who incidentally hasn’t even announced yet. 

This kind of news coverage will be even more relentless for those who have or those anticipating to, such as Nikki Haley. 

[TV Clip] – 

“I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.”

And this all ties back into why Americans largely don’t trust the media. It’s not a secret, yet media is our Fourth Estate in the Constitution, and yet we don’t trust it. In fact, a 2020 Pew Research Report examined the trust of Americans when it comes to the individual news programs; none of the 30 sources they studied from CNN, Fox News, and even PBS was trusted by more than 50% of all American adults. 

At the end of the day, so many Americans still go to these news outlets to obtain their election information and learn more about candidates. And many times the election coverage can be so subtle in how it manipulates the viewers that it’s almost impossible for the casual viewer to catch what is happening, even if they’re readily on guard, even if they already have suspicions. This is twisted what we’re doing as a Fourth Estate. We saw this in 2021 with one of the oldest and most watched news programs in the country, “60 Minutes.” 

“60 Minutes” was covering well, you guessed it, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. And not just on any issue. They were covering the governor’s response and actions in the midst of that Omicron COVID, that wave that came through after the delta was sweeping across the country. Yet “60 Minutes” in that moment with an elected official selectively and…spliced and edited their showing of a speech by the governor, and they completely changed the message. Might have to look up this story, but even Democrat mayors and local leaders…they were appalled. They were taken aback by what they saw. And immediately they declared that wait, this coverage is inaccurate. That’s not what happened. 

Yet “60 Minutes,” oh no, their false claim, that season was viewed by an average of over 9 million Americans on each of their episodes. And that doesn’t include online viewership, which could be another couple of million. So we’ve got to be on guard. We must be on guard in whatever we watch because the 2024 election coverage has already begun, and thus so has the relentless and deceptive workings of the left-wing media. I’m so glad we have alternatives, including Straight Arrow News.

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