Media

Citizenship Assignment 3

The news story I am comparing is about pres. Trump having “mini-strokes” as reported in a MSNBC story from NBC (Georgian) as well as Fox News (Fordham).

The first question to answer is “Were the facts reported the same in both stories? Or was there something that was left out of one story and not the other?” I found that facts of the two stories seem to agree because they both referenced the same tweet from Pres. Trump and from the same Whitehouse statement from his physician.

The second question was “What did you notice about the language/word choice? Was there leading or subjective language to favor one point of view over another?” The NBC story talked more about the upcoming book “Donald trump vs. The Whitehouse.” than anything else, as if that was the entire reason for the story in the first place. While the NBC story was about the book, the Fox news story discussed why Pres. Trump meet with his doctors at Walter Reed hospital in November of 2019 (which was said to be scheduling conflicts in the upcoming year).

Fox news was the story that mentioned mini-strokes and sited a tweet from Don Winslow. He said that he got the info from “a lot of people, including whistleblowers inside Trump administration”.  This same tweet showed a news clip which the claims to show Pres. Trump slurring his words during a speech on Israel. To me, it sounded like his dentures were loose rather than a stroke. I guess his Efferdent didn’t hold up to his rigorous schedule.

The third question to answer is “Is the media trying to influence your opinion about the topic as mentioned in the textbook under the heading "media influence?" Both these stories are about planting a seed that Pres. Trump is unfit to be president by setting the agenda, or by continuing the agenda.  Fox News went a little further to the left by talking about, and showing, the tweet. Both of them answered the question why he went to Walter Reed. NBC wanted to sell books and bring down trump at the same time so if you hate Trump, buy this book. (And they don’t like capitalism.)

The fourth question to answer is “Are the media in this particular instance performing their proper role in our democracy? Why or why not?” The role of the press is so important that its importance was established in this country’s founding documents. Their role is to inform the public and to act as a watch dog on the actions of politicians and the government at large. This is why it is often referred to as the fourth estate.

In this example about Pres. Trump, they both brought up the story but for different reasons.  The NBC story came out first and was not to inform but to sell books and secondary to reaffirm their narrative that Trump is unfit. If NBC’s story was truly about his health, it would have been focused on the medical aspect and contained quotes from doctors and other medical professionals. The Fox story on the other hand was only written as a rebuttal even though it contained additional information which seemed to bolster the original story. I believe they both failed in their duty because neither was to inform John Q Public, but to sling mud and undermine the office of POTUS. The other story was just to wipe away some of the mud.

The last item was to fact check the story using “Politfact” and “Factchect”. Neither one of these two sites had anything on the story, which doesn’t surprise me. However, the exercise is to become familiar with these web sites for fact checking and perhaps more important, is to not take anything as absolute fact. When I Googled them, I found one set of facts but when I searched using Dogpile, I got something different about these sites. The more you check, from as many sources as possible, the better. It may still take some thought on the readers part but that is what we are to do, present evidence and let the reader decide.

 

 

References

Gregorian, Dareh. Trump raises eyebrows with tweet declaring he did not have 'a series of mini-strokes', MSNBC1 Sep 2020www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-raises-eyebrows-tweetdeclaring-he-did-not-have-series-n1239006

Fordham, Evie. Trump denies suffering 'series of mini-strokes,' doctor says he 'remains healthy' Fox News, www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-denies-stroke-michael-schmidt-book-walter-reed

Political Parties

The Republican Platform

            I whole heartedly agree with the Republican platform when it speaks about Abortion.  This is the number one reason why I became a member of the republican party.     

            The Republican platform states “The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life” (Republican Platform 2016).  I couldn’t say it any better but I’d like to elaborate. 

This statement echoes my personal beliefs as I think that abortion is wrong on any level.  A baby, a child, or an embryo is a human life and no one but the creator has the right to take that life away.  As the Declaration of Independence says “…ALL are endowed by their creator...” that would imply that there is a creator and as such, he is the one whom gives life (National Archives).  Life comes from God almighty and not parents, nor a test tube, or a big bang.  Because life comes from God, it is wrong for someone to decide to take that life.  That would make us higher than God.  I don’t think so.  

One of the duties of the government to protect its citizens, especially those who cannot protect themselves.  The Republican party recognizes this and addresses it whereas the Democrats turn the unborn child into a pawn for the mother to use to defend her “rights”.

The Democrats are as opposite as night and day on this topic.  They don't acknowledge any form of “higher being” because to them, Government is the higher being, so because of this, they have no moral code by which to guide them in their decisions.  They advocate abortion on demand, at any time, and want the taxpayers to pay for it (Party Platform 2016).  They are only concern with the mothers “right to choose”.  To them the baby isn’t really a life until it is born and even then, it’s questionable. 

The Democrats are hypocritical when they say in their platform “…defend the constitutional principles of liberty and equality for all, and will protect a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion” because when they say equality for all its only for women who vote Democrat (Party Platform).

I don’t think there is a way to compromise with the Democrats. I do want the members of Congress to take the high road and find a solution that both sides can agree with.  I don’t think the courts should be de facto writing laws from the bench.  The Congress should take up this issue and settle it based on their constituent's beliefs.  We all know where this is going because no politician wants to take on this hot potato.

To sum it up, the government's role is to protect ALL if it’s citizens, regardless of their size or condition.  This was so important to the founders that they put this into the Declaration of Independence when it says “...Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (National Archives).   I feel that abortion violates the essence of the Constitution and I think the founders would be disappointed with us. 

 

References

Republican Platform 2016 https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/static/home/data/platform.pdf?_ga=2.43696166.204372641.1597558173-1924827778.1597558173

Party Platform. The 2016 democrat Platform. www.democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/

National Archives. America’s Founding Documents, Declaration of Independence: A transcription.  www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript 

Polling Data, Look beyond the numbers.

 

Look beyond the numbers.

The author is obviously upset with the results as he wants to know “How this happened” so they look to the numbers for answers. To quote the Geico commercials, “It’s what they do”.

People get caught up in numbers, so they miss the point. The left said Trump voters were stupid and should not have been allowed to vote. They couldn’t accept that their candidate just wasn’t what the people wanted.

To boil it down to one item, it would be item number eight when the author said “This was a change election. And Trump was the change candidate” (Cillizza).  Speaking for myself, Trump wasn’t my first choice, but I voted for him because I wanted somebody different, somebody outside of politics. Well you can’t get much farther outside of politics than Trump. I didn’t vote for a Pope or anything like that so all the mudslinging the media did had no bearing on my vote.

I found a nugget in this article which is very relevant for today. The last item is about Presidential debates. The article stated that “…64 percent [] said the debates were an “important” part of their vote for president []” (Cillizza).  Joe Biden could not perform well in a debate against anyone so, now the left is downplaying the effect a debate has on an election and using the corona virus as an excuse to not hold any debates.  Interesting how the tides change.

Until we talk again.

Cillizza, Chris. “The 13 most amazing findings in the 2016 exit poll”, The Fix, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/10/the-13-most-amazing-things-in-the-2016-exit-poll/, 10 Nov 2016