Reaction To The Media Coverage On Clintions

Impeachment Essay, Research Paper

“I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

Remember these famous last words? On that faithful 27th day of January, Clinton stood before audience and spoke the words that essentially led to is impeachment from the office of President. Clinton would stick by his statement until the bitter end, when he was advised to comply with federal prosecutors and concede to perjury (an impeachable offence).

Unfortunately, the manner in which this story was brought to the public was just as intolerable as perjury. Clinton s sex scandal was dumped into a media marketplace where politics rule and the facts are shoved under the carpet. Once a factual piece of information is bombarded by bits political pressure, it becomes biased or slanted . Much of the television and newspaper coverage of the Clinton scandal fell under this category of journalism.

But how can any single news organization be influenced by politics? Take for example, the FOX news channel. The twenty-four hour cable news channel, run by Rupert Murdoch s News Corp. A little research on Murdoch shows that he is a devout republican, and uses his assets to promote his beliefs . This makes me question the channel s slogan: We report. You decide .

Since much of the media today, has some type of political bias it wasn t hard to find articles to exemplify this. When I decided to analyze the Clinton impeachment, the first place I thought of was Mother Jones . Mother Jones is a political magazine takes an independent stand on most issues. It was founded on the idea that social change is good, if done in accordance with the magazine. In the article I read, Clinton was not treated fairly at all.

The author exposes all the bad things about Clinton, and makes him out to be one of the worst Presidents this country has ever seen. Clinton, you may recall, has done more than any other president in recent history to ensure that defendants in federal courts don t get a fair trial. The rest of the article deals with other injustices that Clinton has been accused of. This article, to be published during the height of the impeachment proceedings, is clearly a detriment to Clinton s case.

My second source is one of the most highly regarded newspapers in the world. The New York Times usually takes a neutral position on most of the important issues. It is a newspaper whose main purpose is to convey facts, not opinion. On the day Clinton was to testify, the Times ran an article where the headline said that Clinton would admit to a relationship with Lewinsky. The rest of the article to a look at what the effects of this will be, in a very unbiased manner. The author looks at the overall picture, not just an isolated incident as in the Mother Jones article.

Another article I looked at was written in the New Republic. The New Republic is a political magazine that gives more of an insiders prospective on the issues of the day. The article I read called played out is somewhat of a concluding commentary on the impeachment trials. This is a non-biased article. The author doesn t really take a side, except to say that the food platter in the pressroom was a bit too extravagant.

Out of the many articles that I have gone through and from the six that I have chosen, it is easy to see whether the article is biased or neutral. One dead giveaway is checking to see who published the article. If an article about Clinton is published in an extreme right wing publication, you can automatically assume that it will be biased. Another way to find out how biased the information is, to look at corporate ownership. By checking to see who owns the newspaper or magazine you are reading, you can tell how the information is being effected. This goes back to Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.

All told, the media did a great job of covering the impeachment. I mean, how couldn t it of? This must have been the media event of the century, and how much longer could they have milked O.J.? Now that the trials and media coverage are over, it is easier to assess how much of the information told by the media is pure truth and how much is slanted. For the most part, much of it was slanted.