There is no point in watching the news. At least it feels that way. Every news channel appears to have a political agenda, which is shown through stretching the truth, leaving something out, or even worse, fabricating a story. Does President Donald Trump have a valid point when he accuses the media of creating “fake news?” Either way, I’m sick and tired of it. I want to be an informed American citizen, and I don’t know where to go for that anymore.
How many of you have voted for someone at the federal, state or local level that you didn’t know anything about, besides whether they were Republican or Democrat? I think that most citizens want to be fully informed when we head to the polls on Election Day. But how are we supposed to gather information on our candidates if all our information comes from news stations that have political agendas?
Some people might be quick to point out a news station that they think is fair and balanced such as CNN, MSNBC or Fox News. However, I would tell them that I don’t think those types of news stations and television hosts exist anymore, and if so, they’re dwindling.
For example, CNN was forced to cut ties with Donna Brazile, a former commentator and interim Democratic National Committee chair, after she leaked questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign before Clinton’s face off against Donald Trump in a debate, according to multiple news outlets including the Washington Post. Fox News host Sean Hannity gave misleading information about the Benghazi attack, claiming U.S. troops had to change their clothes four times during a stand-down order, according to PolitiFact. And former NBC host Brian Williams was suspended for six months without pay for wrongly reporting being under fire during the Iraq War.
President Trump has been the president of the United States for more than three weeks now. It’s been months since the election. Yet, regardless of who one voted for, I have heard many of my peers claim since then that they may have voted in a different way had they been more well-informed by the news media.
I remember watching the breaking news about WikiLeaks when they released their new revelations about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. I wanted to find out more. I wanted to be more informed. I turned on CNN, and they weren’t even talking about it, so I figured I would tune into Fox News. Within five minutes of doing so, I think I heard the phrase “lock her up” a half dozen times and the word “prison” a dozen times.
The point is, I could never fully understand the significance of what WikiLeaks had discovered and if it was truly significant at all. When I voted on Election Day, I voted without the full story. I blame the media for this. One side of the news media was ignoring the issue entirely, while the other side failed to recognize the fact that WikiLeaks was posing a threat to our democracy by attempting to sway the United States general election.
It is time for someone in the news media to speak up and just report the facts. I don’t want to make decisions on who to vote for to be based on a candidate’s party affiliation. I want to gather the facts, base them on my own political, spiritual and emotional beliefs, and check the person’s name on my ballot who I am 100 percent informed on and who resembles my beliefs the most. Is that too much to ask? I truly hope not.
