Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

 

This weeks post I will be covering the trial of Derek Chauvin and the contrasts between how Fox News and NBC reported on the verdict.

The jury has found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all the counts he faced over the death of George Floyd. The trial has been one of the most closely watched cases in recent memory, setting off a national reckoning on police violence and systemic racism even before the trial began. Chauvin has been found guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

The murder of George Floyd sparked international outrage and fueled countless protests condemning police brutality. Police in the United States of America are continuously murdering unarmed black men, women, and children, and George Floyd's death was the tipping point for many people fed up and frustrated with the police brutality and racism that is present in police departments throughout the country. Enough is enough, and Chauvin's guilty verdict is proof that sometimes, voices do matter. The guilty verdict is unprecedented because historically, it has been extremely rare for police officers to be indicted on charges, let alone to be found guilty of actual murder. 

The verdict is a win, but for many, the systemic racism built into the foundations of policing in the United States is far from healed. 

A Fox News article's headline on the verdict read: "Can Derek Chauvin get his convictions tossed on appeal? Although rare, retrials and acquittals have been granted because jurors felt pressured." The article then goes on to discuss that the unique circumstances surrounding Derek Chauvin's trial in George Floyd's death could offer the former Minneapolis police officer some shot at winning a retrial on appeal, though most legal experts agree it's a long shot. The article offers some background on the crime, stating Chauvin, who is white, kneeled on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 1/2 minutes last May, killing the 46-year-old Black man and sparking some of the largest protests in U.S. history. The article ends by explaining that his conviction on murder and manslaughter charges was seen by many across the country as a civil rights milestone.

The NBC article headline reads: "Derek Chauvin guilty of murder in George Floyd's death--The death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, touched off international protests against police brutality and racial injustice." The article goes on explaining that Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts Tuesday for causing George Floyd's death, describing the verdict as a verdict that could send the disgraced former Minneapolis police officer to prison for the rest of his life. The article states that Chauvin, who was convicted of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, faces up to 75 years in prison when he returns for sentencing in eight weeks. NBC states that the conviction on the top count of second-degree murder means the 12 jurors unanimously agreed that Chauvin caused Floyd's death during the commission of a felony assault. The article goes on to explain that the jury rejected the defense claim that there might have been other medical reasons Floyd died, saying Chauvin killed him, even if unintentionally, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. The article ends with a quote from George Floyd's brother stating, "Today, we are able to breathe again." 

The main difference in the Fox News article from the NBC article is the fact that Fox seems more concerned with Chauvin's chance for appeal rather than his guilty verdict. NBC has a much more sensitive way of reporting the facts and being respectful of the family, as well as firmly stating why he is GUILTY. The fact of the matter is, Fox News probably has more readers routing for Chauvin than readers routing for Floyd, and that is why they felt it necessary to discuss the disgraced police officer's chance for an appeal.

This guilty verdict comes in the wake of two more deadly police shootings sparking national outrage. The Chicago police department released a video last week of Chicago police fatally shooting 13-Year-Old. The victim, Adam Toledo, was one of the youngest people killed by the police in Illinois in years. Officials said he was armed, but it was later discovered that he was in fact, not armed. He wasn't holding a gun. When they shot him as he was putting his hands up.

The second fatal shooting took place in Columbus, Ohio, when police fatally shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant after receiving calls about a her having a knife, within minutes of the verdict in George Floyd’s killing and ignited outrage by many over the continued use of lethal force by police in Columbus and the U.S.

Sources: 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/derek-chauvin-convictions-tossed-appeal

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/derek-chauvin-verdict-reached-trial-over-george-floyd-s-death-n1264565

Opinion Pieces: Fox News v. MSNBC

 For this week, I will be showing two clips from two different daytime news segments hosted by Fox News and MSNBC- Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace and Tucker Carlson Tonight with Tucker Carlson.

An explanation of Deadline Whitehouse on NBC's Youtube reads:

About Deadline White House: Before getting into cable news, Nicolle Wallace worked in politics, including as President George W. Bush’s communications director during his administration and for his 2004 re-election campaign. Those experiences helped contribute to the knowledge and unique point of view she brings to this program. Wallace leads dynamic discussions on the political stories driving the news cycle with Washington insiders and well-sourced journalists. She also provides in-depth reporting while delivering up-to-the-minute breaking news to viewers.

MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, Meet the Press Daily, The Beat with Ari Melber, Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, Hardball, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and more.

An explanation of Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox's Youtube channel reads:

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in cable, FNC has been the most-watched television news channel for 18 consecutive years. According to a 2020 Brand Keys Consumer Loyalty Engagement Index report, FOX News is the top brand in the country for morning and evening news coverage. A 2019 Suffolk University poll named FOX News as the most trusted source for television news or commentary, while a 2019 Brand Keys Emotion Engagement Analysis survey found that FOX News was the most trusted cable news brand. A 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey also found that among Americans who could name an objective news source, FOX News was the top-cited outlet. Owned by FOX Corporation, FNC is available in nearly 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre.

Both shows are discussing the militaries new inclusion plan-- a five-year plan that institutes structural, organizational, procedural and command changes to become a “model example of diversity, equality and inclusion.”

The video headline for Tucker Carlson Tonight reads: "Tucker: Military lowering standards in name of diversity."

Followed by the description: Retired Army Colonel Doug MacGregor reacts to fitness and intellectual standard changes in the military on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' #FoxNews​ #Tucker

The video headline for MSNBC's Deadline: Whitehouse reads- Stavridis: Carlson Is Wrong. Women In The Military Are ‘Nothing But Additive’ 

Followed by the description: Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Adm. James Stavridis speaks to his positive experiences working with women in the U.S. Navy as the backlash grows against Fox News’ host Tucker Carlson for his comments denigrating women who serve our country.

I personally find Tucker Carlson's reckless rhetoric exhausting to listen to, but that is just my opinion. 

What are your opinions?

Sources: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDB7CbXey1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PiWEWBKyqE

Struggle for Control- The Media and The Government

For this week's post, I would like to touch on a topic we covered in one of our discussion posts for this class. We previously discussed the adversarial relationship between the media and the institutions of government, and the people who occupy positions within these institutions.

I thought it would be a cool to post some actual pictures of the different newspaper headlines from when the "The Pentagon Papers" were leaked.

Background:

The relationship between the media and the institutions of government and their constant struggles for control can be summarized by a few key factors. Both the media, and the government (although some may not accept this fact) are big business players. Each has the ability to influence the other. The constant push/pull is because when one player is down, the other benefits in a variety of different ways. These wins benefit the players socially, financially, and their ability to influence public attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions. The media is up when the government is down and vise versa. Problems in the government equal stories for the media, and problems in the media equal talking points for politicians.

A historical example of a good day for journalists and a bad day for the U.S government would be the publishing of the pentagon papers. Daniel Ellsberg was a military analyst who in 1971 gave what came to be known as the “The Pentagon Papers” to several newspapers. The Pentagon Papers were a top secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making regarding the Vietnam War. The study revealed that, even though the strategies used in the war were believed to be unwinnable, the war was escalated. Ellsberg first gave the papers to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but when nothing happened, he released the papers to several newspapers in 1971. Charges brought against Ellsberg under the Espionage Act of 1917 were dismissed in 1973 because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence gathering.

Sources: 

https://www.employmentlawgroup.com/timeline-us-whistleblowing/

https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/SZNA6XKBOY5RPCNEUBV6BLAFBY.jpg

https://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1971-June-18-W-Post-620.jpg

https://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1971-June-Boston-Globe-358.jpg

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/4a/64a50b2a-52c5-5bd6-ae75-37b65a5e234b/5a591ce970efc.image.jpg?crop=1065%2C599%2C17%2C157&resize=1200%2C675&order=crop%2Cresize

Contrasting Coverage: Georgia's New Voting Laws

 In this weeks post, I will be showing contrasting news clip videos from Fox News and NBC on Georgia's new recently passed voting laws. 

Georgia is one of the first states to have passed major voting restrictions after last year's election, and Republican legislators around the country are advancing similar measures. People are fighting against Georgia’s new elections law calling it a blatant attack on voting rights, aimed specifically at suppressing the minority vote that helped propel Joe Biden’s presidential win and gave Democrats two critical seats in the U.S. Senate. Backlash from the corporate world has been growing, and Major League Baseball announced it was moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the law. President Biden said the law amounts to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century,” calling it “un-American” and “sick.”

Trump baselessly claimed that the election was stolen from him in Georgia and pressured Republican election officials to investigate. He dismissed their claims that the election was secure and that the results were accurate. Legislators seized on Trump's false claims and pushed dozens of restrictive voting bills this year. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he and legislators set out to make it "easy to vote and hard to cheat."

A close examination of the language in the law shows it does contain new restrictions on voting and some of the restrictions are likely to make it disproportionately more difficult for poorer voters and voters of color to cast their ballots. The new law adds a host of restrictions, like requiring identification for mail voting and making it illegal to take food or water to voters in line. It shrinks the window for voters to request mail ballots, and counties and the state can send mail ballot applications only to voters who request them (as opposed to simply sending every registered voter a ballot application) and cannot fill in information ahead of time, and puts a limit on the number of ballot drop boxes allowed during early voting.

Brian Kemp signed the bill into law, calling it "common sense" legislation and saying “It expands access.” The bill does expand access to rural areas, but that's about it.

I will now let you guys watch the differences in the reporting by Fox News and NBC News on this issue. What are some of the key differences? Tones? Differences in rhetoric/language used?

Fox News Video:

NBC News Video:

Sources: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYgekhq2Ak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7MZNY1MNcQ

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/03/georgia-voting-law-explained/

Contrasting Coverage: Mass Shootings

Will it ever end?

I find myself asking this question every time I turn on the news and see another story about a mass shooting. I think we are so desensitized to mass shootings in the United States, and they happen so often, that we are becoming numb to them. I am 24 years old and I do not recall a time in my life when mass shootings didn't happen. I've never experienced what it would be like to live in a country that is not ravaged by gun violence. Will I ever know what that feels like? Probably not. 

In this weeks post, I will be discussing both the Atlanta spa shootings and the Boulder Colorado grocery store mass shooting. They happened within 6 days of each other. I will be looking at articles from both NBC and Fox News, and discuss key differences in the headlines of their articles reporting on the each of the shootings. 

The Atlanta Spa Shootings occured on March 16, 2021, when Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, walked into 3 different spas in metro-atlanta and shot and killed a total of 8 people. In total, seven women, six of whom were Asian, and one man were shot dead in the attacks. 

A week later, on March 22, 2021, another 21-year-old man walked into King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, where residents had gathered to shop and receive COVID-19 vaccines. 10 people were shot dead, including a policeman, as the gunman opened fire on people inside the store. The victims ranged in age from 20 to 65. 

A Fox News article about the Atlanta spa shootings headline reads:"Atlanta shooting suspect tells police attacks not racially motivated, was purportedly driven by sex addiction--Robert Aaron Long, 21, may have 'sex addiction,' authorities said."

An NBC news article about the Atlanta shootings headlined with: "8 dead in Atlanta-area spa shootings, suspect arrested--Six of the victims were Asian women, officials said. The shootings occurred within an hour at three spas."

A Fox News article released after the Boulder mass shooting read: "Dems' gun control agenda after Boulder shooting 'can't usurp reality': Colion Noir--President Biden is considering executive action on gun control, Psaki says."

And an NBC News article published after the Boulder shooting read: "Biden calls on Congress to tighten gun laws in wake of Colorado shooting that killed 10."As president I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep people safe," the president said on Tuesday."

Fox News reports on both shootings with right-leaning headlines, dodging questions of racism and dismissing gun-control, where as NBC does almost the opposite with their headlines promoting calls for gun control and acknowledging race in the Atlanta shootings.

What do you think? Do we have a gun problem in this country? Racism? Sexism? Fetishism? Do you think it is right for media politicize mass shootings? Where do we go from here as a country?

Sources:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colion-noir-democrats-gun-control-boulder-shooting

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/3-dead-shooting-georgia-massage-parlor-suspect-loose-n1261262

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/unfathomable-pain-democrats-demand-action-gun-control-after-back-back-n1261797

https://www.foxnews.com/us/atlanta-shooting-suspect-police-attacks-not-racially-motivated-sex-addiction

Can We Atleast Agree on the Weather?

I am switching up my blog theme a bit this week to touch on one thing that news outlets across the board agree on and cover similarly: The Weather. It is hard to find a topic or news event across Fox News, CNN, and NBC that they all can agree on and report on similarly. Natural disasters and extreme weather are two topics that no matter the news affiliation, are reported on with very little contrast. News outlets have become so increasingly polarized, that there are few topics they cover in similar fashions. Luckily for us, they can all still agree on the weather! 

Now don't get too excited, because if I were to get into the cause of increasingly extreme weather patterns and natural disasters, they most certainly would not agree. But this post is not about the impending threat of global warming....I am simply here to showcase that there are events that Fox News and NBC can agree on: STORMS!

The Fox News headline reads: "Severe storms, tornadoes possible across the Deep South-The biggest overnight threat of tornadoes remained over Alabama". The article goes on to explain that the prospect of more tornadoes overnight and into Thursday across the Deep South has forecasters advising residents to take extra precautions after a wave of storms pounded the region throughout the day Wednesday, leaving a trail of splintered trees and damaged buildings. The article states that scattered severe thunderstorms are expected Thursday for portions of eastern Georgia, through the Carolinas into extreme southeast Virginia, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. The article ends with a quote from the center stating "Significant tornadoes, wind damage and large hail will be possible from morning into afternoon," and "Severe thunderstorms will also be possible from parts of the eastern Gulf Coast into the southern and central Appalachians."

NBC similarly covered the storms in the south with their headline reading: "Storms leave trail of damage across South and East Coast--In North Carolina, TV anchors fled a studio as a circulating storm passed overhead. The weather comes after tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama." The article describes the storms that produced tornadoes and destroyed and damaged homes in Mississippi and Alabama swept over the Southeast and Atlantic coast Thursday, with heavy rains and winds that tore off roofs. In North Carolina, a rotating storm prompted newscasters to seek shelter and move from a studio to a makeup room during a live broadcast. The article included a dramatic quote, "It's over us. This is not the room we need to be in," WGHP chief meteorologist Van Denton said on air. There were no injuries, but the roof audibly rattled. The article ended by stating the National Weather Service had issued high-risk severe weather outlooks, which are somewhat rare, for parts of the South. 

So I ask you, "Can we atleast agree on the weather"....?

Sources:

https://www.foxnews.com/weather/severe-storms-tornadoes-possible-across-the-deep-south

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/26-million-people-under-severe-storm-risk-tornado-weary-south-n1261384

Contrasting Coverage: The Royal Family and Racism

For this week's post, I will cover the growing scandal amongst the British royal family and compare how both Fox News and NBC News reported on it. 

Buckingham Palace has been rocked by a media frenzy since the explosive interview of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by Oprah Winfrey about the couple's reasons for exiting royal life. It aired in the United States and in the United Kingdom and was watched by millions. Harry and Meghan's comments to Oprah detailed issues from mental health to royal protocol but also race. Meghan said Harry told her that royal insiders had expressed "concerns" about how dark the skin of their children might be. The couple declined to name the individual who made the alleged comments, but Winfrey later said that Harry had made clear it was neither Queen Elizabeth II, his grandmother, nor her husband, Prince Philip.

Allegations of racism within the family itself, and Meghan's admission that she felt suicidal during her pregnancy, have been splashed across newspapers around the world. Throughout their two-hour TV special, both Harry and Meghan spoke with eye-opening frankness, delivering accusations and rebukes that outweighed even Princess Diana's landmark interview more than two decades earlier. 

The Fox News article headline read: "Meghan Markle, Prince Harry want to be viewed as ‘biggest victims’: Piers Morgan, ‘I’m just not buying any of this,’ 'Good Morning Britain' host tells ‘The Story’". Fox News discussed how Piers Morgan felt about the interview, stating that Piers Morgan called Prince Harry and Meghan Markle "cowardly" for making allegations of racism against the British royal family without calling out any individuals by name. The article then goes on to further describe how Morgan, who co-hosts "Good Morning Britain," called Markle’s statements "insidious." Fox news was only concerned with discussing Piers Morgan's view on the matter, and failed to include other's opinions. In Morgan’s view, the couple did the interview in order to portray themselves as "the biggest victims." The article ended with quotes from Morgan stating, "It’s all about Meghan and Harry," and "It’s all about their mental health, how they’re feeling, how they’re being treated. They want the world, in the middle of a pandemic that has killed two-and-a-half million people, to view them as the biggest victims yet."

The NBC News article headline read: "Prince William says royals 'not a racist family' after Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview-William added that he hadn't spoken to his brother yet, "but I plan to," in his first public comments since the bombshell interview. The article went on to explain that Prince William denied Britain's royal family is racist in his first public comments since Prince Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah Winfrey. The article quoted William stating "We're very much not a racist family," and highlighted that Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement late Tuesday addressing the interview, and said the family were "saddened" to learn the extent of the challenges faced by the couple."The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning," the statement said. "While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."

The main difference in how Fox News and NBC reported on the controversy was who they decided to feature when discussing the issue. Fox News related the controversial television personality Piers Morgan's opinions on the matter, where as NBC featured Prince William's feelings. I see one article as more of a controversial spectacle lacking depth (Fox), and the other calmly addressing the issue and featuring statements from someone actually involved with the royal family (NBC). One is dismissive, the other is reflective. 

What do you guys think?

Sources: 

https://www.foxnews.com/world/meghan-markle-prince-harry-piers-morgan-reaction

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/harry-meghan-interview-prince-william-denies-royal-family-are-racist-n1260627