Even casual broadcast news consumers are starting to notice the Opposition Media is no longer content to merely report the day’s events. Instead they are framing events in an effort to influence your opinion regarding the news.
Newsbusters.org explains, “Even a casual watcher of broadcast news these days knows that journalists are using increasingly emotional language in their reports.” A case in point is the word “outrage” and how it was used last year.
Newsbusters did the count and found “outrage” was used a total of 229 times during 2019. What networks decided was outrageous was very telling. “[Newsbuster’s] examination shows network reporters used that term far more frequently in stories that might offend liberals, with networks blaming President Trump and Republicans for triggering more ‘outrage’.”
For Trump and the GOP, one gets the impression “outrage” is their middle name. “President Trump and his fellow Republicans received the lion’s share of the blame in [the outrage] category: 51 instances, or 80 percent of all political outrage, while Democrats accounted for less than one tenth of that (just five stories, or 8 percent).”
The “outrage” breakdown according to topic is as follows:
Politics: 64 “outrageous”
Police Brutality (real or imagined): 45 “outrageous”
Racism/Bigotry (again real or imagined): 28 “outrageous”
Child Abuse: 25 “outrageous”
Rape/Sexual Assault: 14 “outrageous”
Abortion: 0 “outrageous”
Trump and Republicans weren’t the only instances of an imbalance in coverage, even without the word “outrageous” being used.
“A liberal skew was also present in the networks’ reporting on abortion. Although multiple newscasts detected outrage at Republicans’ attempts to restrict the practice, no news story mentioned pro-life outrage over Democrats’ attempts to expand it. Broadcast networks even failed to use the term when a deceased abortion doctor’s family found more than 2,200 fetal remains in his home.”
Neutral, just-the-facts-ma’am language in a news story presents events in a format that encourages the viewer to form his own opinion and reach his own conclusion. The use of emotional language or slanted modifiers is a conscious decision on the part of the OpMedia and not a coincidence.
Language of that type is an important tool for shaping public opinion in the direction media leftists want it to go, at least among the portion of the U.S. population that subjects itself to coverage from the OpMedia. Even better, it helps the broadcast outlets protect their tattered reputation for accuracy, for as Newsbusters wisely observed, “Because loaded terms like ‘outrage’ are subjective, these networks can add a liberal spin to their coverage without ever making a false claim.”
And that fact is what is really “outrageous” about the news today.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.