Media Matters

© by Gerald So | 4:30 a.m.

In his first press conference as president, Donald Trump blasted "the media," perceiving them as biased against him. He proceeded to show his biases in interactions with reporters, most noticeably an African American reporter and a Jewish reporter.

Apparently, a major part of Trump's ascent to the presidency is his appeal to the masses, cutting out the media's traditional role as agent and filter. The danger of this cutting-out is people believing one source of information over all others, leaving no way to know whether that source is deceiving them.

Yes, the media have their biases, and 24-hour news channels have led to more opinion-based programming, but knowing the media's biases and your own, you can compensate as you analyze reporting.

Nothing is as cut-and-dried simple as we want it to be. I'm especially aware of this when someone tells me, "It's simple. Don't listen to all the reports. Listen to me."