As the years go on, the American public gets further and further divided on matters like politics and human rights. Somehow, it’s gotten to the point that where we fall on the political spectrum dictates how good a person we are. It’s undeniable that sources like the media play a large role in stretching the divide even further by continuing to include their political biases in the news that they are reporting, forcing others to have to find a different channel that supports their beliefs and tells them what they want to hear. It’s no secret that during the 2016 and 2020 elections, tensions across the country were at a peak which is when we would expect media sources to stand united and not cause more chaos. 

Instead, they added fuel to the fire by taking sides and attacking other news channels instead of being bipartisan like they were initially meant to be. We saw news sources like Fox News and MSNBC openly criticizing and attacking each other's reporting instead of focusing on the importance of their cooperation to ensure the general public remains subdued during times of uncertainty. The news became less about reporting on the facts and more about pleasing the constituents of specific political parties. One news channel can say they are reporting their version of the “truth”, then flip to a different channel and their “truth” looks completely different, making the divide even wider. Having multiple news sources reporting the same topic but using different language and calling it “truth” causes the public to create their own narratives, often harming the message of the group of people being portrayed on the news.

During the times of the Black Lives Matter Protests in 2020, some news channels were reporting the events as a positive, unavoidable change that needed to happen. Others were reporting it as an excuse for violence and civil disobedience. After the events at the Capitol on January 6th, MSNBC started reporting titles like “Capitol got police respect. Black protestors got rubber bullets.”, which tried to raise awareness for the way protesters were treated vs Capitol Stormers. Fox News, on the other hand, was still reporting titles like these, “Hey, Black Lives Matter, stop terrorizing our cities” completely ignoring the event that took place at the Capitol because it didn't fit the narrative  Fox News was trying to push. 

If someone were watching the MSNBC report, they would get the idea that there is an unfair narrative being pushed about the Black Lives Matter Movement and how police response was completely different during a riot vs peaceful protest. Another person who may have watched the Fox News Report would be thinking about all the damage done by the Black Lives Matter Movement and how the sole purpose of the organization was to have an excuse to loot and rob our cities. 

It somehow became the job of the consumers to decode truth from opinion. The problem is that the public is consistently receiving different information about the same topic that is not 100% fact-based and we are constantly being told that it is. Not reporting facts defeats the purpose of doing things like protesting or advocacy. Reporting opinions and calling them facts tarnishes the message of these organizations and causes an even greater divide between consumers as we believe that some of us are on the wrong side of history. According to Statistica, as of 2017, there are over 300 news channels. Does that mean that every channel has its own version of the truth? If so, over 300 “truths'' are being reported and left for the public to decipher.

 Removing political affiliation and biases from our news channels would help limit the number of “truths” out there to the only one that actually matters, facts. Opinions about the content should be left to be made by members of the public after receiving the facts from the news channels.