The other night, I was watching Law and Order: SVU on channel 7 and during one of the commercial breaks, I saw a 3 political campaign commercials in a row. I thought nothing of this, seeing these commercials all the time; they were just candidates attacking each other because we are getting closer and closer to the states’ primary elections. However, when SVU ended the news started and I saw that 7 News was covering the Iowa caucuses.
On February 2, 2016, Iowa held their extremely weird caucuses which determined which candidates, one Republican and one Democrat, would get the majority of their delegates. By the morning after, Ted Cruz had won over Iowa, coming in 1st place with 4 points above Donald Trump. As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton had won over Bernie Sanders during 6 coin tosses and after being in a virtual deadlock for the entire night. Regardless of this, the news did not portray it that way. They declared a victory for Hillary and made it seem like this was a huge accomplishment for her when in reality she won her delegates because of a game of chance.
Like everything else in the world, the media plays a huge part in picking who our next President will be. Although there are many forms of out media out there who will provide neutral information, the biggest, well-known news stations such as CNN or Fox News are known to be polarized or leaned towards one side of the political spectrum. If some people solely rely on one source of media, they are more likely to only have information on one candidate and only vote for them. They media may not outright endorse a candidate but everyone has an opinion and in some news stations, they may be more vocal about which candidate they think is best.
With that said, to be an informed voter, try to receive information from all different kinds of news outlets. Watch both Fox News and CNN and branch out to other news stations like MSNBC. In addition to watching the news on TV, you can also seek out more information by listening to talk radio. By listening to radio stations like NPR or radio shows like the Rush Limbaugh show, you can hear opinions of political experts and use them to your advantage to form your own opinions. Read the Wall Street Journal and compare it to the New York Times. Read the Huffington Post and compare it to National Review. Learn multiple perspectives. Make your vote at our upcoming primary election an informed one.
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