Opinion-based news now dominates

By GIANNA SANCHEZ

A lot has changed since Donald Trump has become president, especially in the world of news. Many of the main news outlets that American viewers used to trust have now turned into public enemy No. 1.

To be completely honest, at this point, I cannot even remember how it used to be. Maybe news was polarizing then and no one noticed, but it is especially polarizing now. While news used to be publicized as only stating facts and communicating information, many news stations have turned into a contest.

Fox News and MSNBC are some of the more common networks referred to by the president. Fox News is usually mentioned in President Trump’s favor, while MSNBC is more looked at as the anti-Trump cable network. This is up for interpretation, however, and it is up for the public to decide which to watch and support.

After watching a video titled, “Cooper: Trump Declared emergency, headed to Mar-a-Lago,” I started thinking about the idea of opinion based news. The video showed Anderson Cooper questioning Donald Trump’s sincerity regarding the national emergency. Cooper even mentions that Trump headed over to West Palm Beach for a few days to relax rather than work at the White House.

The video mostly presented facts. It said when Trump arrived, what he had been doing and the results of Trump’s declaration of emergency. Cooper does not add his opinion too much in the video and he even says some comments in Trump’s defense. While the reporting was done well, I think Cooper did mildly insert his opinion through the tone and delivery of facts in the story.

People trust reporters and anchors to deliver the news. I would expect that most people would also want the news to be delivered in an unbiased way. The news should provide information, while viewers should shape their own opinion about what they saw. Without the trust and hope for unbiased reporting, we stray farther and farther away from what people want and become too reliant on opinion rather than facts.