Entry #3: Slanted reporting Quest

 Hey guys!

I was on youtube and I came across this video that talks about Russia's attack on Ukraine. I'm sure many of us know of the current events taking place around the world so I thought this would be an interesting topic to talk about. More specifically I want to get into the bits of bias I noticed while watching it. 

Here's the link.

So in the beginning you see one news anchor asking the other anchor why he thinks we should turn back Vladimir Putin and why we should be taking this event seriously. 

Immediately the other news anchor responds with "It reminds me of September first, 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland". Right off the bat, we know that he is going to compare Putins' actions to that of Hitlers'. Now when we think about Hitler, we think of this vicious, evil, person who attacked and killed innocent people. Not only that but we know he was the reason why world war 2 happened as well as the holocaust. Some would even go as far as calling him a monster. Right here we know that the responding news anchor is biased towards Russia and Putin. 

Just in that alone, you can get a sense of how the news anchor feels about Putin by comparing him to one of the evilest men in history who caused a great deal of pain and sorrow. With just this information, we can gather that this news anchor believes Putin to be evil like Hitler so, what he really means to say is that Putin is really Hilter 2.0. 

He then goes as far as saying that we have to stand towards the "right side" and towards the "Non-evil side" and stand with Ukraine. Just by using these phrases, he has singled out Russia to be the Evil side and the Wrong side to support. 

The next thing he says is, though we cannot get involved in this war or go to war over Ukraine, we must do our best to stop Putin from his evil and illegitimate invasion of Ukraine. In this statement, he means to say that Putin is ultimately unlawful as well as his plan and that he is vicious in his actions against Ukraine. 

It is clear where this reporter stands even though there is no actual news being reported and more of just opinionated expressions of his view of the current events. 

If one was to watch this news clip, they would be inclined to support Ukraine and think the worst of Russia even without knowing all the facts. Comparing Putin to one of the evilest men in history would automatically create a visual for anyone watching that Putin is just as Evil if not more than Hitler. This is because many of us empathize with what happened during world war two. What happened during World war 2 was not something that should have happened so when an audience hears a comparison like this being said, it can make up their mind almost completely. What if Putin isn't evil and this is just the opinion of one individual? Well, if that was the case it would not matter to those who have already seen this news clip. 

However, since no information was presented in this matter about the current event, just opinion and relation, we can't rely on his credibility. The source is now unreliable since there was no evidence to back up his claims or feelings of this event because the only thing he has done was compare two separate events. Now, if he had given us specific incidents on what Russia has been doing to attack Ukraine, maybe mention the bombings on schools or anything in relation to his opinion, this could have been a more credible source of information. Unfortunately, this clip was more of an " I feel this way and it's the right way" instead of      "These are the facts and why I feel this way"

This just goes to show how strong a slanted bias can be when reporting news or information to a public who may not have any idea of what is actually going on. Having a slanted bias ruins his credibility and that of his news station where it could have been avoided if all the facts have been provided instead of just mentioning what the current event reminded him of and how he feels about it. 

I hope this was interesting to read and make sure to click on the link I provided with this news clip to get the full picture and comment what you think! 

Catch you in the next blog.