CNN vs. Fox News

I spent this afternoon flipping between CNN and Fox news to investigate the difference between how they relay information to the public. Immediately it is seen that CNN is obviously much more liberal in their stances, and that Fox has a right-wing, conservative slant on how they transmit their news. Upon watching several stories from both channels, I have found that they basically convey the same exact news stories, just in different ways. CNN puts a liberal spin on their news, and Fox leans the opposite way; however, they are communicating the same basic news stories to their audiences.

For example, both channels discussed the recent announcement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter to retire after the Court’s current term is over. The CNN news commentators who were discussing this topic seemed rather pleased that Souter decided to retire at a time when there was a Democrat president and Democrat-majority Senate. They maintained that there is no possible way we will get a Republican justice appointed to the court with conservative view points on controversial issues such as abortion. Fox news, on the other hand, reported this news in a negative fashion. The news reporter announced that Republicans are worried that there is too much Democrat power in the Senate, yet they are ready to put up a fight. CNN counter-acted this type of statement by stating that the President has the right to nominate whomever he likes to the bench.

Also, a topic of the news that was presented on both channels this afternoon was the issue of global warming. CNN had a small segment on ways to help contribute to the hault of global warming. Their suggestions included ideas such as using fluorescent light bulbs, inflating your car tires appropriately, changing the filter on your air conditioners, buying hybrid cars, insulating your water filter, along with several other ideas. Fox news, however, spent a few minutes announcing that a recent study has found that 33.3% of children fear that the earth will cease to exist, and a whopping 56% believe that the earth will be unpleasant for human existence within their lifetime. Fox news blamed Al Gore for this hysteria, and accused him of scaring the children with his bogus documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

President Obama’s job in the White House thus far was also a topic discussed on both channels. CNN commented how he is doing so many things so quick, and has a big agenda already compared with past presidents. The news reporter described this facet as “breath taking” and “stunning.” Fox news, as could be expected, completely had the opposite view on this. They maintained that the President is taking on way too many different tasks at once, or at least he says he is, and that it is absolutely ludicrous for him to think he will get everything done. The news reporter said that he should stop misleading the American people and pick one or two big issues to cover in his agenda, and just maybe he will be able to address those.

Over the years I have found that I like CNN’s coverage better than that of Fox news. At least now with a Democrat president in office, it feels like Fox news is bellyaching and complaining about the current state of affairs, instead of just impartially reporting the facts. There is no news channel more conservative than Fox, however there is a channel more liberal than CNN—MSNBC. This reason also leads me to believe that CNN is the more unbiased, fair and balanced news channel of the two, and is probably why I prefer objective over partisan coverage.