Bias and The News Explained

Based on statistics from the Pew Research Center, the cable news audience is shrinking. According to their research, the median viewership in a 24-hour period for Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC combined dropped 7% in 2014 to 1.8 million. There could be a number of reasons for this...perhaps it is because cable news now has to compete with the devices in our pockets (which make it so much more efficient to stay informed).

Another possibility is the bias that exists in cable news today, as well as the amount of speculation that happens during a typical broadcast.

We do play a part in this, and it relates back to instant gratification: we like to know whats happening immediately and we want all the facts. But sometimes, the case is that these networks do not know all the facts yet.

In order to be the first to release details about a story, many times networks will spend time guessing what happened and attempting to pass this off as factual. For example, they will sometimes look at limited images on their screens and attempt to make observations which many times are untrue.

John Stewart often pointed out the discrepancies with Fox News' statements as the host of the Daily Show.

 We have the resources to fact check these networks, and see how often the statements they make are false. Based on PunditFact's Truth-O-Meter, 45% of claims made by NBC and MSNBC were found to be false. CNN was at 22%, while Fox News was in the lead for discrepancies with 58%.

Hopefully this points out why fact-checking is important, and as modern consumers of media we can't just believe everything we hear.