Polarized America may be a myth, but America’s biased media is real

On a chilly evening earlier this month, I spoke with several volunteers at the Trump Force 47 headquarters in Philadelphia. A few of us sat in a small room waiting for the training to begin to recruit a team of “campaign captains.”

The campaign’s headquarters is in a small storefront on a deserted street in Holmesburg, a neighborhood on the city’s northeastern outskirts. The walls were plastered with photos of Donald Trump, and a small sign hung above the desk of campaign officials that read, “27 Days to Victory.” I signed up for the event in hopes of becoming a fly on the wall.

Lauren, a young woman wearing a leather jacket and boots, proudly stated that she had already knocked on 160 doors in her campaign for Trump and was aiming to reach her goal of 200. Adam, an older African American man, walked all the way from Germantown to this event . He called himself a “man of music” and wore a T-shirt underneath his sweatshirt that read, “I love Trump because he pisses off all the people I don’t like.”

But the most intriguing member of this small group was Marta, a neatly dressed, middle-aged woman with blonde hair who had driven over an hour from another city. She said that after talking to many of Harris’ supportive friends, she realized things were going in the “wrong direction” and that she needed to “get off her ass and do something.”

Next to Martha Wayne, a middle-aged man wearing a lumberjack shirt and a red MAGA hat shared his opinion of the Democrats: “When I look at their election ads, they are a blatant lie. How can they be allowed to do this? And Kamala is so thoughtless. She has no idea about politics and international relations.”

Marta replied: “But they are left-controlled mainstream media and they are so good at mass deception. Kamala is a projection expert.”

Then it was Wayne’s turn: You know Harris and Walz got along well 60 minutes and that’s all? Well, my mom watched it 60 minutes. God bless her, she died last year. But over the last few years she has been watching 60 minutesI would sit and watch with her. Then my blood boiled because of all the lies, deception and propaganda. So I said, “Mom, I’m sorry I have to leave.” I can’t stand it anymore.”

“Yes, the left-wing mainstream media focuses on indoctrination and censorship,” Martha said.

I asked Marta, “So where do you go if you want to find reliable and accurate information?”

“Well, I usually go to Twitter. “Fox News is pretty good and NewsMax is good too,” she replied.

It then became clear that Marta and many other Trump supporters saw themselves as underdogs, fighting against the powerful left-wing “mainstream” media. For Marta, Fox News was not “mainstream,” even though it had the option to do so highest viewership position of any of the three major cable news networks for the 43rd month in a row, ahead of MSNBC and CNN.

During my two-month stay in the United States, I actually overdosed on a diet of cable TV election coverage. My excuse was that despite the hype about it being a “TikTok election.” tests suggests that this will continue to be a “cable news election” and that there are still fierce political battles in traditional media.

As I expected, Fox News and NewsMax have stubbornly avoided reporting on anything remotely unflattering about Trump, while doing everything they can to exaggerate the problems and issues facing Harris and the Democrats. On the other hand, MSNBC regularly demonized Trump (with much help from the GOP nominee himself) while also mentioning the Democratic prospects.

At both ends of the spectrum, there is little diversity of views and genuine debate.

One Democratic voter in Philadelphia described the U.S. media landscape this way: “We have MSNBC on the left, Fox on the right, but nothing in between.”

She was both right and wrong. On the one hand, there are many indirect media, including New York Times, Washington Post.NPR, CBS, CNN and many more. But on the other hand, while these media outlets do not side with Harris in the same way that MSNBC does, they regularly publish opinions that are largely favorable to Harris.

This also seems to be an acceptable practice for media outlets like NPR, CNN and New York Times label Trump simply as a liar. Instead of reporting his words and fact-checking (which Australia’s ABC usually does), their reporters simply state: “Trump lied again when he said…”

But considering Trump Is AND proven a compulsive liar, should journalists still impose on him the ritual of objective reporting? It has been a significant debate since his arrival on the scene. Some claim that reporters, by not calling the GOP candidate earlier, allowed him to advance. Now it appears that much of the “left-wing mainstream media” has chosen to cover Trump, defying conventional “objective” reporting and simply “telling it like it is.”

Mateusz Levenduskyprofessor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, helped me understand where Marta’s view of “left-wing mainstream media” comes from, stating that there is a long-standing Republican strategy of attacking the media dating back to Richard Nixon, although “Trump may be the apotheosis of this trend “.

Right-wing media outlets like Fox News and talkback radio, as well as celebrity elites like Elon Musk, have gone a long way toward undermining the American public’s trust in the media. Conservative commentators on Fox and Shock-Jock Radio often refer to outlets outside this ecosystem as “mainstream media controlled by the left.”

“American society is so polarized” is a common refrain for many people journalistspoliticians, influential commentators and ordinary citizens. But the reality may not be that simple.

Although people who volunteer to campaign for Trump or Harris are highly motivated and tend to have strong beliefs, most of them voters they will either vote for Republicans despite their dislike of Trump, or for a Democrat despite their dislike reservations about Harris. Many people may also prefer one party over the other, but will not show up at the ballot box due to their ambivalence or indecision about both candidates or some of their policies.

Tests suggests that American society, like all societies, has many shades of gray. Elite politics, practiced by people who live and breathe politics, Is polarized and participants have tendencies using social media to amplify their extreme views, thus creating the impression that society as a whole is divided. In fact, ordinary people believe that American society is much more polarized than it actually is, and when it comes down to it, Americans are more likely to agree with it than not.

Americans are average moderate for most political preferences. However, the “culture wars” in politics involve mutual insults that mask similarities by arousing emotions about differences in sensibilities or social identity.

It’s a cliché these days to say that American society is polarized, but that’s a bit of a myth. The reality may be that the media and social media create this impression through a growing tendency to be biased in their reporting.