Joe Biden #7

Joe Biden, Difference of Opinion?

            For my blog this week I decided to take a look at the television media difference in the story coverage of Joe Biden’s decision to not run for the presidential nomination. In order to view this story from different political sources I decided to look at videos covering this story from a liberal news channel and a conservative news station. After doing some research I found that according to journalism.org CNN is know as a liberal new source while Fox news was considered a conservative news site (http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/). After watching the same story about Joe Biden covered by each source I compared the two sources to see if there were any difference on how Biden was portrayed.

            I noticed a few differences when viewing the two sources covering Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the democratic race. CNN displayed the decision of Joe Biden to not run with grace and lifted him up as being a crucial member of the party and as having accomplished much. This is not however the big difference between the two news sources as Fox News also talked about Biden in a positive light. The big difference was how these two sources interpreted one crucial line Joe Biden delivered in his speech addressing withdrawing from the race. Joe said, “I do not believe like some do that it is naïve to talk to republicans. I do not think we should look at republicans as our enemies”. This line was interpreted very differently by each of the news sources and was a largely interpreted by each news source based on their political affiliation.

            CNN took the approach that this line was not an attack on Hilary Clinton, who was the main beneficiary of Biden dropping out the race, but rather a call for the need for the parties to work together to advance the country. CNN said, “ It turns out he was not firing a warning shot this week at Hilary Clinton over her suggestion that republicans are the enemy… He was offering an optimistic lesson to fix a broken Washington.”  They then used another quote after the context. He said, “I believe we have to end the divisive partisan politics that are ripping the country apart. (http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/2016-election-joe-biden-impact/)    

            Fox news took this same quote and put a different spin on it. Their side of this quote went as follows. “It’s telling Biden is not offering an endorsement of Clinton”. They then cut to the same quote, “I do not believe like some do that it is naïve to talk to republicans. I do not think we should look at republicans as our enemies”. Fox News then goes on to report about how Biden attacked Clinton’s word choice in the debate and reported that Biden could step in if Clinton’s FBI case goes south. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/21/biden-to-speak-in-rose-garden/)  

            If a person were to only see one of these news sources they would be inclined to think that either Biden supports or does not support Clinton. These characteristics exemplify polarization in our society and especially in our political system. These news sources took a quote and injected their own opinion on Joe Biden’s words and how they related to Hilary Clinton. While this divided issue is a result of Hilary Clinton campaign and not necessarily about Joe Biden, they certainly use his words to support their respective sides.