Andrew Nenow is a wine and viticulture sophomore and Mustang Daily conservative columnist.
Fox News, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Reuters, Drudge Report, MSNBC, AP and PBS. These are but a few of an extensive list of news sources that Americans are met with on a daily basis. Beyond television there are newspapers, magazines, online resources and radio to get us up to speed on current events.
The trouble in this day and age is the difficulty in finding a pure, factually based media source that is not trying to work a political angle. Every station and website has an owner that ensures that a certain side of the political spectrum is protected.
While both sides, conservatives and liberals alike, are guilty of this, there is nothing quite like the angles liberal media takes in making their enemies look bad. Many people would disagree with me on this statement crying bias, but I speak from a purely neutral standpoint.
As a political columnist I search for pure facts and nothing else and I trust Fox News no more than I trust CNN for such raw facts. But most recently liberal media pointed their guns at conservative media on an issue that should have been left alone due to its sensitive nature.
I’m speaking of the recent Tucson shooting in which 20 of the people shot, six were killed and 14 injured. Among the injured was Arizona Representative Gabrielle Gifford who sustained a gunshot wound to the head and has been in critical condition since. Gifford had set up the open forum in the parking lot of a Safeway where the shooting occurred in downtown Tucson. Among the killed were Chief Judge John Roll and one of Rep. Gifford’s staff members.
This terrible incident (or “accident” as Representative Nancy Pelosi called it) affected many families and the community of Tucson. You would think news coverage of this would be for the sole purpose of getting concerned viewers updates on the condition of those involved. Instead, liberal media took the opportunity to take a stab at Republican outlets.
Gifford was a member of the Democratic Party and news sources like CNN said liberal hatred created by Fox News and talk show host Rush Limbaugh caused the gunman to shoot Rep. Gifford at point blank range. Fox and Limbaugh have jumped on the screaming train that has been America’s displeasure with liberal “change,” but to say this is their fault ignores significant facts.
To start, Rep. Gifford was a self-proclaimed conservative democrat and was even prone to switch back and forth between the two parties due to her centrality. So why would a gunman target a liberal that was not even fully associated with the party?
We can’t even go as far as to ask this question due to the gunman’s political standpoint. It is probably even more accurate to describe it as the gunman’s lack of a political standpoint.
The gunman arrested on scene was identified as Jared Lee Loughner, a local college student with a past of mental instability. Loughner underwent a personality change, according to friends, following a break-up with a girlfriend and being fired from multiple jobs.
While he was in no way stable, CNN fabricated a political hatred of democrats as his motive and ignored the facts. Facts like Loughner’s best friend, Zach Osler, saying, “He did not watch TV, he disliked the news, he didn’t listen to political radio, he didn’t take sides, he wasn’t on the Left, he wasn’t on the Right.” And another friend even said his anger would well up at the sight of former President George W. Bush.
Now it is quite obvious to this American that petty media rivalry is more important to liberal media than the consideration of those affected by such a tragic event. At this point, those affected by the shooting are going through a lot of turmoil and I wish them the best.