Topic: Drone Strikes
Sources: The NY Times, CNN, Fox News, The Huffington Post, and Dawn Newspaper
In recent years, the United States has developed the process of using unmanned aircraft, called drones, to conduct combat from the air on unsuspecting targets below. The controversial practice has led to many questions and concerns about drone strikes, and the media is currently covering a worldwide debate on their use. Most recently, Kentucky senator Rand Paul led a filibuster to suspend the nomination of pro-drone John Brennan as CIA director. Sen. Paul spoke for almost 13 hours, and talked about the importance of President Barack Obama being transparent with his drone use, and whether or not the president could use drones against an American citizen who is an enemy of the government overseas, reiterating the concerns many people have had about drones in recent months.
So far most of the news outlets covering the drone story have not had a large bias against one side or the other. I believe this is because the use of drones is a touchy and confusing subject, and there is no outstanding consensus on drone strikes for either political party or the American public.
The New York Times, CNN, and Fox News all have broad reports on the drone strikes, and their articles cover a wide range of topics including debates, opinion pieces, and general related reports on what is happening within the US government in regards to drone strikes. There is not much bias coming from any of the articles, which surprised me, especially considering how Fox News can be a very biased news source. However, besides word choice and dealings with strong party issues, reports on drones from the three sources basically read the same.
On the other hand, I found that the Huffington Post was very biased in the way they reported about drone strikes. Taking an anti-drone standpoint, almost all of the articles on Huff Post that deal with drones are adamant in their rejection of the use of drones. This is similar to the last of my five news sources, which is Dawn Newspaper. A source from Pakistan, Dawn is able to provide firsthand accounts and opinions from where most of the drone strikes occur. Since the country witnesses the destructive aftermath of missiles launched from drones to kill an American enemies often, the paper is entirely sure of its anti-drone opinions. I found an article that was released in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings here in the US that criticized President Obama for becoming emotional when American schoolchildren were murdered, while he shows no remorse for ordering drone strikes that murder innocent Pakistani civilians, including children. This goes to show how sure Dawn Newspaper is in its anti-drone stance.
