Fox News: Trump refers to alleged Bill Clinton assault as ‘rape.’

CRT 100 questions

Critical questions for detecting bias

1. What is the author’s / speaker’s socio-political position? With what social, political, or professional groups is the speaker identified?
2. Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
3. Who is paying for the message? Where does the message appear? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
4. What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how were the data gathered, who gathered the data, and are the data being presented fully?
5. How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view? Does the speaker fairly present alternative arguments? Does the speaker ignore obviously conflicting arguments?
6. If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view? Does the speaker ascribe positive motivations to his/her point of view and negative motivations to alternative points of view?
7. Compare and contrast your childhood influences to the influences of the children of the Westboro Baptist Church. Did you have any similar influences? How were your family and surroundings different?

Answer preview

The news presented on Fox is about Donald Trump who terms the alleged assault against Bill Clinton as Rape. Trump focuses on the sexual history of Clinton instead of the unfaltering stories presented in the New York Times. However, bad news bias, fairness bias, and narrative bias are promoted in this medium (Cline, 2013). It is because the journalist, Sean Hannity, displays the negative side of Clinton by also including rape among the allegations.

The Speaker’s Socio-Political Position

The socio-political position of the author is the presidential nominee of the United States, Donald Trump. Donald Trump is using this interview to promote his presidential campaign in the United States since he has been nominated to run for the seat. However, he insists on Bill Clinton sexual history as a primary campaign issue in social media and rallies. The speaker is identified to be of the Republican social group. As a republican, it is clear that the speaker, Donald Trump, supports American conservatism…

 

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