Editorial Essay

            There are a myriad of news outlets where the public can freely choose to gather information from. Some organizations lean more to the left while there are others that are more right leaning. All of the outlets make different editorial decisions including what article is the top story and the outlay of the site or newspaper. Four of the more prominent news organizations are: Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, and The New York Times.

            On Sunday evening, March 12, 2017, the top story on AP is McCain to Trump: Provide wiretap evidence or retract claim. The top story of CNN is similar to the AP, which is, McCain calls on trump to verify wiretapping claim. Fox’s top story is Numbers Game: Team Trump, GOP trying to downplay looming CBO report on ObamaCare Replacement. The NYT top story is Trump Wants Faster Growth. The Fed Moves for Restraint.

            The AP and CNN chose to use similar stories as their top stories due to President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the Obama administration tapped into the phone lines at Trump Tower in New York City. These two organizations want to let their readers know that a current republican senator is suspicious of Trump’s absurd accusations. While Trump is not a journalist, he should verify what he believes to be true is actually true. Kovach and Rosential wrote, “The discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda from fiction, or art” (98).

            Fox News chose to report that the upcoming Congressional Budget Office report is being discredited by the White House because of past errors the CBO has made. The NYT has their main story as Trump wanting faster economic growth for the American people and the federal reserve reports that they may raise the interest rates as soon as Wednesday. Fox’s reasoning for reporting this story is because the stock market keeps closing with higher numbers than normal. Fox is keeping their readers invested in the possibility of banks offering higher interest rates.

            The AP had all political/hard news in their top stories. I do not think the AP had a balance of stories Sunday evening. Although the stories seemed to be important, they did not seem to be interesting. CNN had a variety of top stories including a landslide that killed 46 bystanders, an undocumented teen fearful for his future, and a Jewish center that reopened after a bomb threat. These stories appear to be important and interesting depending on the demographic of people who are reading them. CNN had a nice mix of both hard and soft news, which will attract different readers.

            Fox had different stories that focused on the repealing of ObamaCare and promises that the new plan will insure all Americans. Fox’s stories were not particularly interesting. They were important in order to stay informed about the details of the reformed health care act that will come into fruition in the near future. The NYT always has a good variety of stories. On the left hand column, they have all the hard news concerning the 45^th president. There were also soft stories about farmland, the upcoming blizzard, and daylight savings time. The hard and soft news stories are important and interesting to readers.

            The AP wants their audience to know what is going on in the country ranging from politics to entertainment. They take part on everything from breaking news to investigative reporting. CNN does their best to remain unbiased in order to serve the interested public. Fox, on the other hand, is obviously right leaning in what they report. It is more noticeable in their broadcast news than their print news. The NYT is more of a left leaning organization. Their front page consists of political hard news on the left and soft news down the middle. The NYT does this layout so that their consumers know where to refer to in order to partake in the news that they desire to consume.

            The reason that the organizations picked the stories that they did on Sunday evening is because the public who generally consume these stories expect the reporters from the particular news outlets to provide them with facts as to what is going on in the world. People do not wish to discern what is true and what is not. That is the job of the journalists. Kovach and Rosential, wrote, “Journalists like to think of themselves as the people’s surrogate, covering society’s waterfront in the public interest” (96). While there are undoubtedly people who will not immediately believe an article they have read, there are citizens who have trust in the organizations they receive their news from. 

            The reason for the outlets covering similar stories is because news is constantly happening so it is only appropriate for different outlets to cover the same story. There may be times when a story is covered from a different angle and different information is within an article. The stories that were similar seemed to include all the pertinent information.

            There are a number of news organizations, which serve the public’s interest.  People are free to get information from any outlet they please. Citizens can read news outlets or watch broadcast news. In the digital age, people are able to get push notifications on the articles they are interested in. New information is constantly being published on news sites. Consumers must be wary of false news. It is better to engage with news that has a reputation rather than a flashy headline.