Our Group chose to investigate the issue of same-sex marriage as covered by the media. The more digging we did, the more obvious the framing of each news network became. For the most part, our analysis focused on Fox News and CNN, with some supplementary sources.

Is CNN "America's Most Leftist News Source" and exactly how "Fairly Unbalanced" is Fox News when it comes to reporting the facts? Read on to find out what we discovered.

Fox News: Victoria Sarmiento

Utah Paper Rejects Same-Sex Wedding Announcement

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-utah-paper-rejects-same-sex-wedding-announcem,0,7954539.story

After reading the article I found that it wasn't Fox who had the biased opinion like I thought it would have been. They simply reported it just how it happened, a Utah newspaper refused to publish a same-sex wedding announcement because they felt it may have made its readers feel uncomfortable. The couple who were already legally married just wanted to have the announcement in the paper for friends and family in Utah. I felt that Fox itself didn't really say who was in the wrong.

CNN: Lisa Haggerty

CNN-Miss California Carrie Prejean

After looking at the CNN videos on Miss California, it was very obvious that CNN does not show her in the “hero light” that FOX does. They showed a much more controversial side of her and seemed to point out all of the bad things she was doing. CNN debated her actions a lot more and most people bashed her instead of showing that she was standing up for what she believes in. Mainly they just wanted her to give the politically correct answer and then stop talking.

When I looked up her name in the videos, titles like Beauty battles back!, Miss California dethroned!, Prejean's heated e-mails, and Beauty queen fired first popped up. But I also saw titles that said, 'Do not be silenced', and Trump: Prejean keeps crown. (Click on titles to see the actual clip) The majority of the titles used powerful words to make her look more controversial and fired up. There were a few videos taking her side but overall they didn’t show her in a positive light. This is not to say that CNN was completely biased but they did show a lot more partiality then I expected them to.

Fox News: Katherine Kummer

While I was perusing through the Fox News data base of videos on the topic of same sex marriage, I was somewhat surprised that the videos I viewed were not as biased on this particular topic as I had originally assumed they would be. One story that I found was not so much interesting as it was framed to be: the answer Miss California gave to Perez Hilton regarding whether or not other states should follow suit in making same sex marriage legal. Although Miss California wasn’t exactly articulate in her answer, she gave her personal opinion, which of course everyone is entitled to, and was later slammed for it by Hilton on this video blog later that evening. Regardless of who was right and who was wrong, because in all honesty we all know beauty contestants aren’t exactly valued for their intelligence, I was very interested on how Fox News portrayed the story.


The first video I saw was hosted by Greta Van Susteren where Carrie Prejean was being interviewed. I found it interesting how the video clips they showed from the pageant depicted Prejean as a smiling, vibrant young women. When she was speaking outside of the pageant, the video was altered to shine a golden light on her face to make her seem like some sort of hero defending her beliefs. These clips are followed by Hilton’s video blog, in black and white, where he looks like a ranting mad man. The video clips alone show how Fox tried to make Prejean look like a martyr at the hands of evil Perez Hilton for “standing by her beliefs.”

http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22201355/carrie-prejean-s-new-cause.htm#q=same-sex+marriage

The other clip I found was on “America’s News Room.” At first they attempted to poke fun at Prejean by comparing her answer to Miss Teen South Carolina’s pageant answer regarding school children and maps that we all remember from a couple years ago. The story continues by complementing the sweet “Christian girl” Prejean is and how she was mistreated by Hilton. They close by saying that although Hilton had the right to give Miss California whatever score he deemed fit, he cost the “sure winner” the crown. The closing words were actually “Poor Miss California.”

http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22122515/asked-and-answered.htm#q=same-sex+marriage


Here's Steven Colbert's take on the situation.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Yahweh or No Way - Father Cutie & Miss California
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

 

CNN: Garrett Hansen

CNN Clip

This interview between Lou Engle and Molly McKay took place soon after the passing of Proposition 8 in November 2008. Because of the way we typically view CNN, we would naturally think that the news coverage would focus primarily on those opposing/protesting Prop 8; however, this particular news clip gives viewers the coverage we actually desire to see: equal representation of both sides. Lou Engle is the founder of the pro-Prop 8 group "the Call" and is a very well known supporter of traditional marriage. Molly McKay is the media director for anti-Prop 8 group "Marriage Equality USA." Both are respectable representatives of each side and are worthy to be interviewed on national television. Just as important is the fact that CNN news anchor Rick Sanchez presented his questions to both Lou and Molly and gave each of them the time to express their particular opinions and views. We, as viewers, are presented with the truth that conflicts such as Proposition 8 aren't necessarily right or wrong, but actually depend on each of our personal views and beliefs.

Fox News: Prop 8 propoganda Nicole Kunzler

Fox News Clip

This post clearly shows how news networks use images and word selection to frame an issue. Fox focuses on how the activists are "targeting" religion, this framing makes it appear as though same-sex couples are anti-religion. It frames it in such a way that viewers feel that same-sex marriage is a threat to their personal belief system.

Also, agenda-setting is shown particularly clear in this video; Fox chooses to focus on the controversy between "religion" (particularly the Mormons) and same-sex marriage. By doing so, the public focuses more on the sensationalism of the story rather than the actual issue at hand.

Comparing the footage each newscast used will reveal further framing. Fox News choose footing that was shot at night and was very dark and shadowy. This made the crowd seem large, unruly, and dangerous. By comparison, the footage shown on CNN was shot during the day. It showed large amounts of demonstrators and showed more faces and individuals. This exposed a human aspect that was not shown in the Fox News footage.

CBS: Joey Wolford

CBS News Clip

CBS focuses a lot more on the humanistic aspect of gay marriage. They way that they frame the issue focuses less on the controversy and more on highlighting a lot of people being very happy. If you notice in this it shows a lot of clips of couples getting married and truly enjoying each other. It also shows from another standpoint people that are very opposed of same-sex marriage being very radical and shown as very extremist.


Janis LeBaron, left, and Stephanie Maheu make it official Tuesday as Vermont recognizes same-sex marriages.

In Vermont earlier this year they legalized same-sex marriages. This couple shown above was the first couple to get married in the state. They have been together for 13 years now and finally they can make it official by getting married. According to Janis,"We don't see ourselves any differently... The world looks at it differently, but commitment-wise, we'll see things as not really changing." This article doesn't really take a stance either for or against same-sex marriage. The title of the article is; "Couple help usher in same-sex marriages in Vermont." These kind of stories found on CNN seem to be stories about actual people that are effected from decisions made in there selected states they live in.

 

Media Ethics

Seek Truth and Report It- "Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context." While there are many aspects of seeking truth and reporting it, we will focus mainly on this use of material and videos to represent, or misrepresent, the truth. None of the newscasts lied directly, there was plenty of "truthiness" to go around. The footage and representatives that were picked to represent the different sides of this issue didn't always give a full picture of the story. Fox News chose to ignore that same-sex marriage impacted real people, while CNN ignored much of the conflict between activists on each side. Both networks could be accused of not telling the whole truth.


Minimize Harm-“ Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.” Both news broadcasts failed to some degree on this part. They often used racy photos or terms to catch people’s attention that did not “show good taste.”

Act Independently- It’s hard to truly know if all of these journalists “acted independently” when interviewing and writing these articles. It would appear that they did but that is difficult to find out without actually interviewing them.

Be Accountable- FOX news often did this very well but they also kept a lot of things hidden in the process. They repeatedly show people and ideas that they support but kept things under the table as well. On the other hand, CNN showed multiple sides but also seemed to lean more to one side over the other. Both sides didn’t always “Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.”

http://spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Works Cited

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