Selective editing is one form of news misrepresentation inherent in the United States over the years. It is a form of news misrepresentation because journalists distort certain facts and publicize those that they deem to better express their viewpoints or the ideologies of their respective media houses on the particular news item. Selective editing is egregious because people are lead to overestimate or underestimate the danger or value of a situation or an object in their lives depending on how it is portrayed by the media ( Pinker, 2018) . The resulting poor judgement could lead to mental distress due to missed opportunities or over-hyped realities.
Practically, there are limitations to media neutrality in the United States. One recent example of skewed information from the media include the speculations on the origin of the current global pandemic- the corona virus (Covid-19). There is a great contrast in coverage between three popular media houses including Fox News, CNN, and CNBC. The nature of coverage through these media houses are intricately clouded by their respective affiliations to conservative or liberal ideologies.
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Accordingly, only 37 % of the conservative Fox News viewers believe that Covid-19 originated from natural means, and a majority of these viewers believe that the virus was manufactured in a Chinse laboratory. Conversely, 66 % of the liberal MSNBC believe that the virus came about naturally, and about 52% of the CNN viewers, which is a moderate media house, believe that the disease sprung from natural sources ( Cillizza, 2020) . Overall, people who watch Fox news, who are overwhelmingly conservative publicans, report very different and less accurate view of the coronas virus than the CNN and MSNBC viewers. These findings do not come as a surprise considering that the media houses are likely to selectively edit information to match their respective ideologies.
References
Cillizza, C. (2020, April 3). Here's what you think of coronavirus if you watch Fox News . CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/coronavirus-fox-news-poll/index.html
Pinker, S. (2018, February 19). The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences | Steven pinker . The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/17/steven-pinker-media-negative-news
Appendix
News Articles
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/larry-elder-coronavirus-origin-transforms-from-right-wing-conspiracy-theory-into-plausible
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/coronavirus-latest-updates.html
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/04/16/china-transparency-covid-19-spread-pkg-culver-lead-vpx.cnn
