After watching four hours of news split between liberal-leaning CNN and conservative-leaning Fox News, I got three main impressions about the poorest in America. For a start, it was evident from both stations that although the USA has the most powerful economy in the world, it still has an inordinately high number of poor people. Further, among the poor, there is an underlying concept of perpetuation. A large percentage of those who are born of poor parents and raised in poor neighborhoods have a high chance of living in poverty as adults. Similarly, those raised by affluent parents in affluent neighborhoods had very limited chances of facing poverty.
It was also evident that liberal has a benign approach towards poverty as was evident from CNN’s coverage. The station portrayed the poor victims of an economic system that places them at a disadvantage. The impression I got from the coverage was that the poor are owed by society and it has an onus to do all within its abilities to assist them in overcoming poverty. This approach by CNN takes the perspective of social justice, which deals with issues such as equity and equality in society (Alt, 2018).
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On the other hand, the opinion of Fox News towards poverty creates the impression that the poor are entitled and a burden to society. The station was not expressly unkind against the poor themselves. However, it did express remonstrations to leaders who are seeking to expand welfare programs to the poor. Further, the station expressed concerns about poor immigrants benefiting from taxes paid by hardworking Americans. The approach taken by Fox news aligns with the concept of extreme capitalism where each citizen ought to live within the limits of their ability to earn (Schröder, 2019). This approach assumes that there is an even economic environment and the poor would rise out of poverty if they worked hard enough.
References
Alt, J. (2018). Tax Justice & Poverty. Short Version of the Final Synthesis Report. Short Version of the Final Synthesis Report (November 2, 2018) .
Schröder, M. (2019). Varieties of capitalism and welfare regime theories: Assumptions, accomplishments, and the need for different Methods. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie , 1-21.
