It’s that time again. Media bias 2k16.
This time around, the articles I chose to compare are from FOX News and The New York Times. They discuss Republican nominee Donald Trump’s latest claim about how he prevented former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, from getting fired.
FOX News
Both articles begin with the quote that Trump shared on Bill O’Reily. The FOX News article used an ellipsis in Trump’s quote that causes one to believe that Trump had sympathy for Machado, recognizing her as a person. Rather, the quote actually reads, “This is a person that I hardly know,” which further distances Trump from the contestant. This news outlet used the quote fully out of context to favor Trump. His actual appearance on Bill O’Reily begins with him completely cutting himself from the Miss Universe pageant and saying that he has never spoken to the former winner for “more than five minutes” in total. The article also goes further in making Machado the villain, discussing an alleged threat to a judge in her “home country” years prior. This seems completely irrelevant to this particular story. Ultimately, this article completely ignored the fact that Trump body-shamed her, and put him in a noble light, making him seem he did a favor for someone he barely knew. He denied the bullying, although Machado said that Trump humiliated her by letting press come in and watch her workout.
The New York Times article was much shorter than the FOX News article. It included a direct quote from the Bill O’Reily interview. It says that Trump told O’Reily he "Saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight." Furthermore, Trump said, “Don’t do that, let her try and lose the weight” (Trump, 2016). The article also mentions how Trump believes that he deserves thanks. This is a common response from this nominee, as he often looks for acknowledgement when it is not justified. The lead of this article does not undermine the bullying of Alicia Machado, as it states that he shamed her into losing weight to save her job. The FOX News article ignores the shaming and discusses how her weight gain was a problem that he fixed and did not get the acknowledgement for.
