Entry # 3: Slanted Reporting

My titles are super creative, I know.

So what is slanted reporting?

Slanted reporting can be described in different ways but it is basically the reporting of information with a bias. How extreme the bias is totally depends on the situation or the specific reporter.

Slanted reporting is everywhere; most of the media is slanted one way or another but tends to be masked so that people don't lose trust. For some reason, the idea of slanted reporting/media bothers people. I mean I guess I can understand that no one wants to be indirectly lied to, but isn't that what most everyone does all of the time anyway? Otherwise, people wouldn't have to get both sides of the story when mediating an argument. Why can't everyone just say the truth all of the time? Because we all perceive it differently.

There are plenty of news network that are notoriously biased to the point of not caring anymore, like Fox News, but there are also a number of intentionally biased programs just to amuse people. See? People actually enjoy being lied to.

The Colbert Report/The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and the Daily Show are two good examples of biased reporting. The extremity of their bias is intended to be comical, but there is an underlying amount of seriousness in their reporting. They cover real situations, usually political, and do state facts. They just tend to twist them so far to get good reactions out of people. There is a sad number of people who actually utilize these kinds of shows to get their actual information, though.

But let's narrow this down a little bit more and focus on Stephen Colbert.

There's a lot of slanted gold right now with all of the election stuff going on, so let's take a moment to view one of these gems.

The Colbert Report was the show Colbert hosted until it ended in 2015 to be replaced by The Late Show on a different network. They're basically the same show and satire is the key to Colbert's success. He uses visuals/examples to get information to people but speaks right after immediately giving his interpretation, although sometimes sarcastic, of whatever the viewer just saw. Colbert utilizes witty remarks and the tone of his voice, most of all. Sometimes he says one thing and means the exact opposite. That is why he has viewers on every end of the belief spectrum.

I don't really know what to believe anymore, I saw enough little segments that I'm not even sure what his actual stance is or how much of it is just writing.