When looking anywhere on the internet today, you are more than likely to come across the phrase "fake news." But lately, this phrase has lost its true meaning. It has evolved into a phrase that people use to dismiss pieces of information that they do not agree with, regardless of its validity or whether or not they even know anything about its validity. The most prominent examples the phrase "fake news" being thrown around come from our current President, accusing various media outlets of conveying less than factual information. His common targets ore CNN and the New York Times, while he seems to have a very strong preference for Fox News. Interestingly enough, Fox News itself has a reputation of not conveying news accurately/impartially. This difference in opinion got me thinking: what is the actual difference in articles between CNN and Fox News?
     Earlier today, there was a shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee. One of the most prominent things that stuck out to me about the differences in these articles was the tone. CNN mostly stayed factual and professional, not letting the author's opinion get in the way of their reporting. Fox News on the other hand, had a very clear opinion that it was not afraid to display. Fox News tried to evoke an emotional response in the reader. They tried to make the reader feel sad and like these people had so much more life to live before it was taken from them. They wanted their reader to feel true sorrow at the deaths of these people. This is admittedly a very safe stance to take, as almost nobody would object to it, but a stance nonetheless. While in this case, I did agree with Fox News's stance on the event, I prefer CNN's more factual approach to reporting the news. Opinions and stances are important and they do have a place, but just not mixed in with news reporting. That kind of writing is more for social media or a blog, like this one.
Here are the articles:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/22/waffle-house-shooting-victims-include-brilliant-college-student-aspiring-rapper.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/22/us/waffle-house-shooting-what-we-know/index.html