Common-Carrier Function

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Like any good source, facts distributed through political news reporting should be fair and balanced. In order for news reports to be "fair and balanced", news outlets should not only share unbiased facts, but they should cover all sides of the story equally. These characteristics would be ideal tools used to educate the American public on different issues and topics. In chapter ten of the textbook, Thomas Patterson states that media outlets serve four functions including signaling, common-carrier, watchdog and partisan functions. Signaling function is alerting the public to important developments as soon as possible. Common-carrier function is the way in which political leaders communicate with the public through media. The watchdog