The media plays a significant and powerful role in the United States. Many Americans have the ability to access media outlets within seconds through various modes of communication such as telephones, radios, and television. Without the media, keeping up with current events at the rate at which they are occurring, would become increasingly difficult. With news information provided by the media, comes the overwhelming amount of bias towards both progressive-liberal values and conservative values. Merriam Webster dictionary defines bias as “an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgement”(“Bias”). Depending on the specific media outlet accessed, such as news articles, videos, images and other …show more content…
Often times, biased news articles will contain a high amount of literary devices in order to persuade the reader to side with the author. News sources may include libel and slander in their articles, in order to give a person or a group of people a negative connotation and a public distaste. While libel is defined by Merriam Webster’s online dictionary as “a written defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression” (“Libel”), it describes slander as “to cause harm the reputation of by communicating false statements” (“Slander”). Another sign of a biased news source, is a news source that only presents one side of an argument. While the text may not be persuasive, the news source is not delivering all facts, which in turn, only allows the reader to gain an understanding of one side of an argument. Although the government frequently monitors news outlets, government officials are often times unable to interfere with the actions of media outlets. An exception to that is when a source publishes something that presents itself as a clear and imminent danger. Under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the government cannot punish or limit the freedom of speech unless there are obvious signs of the intent to execute harmful actions. The government also restricts seditious speech, because it encourages sedition-- the crime of attempting to overthrow by force or violent