Dumb Strzok? Or Dumb Article?

It took me 0 seconds to find political bias on Fox News today. It is interesting how this has become so blatant, and so frequent, that anyone can find this sort of thing immediately, and without trying.

The article I found, headlined on foxnews.com, dealt with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was fired for having classified information on his personal phone, and for having an affair with a staff member. What makes the article so interestingly biased, is the fast that the article emphasizes one particular detail. Here's the opening paragraph:

"The Department of Justice released documents Monday outlining a slew of "security violations" and flagrantly "unprofessional conduct" by anti-Trump ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok -- including his alleged practice of keeping sensitive FBI documents on his unsecured personal electronic devices, even as his wife gained access to his cell phone and discovered evidence that he was having an affair with former FBI attorney Lisa Page."

Now, many people in government are "anti-Trump." Quite a few, in fact, have recently been in Trump's administration, and have left saying that Trump is an idiot. People like Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, John Kelly, John Bolton, Hope Hicks, and the list goes on. So it's not unusual for any given FBI person, or former FBI in this case, to have a negative opinion about Donald Trump. But this article LEADS with that fact. And in doing so, it strongly implies that those who oppose Trump are just as dirty as this particular ex-agent whose sloppy security breeches and extramarital affair got him into trouble.

Now, objectively, it should be obvious that Strzok's personal feelings about Trump are entirely separate from the misdeeds for which he was fired. It should also be obvious that there are plenty of Trump supporters who are just as dirty, and are currently sitting in jail or are awaiting jail. Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos, and recently Roger Stone, among others.

Fox News is bluntly trying to say, "See? There are some crooked anti-Trumpers, too!"

Maybe so, but doesn't it look a little desperate to make your headline story of the day be one about a sloppy FBI agent who couldn't keep his fly zipped?

The bias of Fox News is not always blatant. Sometimes it is subtle. This time it wasn't so subtle, but it was subliminal. We are not meant to notice that Strzok's irrelevant anti-Trump stance is mentioned right away. We are not meant to be conscious of how this flavors perspective against those with an anti-Trump stance. And we are not meant to notice how, further down in the article, mention is made about leaks from the FBI in the Trump administration, and how this implicates that Strzok may be one of the leakers. For all we know, he might be, but it is not keeping with journalistic integrity to imply such a thing without evidence.


Eric

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