Liberal against Conservative

One recent occurrence in Iraq was a major battle between marines and insurgents for control of the city, Tikrit. In analyzing this incident, I decided to view articles from CNN, which is thought to have a liberal bias, and FOX News, which is thought to contain a conservative view. I was hoping to find a noticeable difference in the way the both articles presented the battle. CNN’s article was about how things were going in Tikrit, while FOX News had an article about how the fighting was fizzling out.

I thought it was interesting how CNN hadn’t posted an article on how the fighting was beginning to cease, while FOX News had. One might conclude that a liberal station, which usually portrays the war in the worse light possible, would rather have an article detailing the fight and causalities. CNN’s article begins with a description of the American forces that enter the city and the type of resistance that they encountered. T he article also described how many people were killed in the fighting, which could be thought of as a subtle way of implying how the war is causing pain through loss of life. I thought it was interesting how the article also described the mission of American troops as “attack and destroy any type of regime forces.” This makes the American infantry seem as though they are simply out to kill anyone who stands in their way. For example, “restore peace or order to the area,” might have been a different way of describing the mission, but I believe CNN purposely choose their statement to reinforce their view of the war. The article never described the mission as successful, even though American forces recovered seven captive American soldiers. The rest of the article describes how CNN reporters were shot at when they entered Tikrit and how the city is still unsafe. I believe that this was mentioned, even though it didn’t really relate to the battle, was mentioned within the article purposely to show that the battle didn’t really cause much progression in the area.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/13/sprj.irq.tikrit/index.html

“U.S. Marines overran loyalists staging a last stand Monday at Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, ending the major combat phase of the Iraq war.” That was the first line of the article from Fox News, and already, one can note the conservative bias. Let me start by noting the use of the word overran, which implies that American troops effortlessly dominated the resistance. According to FOX, this was the last stand, portraying the insurgents as being on the verge of complete defeat. Then, the article implies that this is the end of combat in the Iraq war, which I believe is very unlikely. There was a quote from a soldier about how there was little resistance from the insurgent, which was much different from CNN’s article, which described Iraqi tank resistance and fierce firefights. I particularly enjoyed FOX New’s description of how Iraqi people eventually emerged from their house into the streets to “enjoy a beautiful spring afternoon.” This is a clear display of bias, portraying a scene where innocent people are able to come outside and enjoy themselves due to the efforts of the American troops. One quote within the article said that the city was a ghost town when the soldiers first arrived, but later resident starting coming outside and embracing the troops, even showing them where the Saddam loyalist were, one even saying, “Long love the United States.” Clearly, this article wished to portray American troops as the “good guys” or “heroes.” The article ended with a description of how nearly all of the resistance has fled the city and how people of Tikrit were on the side of American troops, even offering a peace negotiation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,84047,00.html