US Election 2020: how biased is the US media? | BOOM

Oct 29, 2020 18:00 IST

How biased is the US Media? How difficult is it to fact check the US Election 2020? H R Venkatesh of BOOM speaks with Peter James Fray on whether the US media plays sides and whether it is hard to be impartial in USA because of Donald Trump. Peter James Fray, Managing Editor, Crikey says that the whole picture of the USA as portrayed by mainstream media is often different than the ground reality. Business models that have evolved where publications write only to cater to progressive, anti-Trump audience that pays for subscriptions. Partisan issues have taken over public discourse, so many people choose to stick only to the facts that agree with them instead of learning new things. He also says that it is incredibly hard to fact check the US Elections and live fact checking remains a dream. The problem often is the volume of lies and media cycles. Donald Trump is no ordinary liar - there has been no liar like him. He has no compulsion to say the truth and it has become a real problem for every fact checker. By the time a fact checker is done verifying his claims, the caravan has moved on and there are a bunch of new claims to fact check. Watch Peter James Fray dissect the ideas of a post truth audience, partisanship, struggles facing mainstream media in holding the truth to power and the challenges of fact checking the US Elections.