Media bias in Presidential candidate coverage: Biden vs. Trump

News media has recently called on President Joe Biden to drop out of the race after his performance at the presidential debate. The response from the media was not the same when former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies.

Critics are saying there has been unfair treatment in the media when covering the two presidential candidates.

Julia Wallace, a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss whether the media is being fair and balanced.

Wallace explained people were upset with how the debate was portrayed by the media. 

“When there’s bad news, you blame the messenger. All of these people saw the debate. They were frankly upset, horrified, concerned, and the press reported on it, and people didn’t want to hear it, and so a lot of the criticism you talk about is really just sort of that natural thing that happens where we get blamed,” said Wallace. 

People believe President Biden’s health should have been reported more in the media, and that it could have been done more aggressively. 

“But the reporters I think suffered from two things. One is they get so tied in their sources you don’t see what’s right in front of you, and access is very limited, and they needed to fight back more,” said Wallace. 

Over time, the media has done a better job about revealing politics, however it can still be challenging for the media and when people don’t have enough information. 

“The press has gotten much better at exposing what they see, but sometimes it’s hard,” said Wallace.