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Julia Broughton

William Loudermilk

English 1201 Online

17 February 2019

News Sources Evaluation

On a cold day in mid-January of last month, three groups convened on the steps of the

Lincoln Memorial. A large group of male students from Covington Catholic High school, who

had just participated in the March for Life rally, a small gathering of Black Hebrew Israelites, a

radical hate group, and a group of American Indians, headed by tribal leader Nathan Phillips,

finishing up their demonstrations at the first Indigenous People’s March. Some would say it was

a disaster waiting to happen. A confrontation occurred, a video was captured, and the groups

were suddenly caught up in the middle of a heated Internet controversy. I became interested in

wanting to track this story when I first saw it on the news. This event occurred one week after

my school had left from Washington D.C. after a school trip. We too were a Christian school,

and we also had stood at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Something about this story struck

me, as it could have very well been my school. After tracking down four different news outlets

that had covered this story, I believe that the Washington Post had the best coverage owing to

several factors, the most important being that it had the best use outside sources, a mostly mild

tone of language, and the most thorough reporting.

Out of all the articles I read, I have to choose the Washington Post article, my mainstream

media source, as having the best coverage. The article utilized various outside sources related to

the March for Life incident. Prominently displayed at the beginning of the article was a link to

another article that discussed all sides of what occurred at the event. It was even titled “Viral
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Standoff between a tribal elder and a high schooler is more complicated than it first seemed.”

Even though the primary article focused on the account of the Native American, Nathan Phillips,

I as a reader could click on the other article and read about the other witnesses accounts, thereby

getting a bigger picture of what had actually occurred. The tone of language in the article was

mild. It made some biased assumptions, such as that the boy Nick Sandmann was wearing a

“relentless smirk” while looking at Nathan Phillips. But overall, the language used was non-

inflammatory, and there were no traces of an angry or hateful tone in the article. It helped that

the article added a correction at the end of the story when they realized they had misreported

something, showing integrity. This article had in-depth reporting because it included eyewitness

accounts and statements made by officials after the event went viral on Twitter. Most of the

article links within this article were more biased toward the liberal side, but the fact they

included an article explaining all sides as one of the very first things the reader sees shows that

they are willing for the reader to consider all sides of the event.

The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Advocate are tied for second best. They each had

strengths and flaws that when evaluated, evened out. I’ll start with the Cincinnati Enquirer, my

social media source found via Google News. It had a better tone of language than the Advocate

and was more neutral in its stance of what occurred at the March for Life incident. It didn’t place

blame on any group, explaining instead what happened and how the chaperones of the high

school boys reacted. It also didn’t pity either Nathan Phillips or the Catholic boys. It was not as

thorough as it could have been. It included no video or eyewitness accounts by the students or

Mr. Phillips, the primary people caught up in the incident. However, I appreciated that even

though no video was given, there were no assumptions made. The Cincinnati Enquirer article did

interview chaperones who had been on the trip, which I think was a good idea since they were
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there at the incident. In addition, at the beginning of the article, several other articles related to

this event were provided. By looking at the titles, I could see that they had pretty neutral titles

that reported more than one side. For example, some of the titles were “Nathan Phillips wants to

meet with the Covington Catholic Students,” and “Nick Sandmann of Covington Catholic: ‘Wish

we could have walked away.’” This article had the least amount of bias compared to all four

articles I read, but because it had no video and little eyewitness accounts, I don’t think it

deserves the title of best coverage.

The Advocate was my alternative media source. Its article’s best feature was that

included a link to another article by the Cincinnati Enquirer that included an extremely

informative timeline that walked the reader through the everything that occurred at the March for

Life incident. It had maps, multiple videos from multiple angles, and accounts given by every

group involved. Even though the Advocate’s article didn’t go into all that detail, I appreciated

that they included an article that did. However, the Cincinnati Enquirer article was listed after

two other articles included that were a little more liberal in nature, so there was a slight bias by

story selection. The tone of language was also a little more accusatory in this article, and it made

more assumptions, mainly of the Covington Catholic boys. It claimed they were “mocking a

native American elder” and that the boys were a “gang of white male teens in red MAGA hats

[who] proudly taunted Nathan Phillips.” This article also had some bias in that the publisher of

this article is an outlet that reports on LGBT rights, and it included a story about Covington

Catholic preventing a gay valedictorian from giving his graduation speech.

The article that had the worst coverage was by far written by Crooks and Liars, my media

criticism outlet. I already knew it was going to be extremely biased because it was described as a

very liberal news outlet. The second way I knew it was going to be biased was by the article title
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itself, which read “Whitewashing White Supremacy: Media Rushes to Excuse Covington

Catholic MAGA boys.” The tone of this article was very off-putting, because it was very

accusatory, hateful, and mocking, making it unpleasant to read. It made no room for other

opinions and gave me the impression that if I had a view different from this article, I was

automatically wrong. It made several assumptions about the Catholic boys, even though it didn’t

include any accounts by the boys and gave them no chance to explain themselves. It also

assumed that they were not viable eyewitnesses and claimed that mainstream media promoted

white supremacy. The coverage of the incident is very one-sided, as the author dismisses any

other viewpoint as irrelevant and biased towards the Covington Catholic boys. It wasn’t thorough

because it didn’t include eyewitness accounts of all the groups involved in the incident, and the

outside sources used constantly put the Catholic boys in a bad light.

I try not to be too biased when I read the news, but I am not blind to the fact that I have

biases when I am reading. I am a Christian and a moderate conservative, so I tend to be very

hesitant when reading a liberal or mildly liberal news story reporting on topics such as politics,

abortion, gun laws, etc. However, the more and more I read the news, I realize that liberal news

sites, if they aren’t accusing or hating on a specific group of people, aren’t as bad as I think they

are. As long as I put on my thinking cap and carefully consider what they have to say, I won’t be

fooled. When I took the quiz, I was told I am a news junkie, which is true. I do enjoy reading the

news and being aware of what’s happening in my country. If I see stories directly focusing on

politics, I try to avoid them, because they are usually extremely biased to the left or right. Since I

am not an expert on politics, it is hard to discern who is telling the truth. I read about a variety of

topics, and from a variety of news outlets. What I have found is that if I read about things not

directly related to politics, I can usually enjoy a good story, no matter if I’m reading it on Fox
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News or the Huffington Post. One thing I wish I read more about is foreign affairs. I rarely read

about them, because I don’t really have a personal connection, and those events seem far away.

Completing this module has been very educational. I have been forced to confront my

own biases and look at stories from a non-biased perspective. The four stories I read all covered

the same topic, but had very different things to say about it. The Washington Post article was the

most thorough, despite its slight biases. On the other hand, the Crooks and Liars article was

clearly biased and carried a very negative emotional tone. In the middle were the Cincinnati

Enquirer and the Advocate, each having its flaws, but also displaying good features that

shouldn’t be overlooked.

I think because of our country’s increasingly hostile political environment, the news will

always be biased one way or another. Many journalists will continue to fail us in telling the truth

and nothing but the truth. That’s just the way it is. However, we can be comforted in knowing

that we all can think for ourselves, evaluate our own beliefs, and open our ears to listen to quieter

perspectives often drowned out by the loud clamor of the Internet. Let’s not also forget that there

are good, noble people out there who do report the truth, but it is often harder to find. This

shouldn’t be surprising, as the best things in life, one of them being the pursuit of truth, don’t

come easy.
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Works Cited

Gilchrist, Tracy E. “Covington Catholics Banned Gay Valedictorian from Giving

Speech.” ADVOCATE, Advocate.com, 20 Jan. 2019,

www.advocate.com/news/2019/1/20/covington-catholics-banned-gay-valedictorian-giving-

speech.

Horn, Dan, et al. “The March for Life Is a Different Kind of Field Trip for Schools like

Covington Catholic.” Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati Enquirer, 23 Jan. 2019,

www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/01/22/covington-catholic-why-march-life-isnt-like-

most-field-trips-dicier-proposition-today-no-vacation/2643814002/.

Jacobson, Jodi. “Whitewashing White Supremacy: Media Rushes To Excuse Covington Catholic

MAGA Boys.” Crooks and Liars, Crooks and Liars, 23 Jan. 2019,

crooksandliars.com/2019/01/whitewashing-white-supremacy-media-rushes.

Jr., Cleve R. Wootson, et al. “'It Was Getting Ugly': Native American Drummer Speaks on His

Encounter with MAGA-Hat-Wearing Teens.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Jan.

2019, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/20/it-was-getting-ugly-native-american-

drummer-speaks-maga-hat-wearing-teens-who-surrounded-

him/?utm_term=.24a2894072d1.