When asked to respond to the following statement: criticism from news organizations keeps political leaders from doing things that shouldn’t be done, how similar were the responses of Democrats and Republicans?
How accurate was your prediction? What is the story the data tells?
Explain why Republican and Democratic attitudes diverged so dramatically after 2016.
Describes one consequence in this divergence in attitudes between the two major parties.
List 2 things you think the two parties actually agree on right now:
Describe the trend in political partisan divergence in opinion toward the media’s watchdog role between 1985 and 2015.
Explain that trend: If the news media could not expose government malfeasance what would stop government misbehavior?
What is your personal response to the following: criticism from news organizations keeps political leaders from doing things that shouldn’t be done.
How did American politicians criticize and respond to political leaders in the 18th century?
Describe how you think this graph would change if a Democrat defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Some people refer to the media as the fourth branch of government. What do you think that means and do you agree with that description?
What keeps the government from disallowing criticism from the media?
Do you think President Trump would ban media criticism if he could?
Why do you think President Trump calls news he does not like, “Fake News?”
Do you remember or know of any other presidents, Republican or Democratic, questioning the very validity of the the entire news media?
Do you think he will?
What kind of leaders ban the media?
How would a conservative and a liberal respond to the idea of the news media being critical of the president?
Of the following news media outlets rank them from top to bottom in terms of how critical they are of the current presidency.
NPR
CNN
The Wall Street Journal
The “failing” New York Times
MSNBC
The Huffington Post
Fox News
Learning Extension
Read the full Pew report on the partisan divide regarding the media’s watchdog role.
Action Extension
Follow the media closely for two days by watching the nightly news, listening to news on the radio, or following the news online. Calculate what percent of news coverage of the government is critical and what percent is not critical. Share your analysis in class or online.