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Detecting Media Bias

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Detecting Media Bias

For this assignment I found an article on Fox News website under politics, the title is called “Illinois nanny city now requiring $50 trash cans”. After utilizing the five strategies for critical reading skim, reflect, read, evaluate, and express your judgment. I found three main fallacies in this article. The three fallacies are clarity, evidence, and viewpoints. Here are my findings on the article.
The article was not clear, because it failed to give me a complete view or enough information on what exactly is going on. I had to look elsewhere to figure out what exactly they were talking about. However, the article was accurate because some of the facts where across multiple websites that I encountered. The article states residents in the city of Bloomington, Illinois will have to buy a $50 trashcan and they emphasis on the 96-gallon size. The city council approved of up fronting the cost, but will past the cost on to residents (Fox News, 2013).
I feel the article ignored some of the key facts, for example: Will the cost of the trashcan be applied to their bill or will the monthly trash services be increased? In addition, it did not state when would all this take place for the residents. According to Fox News, “‘The city looked at best practices and safe work conditions for the employees and made the choice to go with (automated collections)’, Alex McElroy the assistant to Bloomington’s city manager, told Illinois Watchdog” (Fox News, 2013, para. 4) With that said, the article did not state if the city were having an increase in crimes. Why does the city feel that the way the trash service is now is not safe now?
One thing that I was not clear about was the point of view from which the story was reporting, and it raised my awareness quickly. The first sentence was “The City of Bloomington, which thinks it knows how to run taxi cabs, and when you should mow your lawn, now knows better than you how big your trash can should be” (Fox News, 2013, para. 1). I do not know whose view this is, if it is the writer’s or the residents. The article only seemed to be one sided and there was lack of diversity. The writer reported why the city believes that it was important to go this route on the their trash service, but did not report how the residents thought about this matter.
In conclusion, I would have to say that this article was bias because they are not telling us all the facts on both sides. I feel that this article would be different on the television rather than reading it online. By watching it on television, I would have gotten a better understanding of what exactly was going on, because they would have to more likely emphasize it a little more.

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