American politics have been highly polarized by past and ongoing events. Although citizens of the U.S. show pride in having the most well-established democracy in the world, the rise of populism in the international arena has been manifesting itself in the United States for many years, reaching its peak with the 2016 elections. Since then, many liberals and conservative media outlets have expressed deep concern for the continuation of the ever-strengthening democracy of the United States. But what role has the polarized media played in American politics’ deep polarization? On what pillars do the more conservative and liberal news sources stand?
The Daily Wire
The Daily Wire, owned by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, stands out as one of the more conservative news sources in the United States. As they describe themselves, “the Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment.” According to their website, the Daily Wire remains on the right-of-center media landscape, and it does not claim to be unbiased. Being a moderate-right news source, it’s rated conservative by the Biasly A.I. Bias Score. They are a strong opposer of climate change and have been known to have many other strong conservative stances.
Due to its right-wing views, the Daily Wire tends to appeal to a larger conservative audience in hopes of preserving the status quo. The Daily Wire promotes the preservation of the constitution and current American order carried throughout four centuries and points out its success in making the United States one of the greatest countries in the world, if not the greatest. This type of media outlet glorifies the stability of the United States and is therefore robustly resistant to change and reforms. Such a position is observable in the Daily Wire’s view on student debt cancellation, which it refers to as “the last thing people should be worried about right now.”
The Daily Wire’s views on immigration stand out as very conservative. Accordingly, it heavily criticizes the United Nations due to its inability to contain Iran’s aggressive nuclear policy, much like how the famous Cold War historian George F. Kennan described the Soviet Union as ‘incompatible with Western democracy.’
Although The Daily Wire may not overtly state its opinions, it often hosts journalists and politicians whose views are compatible with theirs, like Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, who calls President Joe Biden “a tool of the radical left.” Ever since the election of Joe Biden, the Daily Wire has been heavily knocking his “game-changer” policies in the international arena, emphasizing his “ideological ineptitude,” and inability to control inflation and economic spending.
Although the Daily Wire portrays Donald Trump’s border control policies as measures that ensure public security, they’ve been criticized by liberal news outlets who classify such discourse as acts of favoritism and factionalism. While conservative Americans express concern about illegal migrants possibly deteriorating public order, the liberal American media remind the public about the foundation of the United States and point out that acceptance and tolerance are the values that make the United States’ American.’ This debate is bound to continue to be a heavily contested point of discussion; however, both parties should recognize that ideological stances leading up to xenophobia can’t be a part of America’s future.
The Guardian
Contrary to what its name reflects, The Guardian claims to be a newspaper without political affiliation. However, the Guardian also states that its values determine which stories are covered, so there is a contradiction here regarding objectivity and neutrality. It should be noted that the Guardian was founded in 1821 by liberal beneficiaries consisting of merchants; therefore, it’s unsurprising that it is a liberal and left-leaning news outlet. Most evaluators, including Biasly, agree that the Guardian stands on the left-of-center of the political spectrum and is defined as a newspaper leaning towards the liberal side.
Being situated in the United Kingdom, The Guardian approaches American politics with a more internationalist view than media outlets inside the United States. Due to this reason, The Guardian does not focus on issues exclusive to the United States as patriotic as other American news outlets. However, there is no doubt that the election and the following four-year term performance of Donald Trump were unwelcome by the Guardian. According to the Biasly A.I. Bias Score, 82% of the news about Donald Trump published by The Guardian carries negative sentiment or disapproval of his actions.
The Guardian is heavily opposed to anti-democratic governments. Having a fairly more liberal stance, Guardian strongly discredits authoritarian states like Iran and China. During Tony Blair’s reign, The Guardian was highly critical of his policies inside and outside the United Kingdom. Likewise, during Brexit, the Guardian heavily endorsed the containment of the United Kingdom inside the European Union due to financial and political reasons, criticizing separationism. Its bias is towards rationalism and collaborationism of states, and to that end, it emphasizes the inadequacy of the United Nations in establishing the desired outcomes.
Although there may be arguments on whether it is a centrist, a liberal or a libertarian news outlet, such statements can’t go further than alleging that The Guardian might be, at the most, between the center and left-wing.
Conclusion
Given the political stance and the range of stories they cover, it would be accurate to conclude that both the Guardian and the Daily Wire represent some right or left-of-center lenience on the political spectrum. It should be taken into consideration that the Guardian is a relatively more extensive and a higher budget newspaper, actively employing famous politicians such as Bernie Sanders. Therefore it is no surprise that it has more substantial clout and appeals to a larger audience. It is possible to argue that the populist discourse used by the Daily Wire and its explicitly biased conservative stance might qualify it more accurately as a right-wing newspaper. Nonetheless, the growing polarization will probably show where the Daily Wire can go.