The Bias Trial of Derek Chauvin
On April 20, 2021, The trial of Derek Chauvin took place on the charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. These are not light charges. On May 25, 2020 George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin. Many people have been protesting and want Derek to be determined guilty because of his action. Lots of articles have been made about this topic, but a couple from large media sources. Sources such as CNN have provided a certain point of view on this topic. (https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/20/us/derek-chauvin-trial-george-floyd-deliberations/index.html). Another news source that does this is The Washington Post by Mark Berman and Holly Bailey, with a similar yet different point of view. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/28/jury-chauvin-trial-george-floyd/). The bias that is produced by these media sources can impact the readers thoughts and perceptions of certain topics such as Derek Chauvin’s trial.
In short, Readers are swayed by the media’s biased articles. Derek Chauvins case was far from a simple case. The media then uses this to either convince the viewers to see the topic through this perspective. In The Washington Post, The jurors who decided Derek Chauvin’s fate. In this article the first paragraph shows how their saying it could have been this other person when it wasn’t. A black immigrant said “ It could have been me”. Why would the black co-worker say that? This paragraph alone shows this person imagining themselves in Flyod’s position. This statement doesn’t go with the article yet the writers choose to put it in but why? This statement is biased, and the writers left it in on purpose. The writers are trying to convince the readers to take their side of this topic.
Furthermore, CNN has a huge controversy when it comes to fake news, which has led people to believe CNN is biased and gives fake news. In their article Derek Chauvin found guilty of all three charges for killing George Floyd, By Eric Levenson. Most of the article is not biased, but in the third paragraph the writer decided to include this “Wearing a mask inside the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Chauvin had no apparent reaction to the guilty verdict”, While this quote brings up a good point it’s an unrelated one. There is no reason this quote should be in the article because it doesn’t relate to the article’s title, it doesn’t go with the rest of the piece, and sets a negative tone for the rest of the article when it should be a positive one for the justice of George Floyd.
As a result, media sources have been putting little bits of their own opinions, and it’s leading the readers to become biased like the writers. Bias is produced by these media sources and changes people’s perspectives whether it be good ideas or bad ones. This has to stop in order to achieve a non-biased media source otherwise it’s going to continue and sway people’s opinions because of the biased articles.
