As can be expected, news websites everywhere are finding the inauguration of President Barack Obama to be the top article of interest for their readers, giving it priority placement on their web pages. However, the news contained within these articles, and the subsequent articles, can show readers just what kind of bias the news organization has.
On The Wall Street Journal, inauguration coverage is key, as well as the prayer given by the Reverend Rick Warren praising tolerance. What hints to me that The Journal has a conservative lean is that in the article about his speech the author did not mention protests were held over Warren's involvement in the inauguration. On December 26, 2008, The Journal published an article titled Rick Warren, Obama and the Left, which claimed that the "left's" intolerance of Warren could hinder Obama's progress. The fact that they refer to liberals as "left" implies to me that they are excluding themselves from the aforementioned group. However, The Journal also published an article about how some of the inaugural balls had "green" features such as recycled-paper tickets. In another somewhat conservative manner, the WSJ published an article written by Jenna and Barbara Bush, the daughters of former President George W. Bush, a conservative. Among other news, The Journal published several articles about how stock prices are falling. What shows the conservative lean of The Journal is the opinion articles, such as the one written titled History Will Remember Bush Well, and one titled Bush's Real Sin Was Winning in Iraq.
I do not believe that The Journal adheres to the "Murrow Standard," because of the tendency its publishers have to promote conservative news and opinion articles. The primary audience of the Journal appears to be conservatives, otherwise the website would not feature such a conservative bias.
As a second source I examined was CNN, which I discovered to have a somewhat liberal bias. Though the presidential inauguration had priority placement on the website, it also featured the breaking news that, "Israeli troops have completed their withdrawal from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces say." The mention of the Israel and Gaza conflict was almost the only prominent mention of anything which was not related to the inauguration of President Barack Obama or the departure of former President George W. Bush. The only other prominently featured article was one which mentions how the killing of JonBenet Ramsey will be looked at by a new district attorney. The fact that most of the articles on CNN feature the inauguration shows that many of the writers and readers of CNN have a liberal lean and believe the inauguration of the first Black President in United States history is a very significant event. One trait which shows CNN's liberal lean is that the article published about the inaugural ball, and first lady Michelle Obama's fashion choices at it, was longer than the article published about former President George W. Bush leaving office. Though I admit I often prefer this website, the liberal lean which it shows means it really does not fall within the guidelines of the "Murrow Standard."
The third website which I viewed was Google News. Google News seemed to have the most balanced news, and adhered most strictly to the "Murrow Standard." While the articles on Google News do not appear to be written by Google News employees, they instead are compiled from news sources with varying political leans, from all over the world. While the top featured article was about the inaugural balls, the next was about President Obama's actions regarding halting prosectuions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The third most prominently featured article was about the Israel and Gaza relations. The prominence of this article shows that Google News is not only concentrated on the American inauguration, but also world politics. The Google News website also appears to give links to multiple sides on news issues, not simply ones which favor one political party or another. I believe that readers of the news from this website would be people from all types of political backgrounds as well, since by using this one website they can find multiple sources from any number of issues.
While if I were looking for world news I would use Google News, for U.S. news I would prefer to read news from CNN, because I would prefer to read news with a liberal bias. While I could find news with a liberal bias on Google News, I would have to search for it first. And though I admit reading unbiased news would be good practice as a future journalist, I still prefer to read news which I know is directed at my own desires.
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