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Biased reporting? It's a landslide

In his address to United States Coast Guard Academy graduates last week, President Trump urged the graduates not to let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of their dreams.

He prefaced that by stating that in his own experience to gain the White House, no politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly by the media.While Trump has given the press much fodder to work with during his first four months in office, it's true that media seems obsessed with bringing him down. After his address last week, two media-related stories emerged that helped prove his point.First, a new by Harvard University showed that the reporting on Trump during his first 100 days was overwhelmingly negative by every major news source with the exception of FOX. NBC and CNN led the pack with 93 percent negative coverage of the president.CBS was next with 91 percent negative, followed by The New York Times (87); The Washington Post (83); and The Wall Street Journal (70).Supporting its claim in being "fair and balanced," Fox was the only media outlet to show an evenhanded approach to coverage on the president, but even its reporting was 52 percent negative on Trump.Another major media source showing a definite anti-Trump bias is Time magazine. Last week's cover art shows the White House transforming into the Kremlin, an obvious attempt to play up Trump's alleged Russian ties being hyped by the liberal left. The Twitter video from the magazine reads, "How Trump's loyalty test is straining Washington."MAD Magazine, meanwhile, questioned whether Time actually stole the cover art idea from its December issue.Time began slanting its coverage on Trump even before he took office. While the magazine named Trump its 2016 Person of the Year, it was captioned that he was the "President of the Divided States of America."On Inauguration Day, Time's White House correspondent circulated a false report about Trump removing a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. The reporter later apologized and corrected himself by tweeting that the King bust was still there, and that it had just been obscured by an agent and door.Recent Time magazine covers have also showed bias. When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared on the cover of the Feb. 29 issue, he looked fresh and studious. The image was highlighted by soft features, including a halolike circle around his head that gives him a glowing appearance.A week earlier, the Time cover featured White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Calling him "The Great Manipulator," his cover photo was set against a black background, making him look sinister.While Schumer was portrayed as friendly and scholarly, Bannon was made to look dark and evil.Political commentator and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Time made Bannon look like a bank robber. There was a time when weekly magazines were "at least relatively objective," Huckabee said, but they've now become "organs for hard-core left-wing editorial opinion."As for Trump being the worst-treated president in history, it may be true if you consider the volume and relentless amount of negative reporting. There have been, however, some ugly individual cases on record. Abraham Lincoln was portrayed in political cartoons as an ape.And there was the time when President Harry Truman went ballistic after his daughter received a stinging review in The Washington Post after a public singing performance. In his letter, Truman blasted Paul Hume, the music critic."Some day I hope to meet you," Truman wrote. "When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"Truman served warning that while he was fair game to critics of the president, you'd better not mess with his family.But not even that holds true today as Trump's family has also been the target of a hostile press.By Jim Zbick |

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