Bias in the media is not just reflected in what is reported, but also through that which goes unreported. Yesterday, we found our most recent example of such biases.
On Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey came before the House Judiciary Committee and was questioned regarding the manner in which the agency handled its investigation of Hillary Clinton's private server scandal. But the story was blacked out of the nation's domestic Spanish-language newscasts.
No one that watched the newscasts on Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America, or Mega TV heard of the intense back-and-forth between members of Congress and FBI Director James Comey. No one that watched those newscasts knew that Congress was questioning the immunities granted to those who facilitated the erasure of over 30,000 emails -a portion of which contained some of our nation's most closely-guarded secrets- from Hillary Clinton's unauthorized homebrew server. No one that watched those newscasts heard that President Barack Obama occasionaly used a pseudonym in order to communicate with Clinton.
Top billing went, instead, to the ongoing brouhaha between Donald Trump and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado over statements made in the wake of Machado's weight gain after winning the crown. The networks aired repeated statements from Machado, video from the public workout, and varied reactions from diverse political figures.
In the end, it isn't too hard to figure out the bias here. In one case, the networks spike a story that highlights the corruption of the Democratic nominee. In the other, the networks advance a story that furthers a political attack launched by the Democratic nominee. Sometimes, the strongest biases are embedded within the things that we don't see.
