Election Fraud Essay Example

Election Fraud is a very controversial topic. In the 2020 presidential election, current president Donald Trump and many of his supporters claim there was fraud in the election. In The Federalist November article, “Election Fraud Problems Are A Threat To Our Country- And Too Important To Be Left To Conspiracy Theorists”, the author Christopher Bedford makes the argument that election fraud is one of the most serious issues and the Democrats have been committing it election after election. Bedford makes it known that he believes election fraud is destroying America. With the use of negative connotations and fallacies, media bias does exist in this article.

Ronald Brownstein has a different take on election fraud. In his December CNN article, “The 'urban myth' behind the GOP claims of voter fraud”, Brownstein argues that Republicans fear turning over the country to the democratic party, and are in turn accusing the democratic party of a fraudulent election. Brownstein makes it known that he believes that Republicans' claims of election fraud are rooted in racist ideologies. Media Bias exists in this CNN article with the use of negative connotations and fallacies, such as the red herring.

Connotation plays a large role in media bias. One singular word can completely change the meaning of a sentence. In “The ‘urban myth’ behind the GOP claims of voter fraud”, Brownstein reports about the “republicans ‘embarrassing’ refusal to accept election results.” The use of the word embarrassing is the perfect example of media bias. Calling something “embarrassing” isn’t a factual statement and it most definitely has a negative connotation. However, this exists in The Federalist’s article as well. In “Election Fraud Problems Are A Threat To Our Country- And Too Important To Be Left To Conspiracy Theorists”, Bedford comments “the Democratic Party has used exaggerated and irrational fears of COVID-19…”. The use of “exaggerated and irrational fears” is a tactic used to belittle the Democratic Party’s attempt at stopping the spread of Covid-19. Though some may believe this to be true, calling the Democratic Party’s views on Covid-19 “exaggerated and irrational”, is an example of media bias. 

Red Herring is something that distracts from the topic and we see this in both articles. In the CNN article, while talking about a speech of Trumps, Brownstein comments that “Trump insisted to his predominantly White audience”. Whether Trump's audience is “preponderantly” white or not, it is not relevant to the claim. It distracts from the main talking point. In The Federalists article, Bedford brings up the Democratic party's reaction to Covid-19 multiple times, saying they are using it to their advantage. As I stated earlier, it doesn’t matter if you think the Democratic Party had an “exaggerated fear”(Bedford) of covid-19, it doesn’t exactly help your claim that election fraud will be the downfall of America. Both articles have a clear bias and are using negative connotations and fallacies to push their agenda.