Martin O'Malley: Media Stories

Martin O'Malley: Fox News vs. MSNBC

Fox News

Fox News did a segment on weather or not they thought Martin O'Malley could actually challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. This particular media story was very interesting to me. The two guest commentators started out by saying that O'Malley has a good record as Governor of Maryland and has good qualities in a leader. It's not very often that Fox News compliments a Democrat. It then turns into them bashing Hillary. They talked about why she wouldn't be a good president and even went into a discussion about the email "scandal." It was clear that Fox News doesn't see O'Malley as big of a threat as Hillary so they much rather see him take the nomination. 

MSNBC

This MSNBC media source talks about O'Malley's recent trip to Iowa. O'Malley has not officially announced that he is going to be running for president, but he has an increasing number of campaign style YouTube videos and has made little jabs about Hillary Clinton on certain issues. Because MSNBC is a liberal news source, they highlight O'Malley's strengths and talk about his position stances. They do bring up Hillary and talk about him as a challenger to her Democratic nomination. 

Comparing The Two Sources

Unsurprisingly, both of these stories talk a great deal about Hillary. Because MSNBC is liberal, they never directly say anything bad about either politicians, but they simply highlight the differences between them. MSNBC spent the majority of the article talking about O'Malley and his stances on the economy and social issues. They even talk about how he just looks like a good politician, highlighting that his physical features are appealing. I think that MSNBC did a good job of balancing the discussion about his past accomplishments with what he's currently saying to campaign himself. They didn't make it all about him as just a challenger to Hillary, rather they compared the two and highlighted some of O'Malley's critiques of Hillary. If someone were to read this, they would leave knowing about O'Malley's stance on a lot of issues. They would also know how he differs from Hillary in issues that will be important to the presidential campaign. 

Fox News spent the first minute of this media story talking about O'Malley's record. They highlighted his accomplishments and had nothing but positive things to say about him. Then it takes a turn. They bring up him as a contender to Hillary and if they think he could potentially be a good challenger. They bring up the fact that he isn't polling well at all compared to Hillary, but then they put a positive spin on it saying that he has nowhere to go but up. As someone who has been studying O'Malley, this story tells you absolutely nothing about him except that Fox News much rather him get the nomination than Hillary. If someone were to watch this story they would get no information about O'Malley. 

These two stories don't surprise me at all. MSNBC highlights him as a potential candidate and has a light-hearted tone that they support both him and Hillary. Fox News took this time as a way to say that  they much rather have O'Malley be the nominee than Hillary. This is not surprising considering Fox News has never been to keen about Hillary. MSNBC definitely did a better job of highlighting actual facts and issues rather than making purely opinion based comments.