Blog 6: Biden's Final UN General Assembly Speech: CNN vs. FoxNews

President Joe Biden has officially made his final speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Leaders and representatives from 134 countries came to this convention and so Biden utilized this speech to reiterate the virtues of democracy as well as advocate for world peace as well as the end of war. In chapter eight of our textbook, Mass Media and American Politics, Graber and Dunaway discuss foreign affairs in American press coverage. In this case study of CNN vs. FoxNews, I want to research and understand how the foreign news niche affects the public and how the UN General Assembly reveals this to be true in our media. 

The FoxNews article, Biden addresses UN General Assembly for last time as dictators, despots come to New York | Fox News, describes how Biden outlined his administration's primary concerns and their overall vision for international relationsThe article states the facts and also explains how this is not a ‘Summit of the Present’, but rather, a ‘Summit of the Future’ because not much accountability takes place at this event. For instance, “there was a notable sense of gloom ahead of the summit as massive international conflicts persist with no obvious end in sight, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s fight against Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, the gang takeover of Haiti, and civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar” (McFall, 2024). It appears that this article tends to cover more about what the other nations at the UN conference said, rather than what Biden spoke on. Is this because FoxNews is a Conservative leaning program, so they did not want to write on Biden’s statements?

In the CNN article, Biden uses final UN speech to note ‘some things are more important than staying in power’ | CNN Politics, the main focus is on what Biden said at the conference and the many questions people have about the UN’s effectiveness. As I read through the coverage about Biden, I was shocked to see statements like, “But if the world was looking for short-term solutions to the recent escalation in what was already a major crisis in the Middle East, they were left wanting” (Fossum et al, 2024). This feels almost like even though CNN leans left, they are disappointed in Biden’s lack of address about the many crises in the Middle East. I was incredibly shocked to read this in our text about CNN too, “Compared to other networks, CNN generally devotes more time to international news stories and stories concerning U.S. affairs abroad” (Dunaway and Graber, 2024). I definitely see this to be true because when I was researching this topic on the CNN website, there was more coverage on the UN General Assembly under CNN than there was on FoxNews. 

→ This is an important video to watch to get more insight on the tensions that were discussed at the conference! Also, this is footage of Biden addressing how diplomacy is the way to combat such war in Israel:

President Biden addresses United Nations as tensions heighten between Israel, Hezbollah

References

xDunaway, J., & Graber, D. A. (2022). Mass Media and American Politics (11th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://kennesaw.vitalsource.com/books/9781544391014