Last Week In The News
August 19-25: Divided and Unified top down views on Student Loans, Ukraine, Mar-a-Lago
In Top Down News, we unify, compare, and distill many mainstream perspectives that capture most of America’s political readership to approximate the truth. Dive deeper into the analysis for this post here, powered by AI-based Natural Language Understanding and D3-based Dynamic visualizations.
Divided
From a 2020 Pew Report, 60% of Republicans turn to Fox News for political news and 53% of Democrats turn to CNN. By comparing what CNN and Fox is focused on, we can get a current top-down view of the partisan divide in the US over the past week.
What if we walk across the divide and look at the news on both sides?
Student Loan Relief
Top Headlines for CNN
(2022-08-26) How an indecisive Biden decided to forgive student loan debt
(2022-08-25) Why slashing loan debt could have a profound impact on midterms
(2022-08-25) How to qualify for Biden's student loan debt plan
Top Headlines for Fox News
(2022-08-29) Americans who paid back their massive student loan balances irate at Biden's $500B handout
(2022-08-27) DAY 4:White House still avoiding the key question surrounding Biden's $500B student debt handout
(2022-08-26) DAY 3:White House won't say if tax hikes needed to fund Biden's $300B to $600B student loan handout
Bias
CNN: Bias by Opinion Stated as facts ("indecisive")
Fox News: Bias by Spin and Slant ("handout", "Americans who paid back... irate")
Ukraine Putin Russian Counteroffensive
Top Headlines for CNN
(2022-08-28) How Ukraine is using resistance warfare developed by the US to fight back against Russia
(2022-08-28) Ukraine's resistance has stunned Russia, the world
(2022-08-29) Ukrainian forces begin 'shaping' battlefield for counteroffensive, senior US officials say
Top Headlines for Fox News
N/A
Bias
CNN: Bias by Spin ("Stunned")
Fox News: Bias by Omission from front page
Zuckerberg Laptop Story Biden
Top Headlines for CNN
(2022-08-26) Joe Rogan grills Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's controversial stories
Top Headlines for Fox News
(2022-08-29) FBI responds to claim that agency's warning led to Facebook limiting Hunter Biden laptop story
(2022-08-26) Mark Zuckerberg reveals warning FBI gave his team before Hunter Biden laptop story
(2022-08-27) Bill Maher blasts media over avoidance of Hunter Biden laptop story
Bias
CNN: Bias by Omission (No mention of Biden)
Fox News: Bias by Sensationalism ("blasts")
Unified
These are the top topics over the last week aggregated by attention (based on front-page ranking) from various mainstream media outlets.
Student Loan Relief
Gist: There is a healthy debate ongoing over President Biden's plan to forgive student loan debt. Some people think it is a good idea, while others think it is unfair or too expensive. Beyond that, left-leaning outlets are posting resources on how to qualify and move through the student loan forgiveness policy.
(cnn) How an indecisive Biden decided to forgive student loan debt
Top Recent Headlines from Right
(foxnews) Americans who paid back their massive student loan balances irate at Biden's $500B handout
(washingtontimes) Biden’s college debt bailout comes under fire from Dems and GOP
Top Recent Headlines from Center
(wsj) Some Vulnerable Democrats Cool to Biden’s Student-Loan Relief Plan
(reuters) Analysis: Biden's student loan forgiveness may erase savings of climate, drugs law
Affidavit Mar-a-Lago
Gist: The recent news on this topic surrounds the release of a redacted affidavit that led to a search of Mar-a-Lago. The affidavit was released by a judge in response to a request from the media. The affidavit includes information on how the search was conducted and what was found.
(cnn) interactive CNN has read the affidavit. Here's what stood out
(foxnews) What did we learn from the heavily redacted affidavit?
NASA Artemis Moon Launch
Gist: From Reuters, “Launch teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida spent a final full day of preparations ahead of Monday's planned liftoff of NASA's giant next-generation rocket on its debut test flight, kicking off the agency's Artemis moon-to-Mars program 50 years after the end of the Apollo era.” Subsequently, the Artemis I launch was postponed after finding an engine issue.
Ukraine Steps Up
Gist: Ukraine is fighting back against Russia using resistance warfare tactics developed by the United States. There is a major counteroffensive underway in the south of Ukraine, which is putting pressure on Russia. Women are playing a major role in the conflict, both in the military and in civilian life. The Ukrainian military is using decoys to lure Russian missiles, and is making progress in the south, but at a cost.
Afghanistan Kabul Withdrawal
Gist: A year after the Afghanistan Kabul Withdrawal, media outlets revisit the story from the perspective of the troops and their families.
In Top Down News, we unify and compare a multitude of mainstream perspectives that capture the majority of America’s political readership to approximate the truth. This entire newsletter is composed using a transparent and ever-improving methodology. Read how this works here. Dive deeper into the analysis for this post here, powered by AI-based Natural Language Understanding and D3-based Dynamic visualizations.