These days the United States has military operations in countries all over the globe. Their involvement typically creates controversy between political parties and people share their opinions on military involvement in varying ways. ANTIWAR.com and The American Conservative are two websites that share articles about the US military involvement from an antiwar perspective.
Looking at ANTIWAR.com I selected an article from today’s posts on the website about how Democrat Senators have a $350 billion plan to advance US industries and stray from relying on Chinese supply chains. The funds would supply research and investigation into various industries to figure out the best way to make this change from relying so heavily on China.
This article was very informative written and provided the information regarding the topic as factual information. At the bottom of the page there is a “Click to Discuss This Article” button. After clicking, many comments come up as discussion for the article where readers can share their views and opinions.
Since this article was very recent and posted today, there was only one comment. The user said, “Shouldn't that money be targeted for helping small businesses and the unemployed? Shouldn't that money also be targeted for battling Covid?” The user continued their comment mentioning that this bill seems to mostly benefit the large companies that are doing fine right now rather than the small businesses and entrepreneurs that are suffering.
The American Conservative website has an entire section for realism and restraint which has anti-war related articles. The article I viewed was, “The West Shouldn’t Intervene in Belarus.” The article spoke about how Belarusians are protesting and an article was written by the New York Times about supporting the protesters. The article encouraged US and EU leaders to resist the pressure so that Putin does not send military into Belarus. The goal is to keep from creating any more turmoil. Other topics show their anti-war opinions such as the articles titled, “Get Out of Syria” and “Are We Deliberately Trying to Provoke a Military Crisis With Russia?”
Both of the websites mentioned above are filled to the brim with articles on military involvement and antiwar opinions, but I have never heard of these websites before today.
On a typical day when watching a television news broadcast, the stories shared include relevant weather or storm updates such as a hurricane, recent retail news about major companies like Amazon, celebrity news, and other top stories. In the current world situation there are daily stories about coronavirus updates and the return of sports.
Looking at the CBS News website, there are no articles that resemble the ones I viewed on the ANTIWAR.com or American Conservative website. The one story I see that mentions Putin is about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a Putin critic.
We don't hear these opinions on mainstream news because they typically have to stay neutral. Some news stations might lean farther to the left or right and share those opinions, but for the most part they state factual information. Another reason we might not hear these voices from mainstream news is because they cover all topics rather than being solely devoted to one topic like the antiwar websites are.
The writers for the antiwar websites dive into the topic and get into the details while mainstream news cover all their bases with an overview of topics targeted towards their viewers. People who look at the antiwar websites are likely interested in those topics and want to stay informed on military involvement while the typical American might watch a mainstream news channel to have an idea of what is going on in the world in general.
This is true for other topics as well. If I wanted to learn more about a specific topic or organization then going to their specific website or blog will provide more details than hearing a story about it on the news. For example, if I wanted to stay up to date on everything in the Black Lives Matter movement then I would go to their website versus just hearing about one protest on the news.
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