Media Bias Alert: Two Different Narratives, One Shared Fear

This was written by Christopher Carroll, a second-year Master of Public Policy student at Pepperdine.

The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the risks the technology poses have left policymakers scrambling to keep up with its growing influence. The rapid investment, buildout, and technological transformation have created incredibly high stakes that have demanded a political response from both the President Joe Biden and Donald Trump administrations. In reporting on these executive orders, CNN (Lean Left Bias) and Fox News (Right) reveal a consistent pattern of bias: each outlet’s tone changes depending on who holds power.

This kind of framing creates a narrative of deep policy division that does not reflect the similarity of the executive orders themselves. Polarizing media coverage threatens to turn a shared national challenge into another partisan conflict. By comparing coverage from both outlets, we can see how media bias inflates partisan conflict and obscures a more important truth: both sides are responding to the same fear of losing control over the use and rapid development of AI.

Bias on the Right

For an example of bias on the right, in February 2024, shortly after Biden signed his executive order 14110,”on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” A Fox News article ran with the headline: “State AGs warn Biden AI order could centralize control over tech, be used for ‘political ends.” This article frames a legitimate concern, but frames any attempt at regulation as a government takeover of an emerging technological frontier. This is viewpoint placement, and slant, it’s aiming to tilt the story towards one side, and convince the reader before he even reads the first sentence of the article, that the executive order is wrong.

Another article published in February of 2023 in an even sharper critique, referred to the Biden administration's executive AI order as this: Biden executive order for “woke” artificial intelligence called “social cancer” This is sensationalism, and mudslinging, which reveals a clear bias against the executive order.

On the other hand, with Trump’s Executive order related to AI, Fox News framed it as this: “Trump declares US will win global AI race during executive order signing ceremony.” This side-by-side contrast illustrates the tone and word-choice bias that drives polarized coverage. This Fox News article is biased towards Trump’s executive order, and shows that bias through viewpoint placement, using the phrase “US Will Win” slants the readers’ understanding towards a positive development and a good policy decision by President Trump.

These are examples of political bias in Fox News reporting. Fox News phrases a Democratic policy as “control”, but when a Republican administration regulates AI it's framed as winning and spurring “competition”. The underlying issue is how to balance innovation with oversight, yet the narrative changes with the partisan identity of the administration.

Bias on the Left

In 2023 a CNN article titled: “White House tackles artificial intelligence with new executive order” opened with: “The White House rolled out a sweeping executive order Monday that aims to monitor and regulate the risks of artificial intelligence while also harnessing its potential, marking the latest effort to address a rapidly evolving technology that has sparked concerns among world leaders.” There are many examples of media bias in this opening statement, such as,“ harnessing its potential” is a slant because it's highlighting one particular part of the story. The previously mentioned article was about the Biden executive order relating to AI. This article essentially adopted the administration’s language. However, compared to an article written about Trump’s executive order, there is more evidence of bias. CNN ran an article titled: “Are AI models ‘woke’? The answer isn’t so simple.” This article may sound neutral, but it signals skepticism of Trump’s framing of “Woke AI” and puts a spin on the story, by dismissing the order due to its language.

Framing the article as “isn’t so simple” is leading the reader to expect a criticism, or critique of the Trump administration's approach to AI, which is a slant to tilt the reader's viewpoint. This reporter relies on experts and lawmakers in this article who only offer critiques, there are no supportive voices, clearly showing bias through source omission. This bias matters, because In Trump’s executive order he is adding regulations for the use of AI in the federal government. Trump’s AI order prohibits the Federal government use or purchase of AI that “contain partisan bias,” or “ideological agendas.”

It requires federal employees to use ideological neutral AI models, and AI companies must show transparency and show their own evaluations of their models, and show the algorithms that are used to respond to user generated prompts. This executive order prevents ideological leaning AI models from showing political bias when being used by federal employees. Both Biden and Trump’s executive orders are aimed at trying to make AI safer. However, news organizations frame their reporting based on who’s in power.

The Policy Gap VS. The Coverage Gap

When it comes to AI policy and regulation, CNN and Fox News show a pattern of bias consistent with AllSides 16 types of media bias. These examples show that bias is not only about political lean, but about technique. Whether through source omission, word choice, or emotional tone, both CNN and Fox News have shown bias in reporting.

Media outlets shape how people interpret the same event. The real point of identifying this bias, however, is to show that both the executive orders from Biden and the Trump administrations aim to control and place guard rails on the development and use of AI. The orders themselves are more similar than the headlines. The drama is mostly in the media spin. The way AI is covered makes both administrations executive orders seem farther apart than they really are.

When it comes to AI, both sides are responding to the same underlying fear, losing control over a powerful new technology. The Biden administration feared what could happen if corporations or unregulated systems run wild, the Trump administration fears what could happen if government or ideologically driven elites control the algorithms. The result is two mirror-image narratives that rarely acknowledge this shared anxiety.

The real opportunity is not just to spot bias, but to recognize that beneath the labels of “woke AI” or “unsafe AI,” elected officials are often worried about the same thing. That common ground of a shared concern could be the starting point for better AI policy, not just better headlines. AI is technical, it's hard to understand, and it's a fast-moving issue. Understanding what these different orders do and how the government is responding is all the more difficult when you have biased coverage.