A Look Back at America's 2021
Summary from the AllSides News Team
As 2021 comes to a close and the U.S. begins to reflect on the past year, we're starting to see clear similarities and differences in which stories were considered most important across the political spectrum.
President Joe Biden's first year in office, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan were deemed the year's biggest stories by news outlets on all sides. Right-rated outlets often focused on media bias in coverage of these major stories, as well as Biden's purported failures on COVID-19, foreign policy, inflation, supply chain issues and the immigration crisis at the southern border. Left-rated media typically focused on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Twitter's ban on former President Donald Trump, and new laws on voting and abortion as being among the year's biggest or most important stories.
One opinion writer for CNN Business (Lean Left bias) named "our imperiled democracy" and Jan. 6 as 2021's biggest news story. A writer for USA TODAY (Lean Left bias) focused on 2021's top "tales of perseverance, bravery and the will to survive." And some bridging-focused outlets highlighted bipartisan election reforms, efforts to quell partisan redistricting and other common-ground victories as the year's biggest takeaways.
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