Summary
The story is about the 4 objects that the United States has shot down over North America, three on U.S. territory and one on Canadian territory (via coordination with Canada), in the month of February 2023. The first object has been definitively identified as being sent from the Chinese government and being a surveillance object for spying on sensitive U.S. military sites. The other three objects are currently being retrieved after being shot down, and a determination of their origin and purpose is thus pending. These facts have been included in all three stories.
While the facts contained in the 3 news reports are more or less the same and are all verified facts as all three news sources rely on statements made by U.S. officials, there is some variance in the three articles as to what the articles have focused on.
The left wing and centrist newspapers point out that there have been reports that the latter three objects shot down were balloons like the first object. This is an important thing to report because it puts the potential significance of these latter 3 objects in perspective, given that the first object that was shot down which was a balloon as well, has been proven to be a surveillance device from China. This is important to know because it informs us that the other three devices, may also possibly be spying devices from China, given that they share the characteristic of being a balloon that the first device was. The right wing newspaper does not mention that some officials have characterized the latter three devices as balloons but instead emphasizes the statements of officials who have not characterized those as balloons. As such the right wing newspaper seems to be deemphasizing the significance of shooting down the latter 3 objects. The effect of deemphasizing the significance of shooting down the latter 3 objects may be to downplay any credit that President Biden should be receiving for ordering to shoot down the latter 3 devices.
Another difference between the three articles is that while the centrist and right wing newspapers simply mention the Chinese balloon as being a surveillance device and do not go into any more detail regarding it, the left wing newspaper gives more important details regarding the Chinese balloon, which details are additionally relevant to know in the context of the three subsequent objects that were shot down. The left wing newspaper credibly informs us how serious a threat the Chinese balloon posed as it was sent to carry out surveillance of strategic military sites in the United States. The left wing newspaper also gives us important information regarding the capability of this Chinese device and its magnitude, that it was “maneuver — loiter, slow down and speed up. It contained multiple antennas able to gather signals intelligence and solar panels to power them.” This reveals to us that this was a sophisticated device and that China was very intent on spying on the United States. Our knowing this puts into perspective the action of the U.S. military in shooting down the 3 subsequent devices even though their origin and purpose is not known, but the fact that the first device was of such a serious nature, reasonable people will agree that it was sensible for the United States to shoot down the subsequent 3 devices even if their origin and purpose was not known at the time of shooting. The other two newspapers, especially the right wing one, do not focus on the serious nature of the first balloon but instead emphasize that there was no evidence that the latter 3 devices shot down were surveillance devices, and the newspapers’ doing this has the impact of their downplaying the importance of shooting down the subsequent 3 devices.
The left wing newspaper article also reports what the other two newspaper articles do not report with regard to China’s response to the U.S. military shooting down the Chinese spy balloon, which comprised of China brazenly and shamelessly throwing a fit over “the use of force” by the United States on U.S. territory in response to Chinese spying. Knowing that China had a tantrum over the shooting down of the first object, i.e. the Chinese spy balloon, again puts into perspective for us that it was reasonable for the United States to shoot down the latter 3 objects instead of unduly worrying about hurting China’s overly sensitive feelings over its spy balloon that got shot down by the U.S. military. Instead, us knowing how China responded to the shooting down of its spy balloon, we can applaud the Biden Administration for shooting down the subsequent 3 objects given that they too could have been Chinese spy devices, which U.S. action gives a clear message to China that the Chinese government’s tantrums will not influence U.S. action in response to any spy devices in U.S. airspace. In contrast, the centrist and right wing news sources do not mention China’s response.
Sources:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3855751-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-the-latest-objects-shot-down-by-the-us/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/unidentified-object-spottings-us-airspace-norad-dod
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/need-know-four-high-altitude-objects-shot-north-america-rcna70281
Conversation 3 Bias
