Mainstream Media Depicted Negatively
Table Of Contents
Conservative Trope Examples
Zoe Barnes sleeps with Frank Underwood in order to get inside access
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark and wakes up in the morning to Pepper Potts bringing her dry-cleaned clothes in a scene that implies this is a regular common occurrence for Tony. Christine quips to Pepper that "Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning" upon which she replies, "I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash."
Female journalist Christine Everheart aggressively interviews Tony Stark and asks him about his nickname "Merchant of Death". His response is, "That's not bad. Let me guess... Berkeley?" and argues that weapons are needed to keep the peace and that "peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy". Tony also points out how their military sales helps fund good things that journalists ignore such as the millions helped by their advancing medical technology and Intelli-crops."
Staff Aside
Her investigative reporting later reveals a dangerous plot that helps Tony thwart the bad guys, but journalists are often treated poorly on screen and used as foils to protagonists for just doing their jobs.
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark after interviewing him at an event and awakes later alone in his bed with him gone. When Pepper Potts greets Christine with her dry-cleaned clothes, Christine quips, "After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning."
A top male corporate lawyer calls an aggressive woman financial journalist the C-word over the phone for simply doing her job by asking for comment on a true story they are guilty of that she plans on publishing the next day. He relents handing the phone to the company head for comment saying very dismissively, "she will not go away."
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Matt Farrell sows distrust in the media by saying, "The news is completely manipulated. Everything you hear, every single day is designed by corporate media to do one thing only. To keep you living in fear."
Staff Aside
This is a false equivalence as right-wing and conservative media is way, way more untrustworthy and in many cases completely manipulated. And they constantly use fear mongering on their audiences. But this isn't the case with mainstream or liberal media outlets. Lumping them together is an example of conservative bias.
Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) is depicted as an unethical reporter who sleeps with Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) to get information from him on a story on his lobbying for the tobacco industry. He never said anything was off the record but just assumed so when they were having sex. He attacks her in the media and she loses her job because of it and is shown in the end stuck doing a weather report in a very bad storm. Joey later adds, "Mom says it's because you have dependency issues and it was all just a matter of time before you threw it all away on some tramp."
Reporter Samantha Coleman enters the airport traffic control tower unauthorized attempting to get a statement on what is happening. She inflames an already heated situation and is depicted as intruding and getting in the way of them dealing with the terrorist problem.
Staff Aside
In real life, respected mainstream journalists follow rules and protocols and a code of ethics and would not enter areas they are not authorized.
Local news reporter Richard Thornburg makes a scene on the airplane because he is seated nearby John McClane's wife Holly who hit him in the original Die Hard movie. He later gets his soundperson to tap into the cockpit frequency and learns about the terrorist takeover of the airport threatening his and other planes. He locks himself in a bathroom forcing his way in ahead of other waiting passengers and uses the airplane phone to break the news story live on air which sends everyone at the airport into a panicked frenzy. This of course now makes it harder to law enforcement to deal with the terrorist threat. Flight attendants break into the bathroom where he is tased and taken to his seat. He is whimpering and panicking while everyone else on the plane is relatively calm.
Local news reporter Richard Thornburg is depicted as unethical, over bearing and ruthless in pursuit of a story. The worst of his behavior he threatens John McClane's wife Holly's housekeeper with deportation unless she lets him interview her kids on air. When the interview airs, terrorist leader Hans Gruber realizes that Holly is John McClane's wife putting her and John in much more danger.
Local news anchor Harvey Johnson loses composure having a fight with Richard Thornburg which is depicted as very embarrassing as he doesn't realize he went live on air and shortly after gets corrected by a guest for falsely saying "Helsinki, Sweden" which earns a face palm by his producer.
11 Tropes
6 Movies
1 TV Show