Charting Media Briefs on Costco Lawsuit: Can You Spot Biases as Well as You Think?
Updated: Jan 25
Find How Media Wording and Mentions Impact Your Viewpoint
Media Brief: 2025 Costco Lawsuit
Media Duration: Nov 28, 2025 to Dec 4, 2025
Understanding the Media Landscape is critical, as we are bombarded with constant updates.
Many want to understand the facts, but what happens when those facts are sprinkled in between opinions and trigger wording? Can that influence your opinion or understanding of the article? How about when a trusted individual is quoted, but the context is left out?
The media briefs all cover the same event: Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Customs and Border Protection, 1:25-cv-316, with the US Court of International Trade. The chart includes ten news sources, ranging in political stances. The article excerpts show evidence of wording and repeated themes. The media bias column represents the bias of the news source, as well as the framing of the specific article. Finally, the tags are the article's primary keywords. Consider why the news outlet may be focusing on the framing, and who is their ideal target audience? Are they imposing measures or certain truths, if any? See the “News Source” for the embedded link.
Media Briefs
News Source | Article Excerpts | Media Bias | Tags |
“Costco Doing More To Fight This Administration Than Hakeem Jeffries” “Costco Just Took A Stand Against Trump's Tariffs, And People Are Loving It” “If you are a Costco hotdog, you may be entitled to compensation” | Left-Leaning Anti-Trump framing Celebratory tone toward Costco Casual, clickable outrage language | Fight this administration Cancelled my membership Doubling down Stand against Trump | |
“Costco is poking the Trump bear” “Public companies have treated Trump with kid gloves” “Trump has been willing to exact retribution on companies that lose favor with him” “Tariffs are broadly...unpopular with Americans, who connect them with the country’s affordability crisis” Referenced comments from 2017 “Neo-Nazi violence” | Left-Leaning Framing Trump as retaliatory and dangerous Invoking a white-supremacist context and highlighting polling negativity | Poking the…bear Kid gloves Unpopular opinion Neo-Nazi violence Lose favor | |
“[Trump] introduced as part of his far-reaching agenda to reorganize world trade by slapping huge tariffs on major allies and foes” “The policy also earned him the nickname TACO—Trump Always Chickens Out” “American consumers have been hit the hardest” “Trump has taken a hit at the polls since the implementation of his tariff agenda” | Left-Leaning Present emotional language Framing a negative portrayal of economic effects | Hit the hardest Cost of living crisis Sweeping…policy Plummeted Chickens Out | |
“Businesses big and small aren’t taking any chances” “Tariff Refunds Aren’t Guaranteed” “If the high court rules that the tariffs are improper, ‘having filed a timely challenge is crucial’” “None of Costco’s biggest rivals, such as Amazon, Target, or Walmart, have made similar legal claims” “The government could “re-create the exact tariff structure” with other kinds of tariffs, including Section 232 sectoral tariffs, among others” | Left-Leaning Focusing framing on economic/legal vulnerability | Improperly seized Not taking any chances Miss out Key deadline | |
“[Costco] is ‘not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief’” “Represented by law firm Crowell & Moring, which has brought roughly 50 near-identical lawsuits on behalf of separate companies” “The president has since declared a trade deficit emergency to implement his “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners across the globe” | Center Neutral reporting Uses policy framing with minimal emotive phrasing | Full refund Unlawfully collected National emergencies Reciprocal tariffs Combat…emergencies | |
“Becomes biggest company yet to demand refund” “Several of the high court’s justices expressed doubts that the president had sweeping power to declare national emergencies” | Center Factual-based and procedural descriptions Low evaluative tone | Skeptical Potential refund Court intervention Collect Refund | |
“It is also among the largest, with $275.2 billion of revenue in its fiscal year ending August 31” “On November 5, Supreme Court justices from both sides of the political spectrum asked skeptical questions about whether Trump legally used the 1977 emergency powers law to impose tariffs” Costco has been“reducing the number of suppliers, and relying more on local sourcing and its in-house Kirkland brand” | Center Framing dry and financial Low evaluative tone | Skeptical questions No comment Reduced suppliers Utilized local sourcing Accelerated schedule | |
“Ensure eligibility for refunds if the US Supreme Court strikes down the president’s signature global tariffs policy” “Key justices appeared skeptical” “Disruption in retail sector” “Changing merchandising when it becomes too expensive” | Center Business Focus Heavy financial and economic tone | Disruption Too expensive Skeptical Changing merchandising | |
Costco “needs to secure potential relief before a Dec. 15 deadline” “Blue states and small businesses sued Mr. Trump over his use of IEEPA earlier in the year and won cases” “Key justices seemed skeptical of the administration’s position” “The president was attempting to regulate foreign trade and any revenue was incidental to that aim” | Right-Leaning Framing various costs to the government Emphasizes blue-state challenges | Blue states Adverse ruling Secure…relief Attempting to regulate Won cases | |
“Costco is asking the court to declare the tariff orders invalid, block Customs and Border Protection from applying the tariffs to its shipments” Other importers “filed similar challenges arguing the tariffs triggered sudden cost increases and supply-chain disruptions that businesses could not absorb” | Right-Leaning Framing from legal authority & business-disruption perspective Present emotion wording | Block Emergency tariffs Sudden cost increases Could not absorb Triggered…disruption |
How is “objectivity” used in each of these news outlets? And how does that align with their priorities?
Consider, for this specific article, how left-leaning outlets focus on affordability behaviors, and right-leaning outlets on the costs to the government. How might this reinforce the divide between the Left and Right perceptions of this topic? Why is the news outlet emphasizing those quotes, mentions, or selective descriptor details? What evidence is included, and is it reliable? Who was polled? Bonus: Think about a news topic where the right-leaning outlets utilized more emotional language and the left-leaning outlets focused on the costs. What were those narratives?
Consider what makes the center's news outlets similar in this story - or in general.
Consider how the mental models and fact framing would affect a formed perspective across the news sources, even though the basic facts are the same.
Why does this matter? Conceptually, it is essential.
In a time when polarization feels irreconcilable, strengthening the way we process information helps us foster genuine understanding - though not necessarily agreement. Understanding will always be a moving target, yet it remains a crucial step toward progress and healthier relationships.
Exploring how a single story is told across multiple media outlets, each with its own biases and narrative choices, allows you to establish your own informed conclusions. The goal is to step into another person’s mindset with openness while applying the same critical thinking when examining your own beliefs.
Emotional Heat
Author of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan, a renowned media theorist, is famous for stating:
“The medium is the message” because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium. Marshall McLuhan ©1964
“Emotional heat” refers to the intensity designed to provoke a reaction. A 2025 Public Opinion Heat Study found that the greater emotional conflict correlates with higher user interaction frequency and increases sustained public interest, thereby improving overall opinion heat. Awareness of this journalistic technique is useful for regulating your emotions regarding the suggested context and message.
Let’s Play a Game. Consider these Phrases:
1) To block 2) If it is ruled as not legally sound 3) An attempt to secure refunds 4) "Full refund" of tariffs paid
5) In favor of a group of small businesses 6) Contends Trump overstepped 7) Seeking a full refund
8) Denied its request 9) To ensure eligibility for refunds 10) If the court strikes down the tariffs
Can you successfully match the Costco Lawsuit phrase with the corresponding News Source?
A) Buzzfeed. B) CNN. C) DailyMail. D) MSN. E) The Hill. F) AP.
G) Reuters. H) Bloomberg. I) Washington Times. J) Fox Business. *See Answer at End of Article.
All these phrases are descriptors regarding the Costco Lawsuit, directly quoted from the news source. It is essential to remember this is just one news situation. These outlets utilize emotional heat differently with each topic. The chart below shows the emotional language intensity heatmap for the Costco Lawsuit using the specific embedded articles.
The right-leaning outlets tend to focus on questions of legal authority and procedural legitimacy, such as the conflict with Trump’s tariff powers. The left-leaning outlets tend to focus on the economic consequences, like consumer costs, market disruptions, and broader ripple effects. Depending on a reader’s values and susceptibility to emotional cues, articles with higher levels of “emotional heat” are likely to exert a more substantial influence on their perspective - whether or not they believe they can be affected by such framing.
Answers: 1) J. 2) C. 3) I. 4) A. 5) D. 6) B. 7) E. 8) G. 9) H. 10) F.
What do you think about Media Biases?
Any takes on the “considers?” We would love to hear from you, comment, or Reach Out!
