{"id":399402,"date":"2021-04-08T09:28:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T13:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=399402"},"modified":"2021-04-08T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T13:28:20","slug":"heres-why-you-can-never-trust-the-u-s-news-media-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/heres-why-you-can-never-trust-the-u-s-news-media-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Why You Can Never Trust The U.S. News Media Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fheres-why-you-can-never-trust-the-u-s-news-media-again%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=399402&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-879.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>More than a century ago, way back in 1906, Mark Twain said, \u201cThere are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe \u2014 only two \u2014 the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the rest of the 20th century, the AP was America\u2019s \u2014 even the world\u2019s \u2014 most unbiased news source. If the agency quoted a top House Democrat saying one thing, they\u2019d quote a top Republican a few paragraphs down saying just the opposite. For every point, there was a counterpoint.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how the world is. Of course there are \u201cfacts,\u201d but many can be interpreted in myriad ways. The AP, like a lot of news agencies at the time, simply sought to lay out the two sides \u2014 or sometimes 12 sides \u2014 and let the reader decide.<\/p>\n<p>All that changed in the 21st century. The Internet was beginning to bloom and afternoon newspapers across the U.S. \u2014 often a city\u2019s conservative alternative to the liberal morning paper \u2014 began to wither and die. The AP, which provides content to news outlets, soon found that its clients wanted more liberal content (and were willing to pay handsomely for it).<\/p>\n<p>I remember in the early \u201900s, a top AP reporter covering the White House told me that the news service would no longer present the two sides as if they were equal. Citing climate change, the reporter said one side is \u201csettled science,\u201d which means that any other side doesn\u2019t hold water.<\/p>\n<p>The coverage of President George W. Bush quickly became heavily skewed. Following the AP\u2019s lead, a slew of newspapers across the country abandoned any pretense of balanced coverage and embraced the side that their readers most wanted to hear. Activist journalism became the rage \u2014 and it\u2019s only gotten worse since.<\/p>\n<p>The state of journalism became clear when Barack Obama took over the White House. The coverage morphed into a defense of the Democrat and his liberal policies, but then just as quickly returned to nonstop naysaying when Republican Donald Trump became president. And now, President Joe Biden is enjoying a compliant media, intent on keeping their man in office.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt finally said out loud what journalists have said for years sotto voce: \u201cFairness is overrated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holt, who was accepting the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from Washington State University (cue the irony siren), said the news media no longer needs to present both sides of a given story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in. That the sun sets in the west is a fact. Any contrary view does not deserve our time or attention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That is, obviously, an overly simplistic approach. Of course the sun sets in the west, and 1+1=2. But is abortion wrong? Is taxing corporations at a high rate good for the economy? Should Americans embrace hormone therapy for children who decide to be transsexual? Thorny subjects.<\/p>\n<p>For Holt, though, there is only one answer (in the old days, we called that an \u201copinion,\u201d but nowadays that\u2019s called \u201cnews\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecisions to not give unsupported arguments equal time are not a dereliction of journalistic responsibility or some kind of agenda. In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite,\u201d Holt said. \u201cProviding an open platform for misinformation, for anyone to come say whatever they want, especially when issues of public health and safety are at stake, can be quite dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur duty is to be fair to the truth. Holding those in power accountable is at the core of our function and responsibility. We need to hear our leader\u2019s views, their policies, and reasoning. It\u2019s really important. But we have to stand ready to push back and call out falsehoods,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the problem: That means Holt and his team of elders will decide what constitutes \u201cunsupported arguments.\u201d They \u2014 and they alone \u2014 will decide what is \u201cfair to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holt went so far as to say departing from the objectivity once represented in journalism could \u201creinforce negative sentiment some hold to journalists.\u201d But he added that the media \u2014 now almost entirely liberal \u2014 will be the arbiters of fact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat we have had to be more direct in our language in recent times only speaks to the volume and gravity of particular statements and claims,\u201d Holt said. \u201cFact-checking is not a vendetta or attack. We all have a stake in us getting it right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Brit Hume, the longtime and well-respected journalist who helped create the \u201cfair and balanced\u201d formula at Fox News, summed up the whole argument in a single post on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously if one side says the White House is made of powdered milk, and the other disagrees, we can safely ignore the milk claim,\u201d Hume wrote. \u201cBut political disputes are rarely so cut and dried. So we report what both sides are saying and let viewers and readers make up their own minds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, those days are gone and \u201cfacts\u201d are becoming ever more elusive. Now, Americans will have to search far and wide for the truth. But at least they now know that the \u201cnews\u201d media no longer has any intention of presenting both sides of a story.<\/p>\n<p>Caveat emptor indeed.<\/p>\n<p><em>*Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter at @JosephCurl. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than a century ago, way back in 1906, Mark Twain said, \u201cThere are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe \u2014 only &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311845,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-879.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Here\u2019s Why You Can Never Trust The U.S. News Media Again","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-879.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Here\u2019s Why You Can Never Trust The U.S. News Media Again","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}