Does the Media Lie?

Q:  Does the media lie?

Short Answer:  Yes

Slightly Longer Short Answer:  Yes, but…

…it’s a matter of degree and/or method.  Probably the two most reputable news services closest to being honest and forthright are Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, but even they deserved to be fact-checked on occasion.  Yet AP and Reuters are pretty much straight down the middle with little to no bias.

That covers degree of honesty, then we can add in method.  Take National Public Radio (NPR), for example.  Pretty much everything you hear on NPR will be legitimate truth… but only a portion of the truth.  NPR’s lies aren’t outright lies, but are rather lies-of-omission.  It’s not what you hear on NPR, it’s what you don’t hear that you should be concerned about.  If you’re not well-rounded in your information intake, and NPR is your sole source of information, you will not know some sides of an issue even exist.  Hell, you may not know some whole stories or issues exist at all.

The Long Answer:  Yes, you bet!  Because we have the rest of the bunch, outlets such as Fox News, One America News Network (OANN), and Newsmax, as just a few examples.  These people will outright lie to your face.  And I mean literally make shit up, or they will have guests who make shit up with the host not challenge them regardless how absurd the guest’s claims are.  Take this example about the stories where schools were installing litter boxes in restrooms for wannabe felines…

Joe Rogan has acknowledged spreading misinformation after he suggested that elementary schools were installing litter boxes for students who “identify” as furries.

“Fake news spreads farther and faster than retractions,”

I personally know people who believe this claptrap.  THIS is fake news, people, and it should be blindingly obvious it’s fake news on the surface by anyone with a reasonable amount of discernment and intelligence.  And spare me the tripe about Fox News being separate from Fox Entertainment (Carlson, Hannity, et al).  Fact is they’re not far apart, and the people most seeking bias confirmation lap up everything like this fed to them without stopping to consider how ridiculous it really is, as if it is legitimate news.  It’s what they want to hear.  It feeds what they want to believe.

Finally:  We have this helpful chart… and know there are many more news sources and varying level of honesty, but these are a primary example that showcase the worst of the worst.