To All People Who Use the Term “Fake News”
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I have written for the American Conservative, the Federalist, and the notoriously right-leaning Washington Times. At the same time, I have written for the Washington Post as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center which is considered a hate group by people on the right.
So I can say from experience that news is news. I have had a chance for over a decade to know other people in the industry. I have found that there are many ordinary people at Fox News or even Breitbart who are largely apolitical and simply do their jobs. At the vast majority of places I’ve worked there have been the same editorial standards and the few exceptions have been small-time weeklies with a fear of financially going under. It’s not sexy and you can’t spin many conspiracy theories about it, but the news is largely ununified and pretty boilerplate.
The issues of reporting bias are present, but the extent to which facts are ignored by the right is enough to want to disown them and strip them of their voting rights. When the Maga crowd shouts “fake news” they’re looking for a short-term victory to shield their side from immediate consequences but this kind of thinking is dangerous. It harms reporters, public trust, and our American institutions. It’s simply inexcusable.
But as always, I never excuse the left (which I am a member) which has habits that they seem to never want to acknowledge (i.e. thinking cancel culture isn’t real, the laughable assertion that they don’t also ban books: See Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, or the pulling of circulation of certain TV episodes that show black face). The left is also guilty of ignoring solid facts just because it’s been published in a right-wing newspaper.
Well as someone who has been published by both the left and the right, you’re both contributing to a culture of ignorance and polarization.
I just saw an episode of the TV show Alaska Daily which isn’t always great but featured a speech at the end that I felt was worth sharing:
This is from a fictional character but still quite powerful:
Eileen: Last night, a man broke into the newsroom of The Daily Alaskan and threatened to end my life because he didn’t like the way I did my job. I was shocked, of course. But sadly, I was not surprised.
