Here’s the Truth: There’s no such thing as “fake news”
by C. Fidalgo
This article was originally published on Voices of the Revolution, a publication of The Political Revolution.
Over the last two years, the trend of growing distrust in the media has gained steam. As a wise man once said: “MSNBC is blue and to the left. CNN is red, white, and black, and in the middle. And Fox News is bright red and hollerin’, and on the right.” I personally avoid all three, because their bias, especially in the case of MSNBC and Fox, is so blatant that it’s embarrassing.
However, many seem to act as though these outlets are the Gospel word on reality. And if you were to put Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow in a room, I doubt you could get them to admit the sky is blue.
How did we even get here? Didn’t the news just use to be… the news?
WHAT WAS THE NEWS?
Many people have told this story, so I’ll make this short.
It’s the 1970s. TV News is an hour of facts: cold and boring facts. People watch the news or read newspapers, listen to the facts, and then argue about what we should do. Back then, a reporter’s job was to report. Find the facts, tell the masses about them, and that’s it. That was reporting.
But, that changed as soon as CNN started to run a 24/7 news cycle in the 1980s and later 9/11 doubled the viewership. Once 9/11 was over, shareholders needed to maintain their black bottom line, and the entire day couldn’t be the same hour of facts reported over and over. Instead, the dish needed spices, something to bring flavor to your “news viewing experience.” Solution? Pundits.
WHAT’S A PUNDIT ANYWAY?
Webster defines a pundit as this: “an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public.” I’m putting emphasis on one word for good reason, and that word is OPINIONS.
Opinions are not facts. For instance, my daughter has an opinion that “I’m a little tea cup” is “short and scout,” despite the song being “short and stout.” Why is it an opinion? Because she’s adorably wrong, but this is a simple case.
So, how do we tell the difference between opinion and fact with more complicated stuff? Break down the sentence.
“I believe that it is raining frogs.” This sentence has two parts, a feeling and a fact. While the feeling, “I believe” whatever, might be true — you know, because you feel it and believe it — the fact is not. No matter what you believe, it’s not raining frogs. How do I know this? I fact check by walking outside and looking at the world.
The problem with pundits, especially in the current climate, is they are all beliefs. Random experts, who sometimes aren’t even experts, spouting their OPINIONS first and foremost. But opinions about the world aren’t the same as the facts about the world.
WHAT HAVE I BEEN WATCHING THEN?
Simply put — CNN, Fox, MSNBC — these are dressed up op-eds on an all-day cycle. Most stories on these outlets are a teaspoon of fact to a pound of opinion. A screen split eight ways with eight feelings, one for each demographic, so people can feel like their opinions are valid, no matter how wrong their facts might be. What’s worse? This kind of “news” is making people more uninformed, which goes against the whole spirit of true journalism..
But why is this happening? Because the facts aren’t why people are watching; they are watching to feel RIGHT. The world is complicated and scary, and most people don’t have time to listen to all the details about every issue, so they instead seek out opinions similar to their own as a way to justify them. They look for cherry-picked narratives to back up their opinions and then use them as ammo on social media. People don’t want facts, so stations don’t sell facts. They sell feelings.
The whole problem? The facts aren’t opinions. The facts aren’t biased. The facts don’t care about feelings. The facts won’t make you feel better, but that’s not the point. News isn’t about feeling better — it’s about knowing the facts.
Opinions aren’t news. The news just is the news, the FACTS. Everything else is fluff.
SO…WHAT COULD I WATCH?
The fact is that NPR and BBC listeners get more of the facts right than other listeners of other stations, and NPR is mostly funded by the people of the United States. Whereas CNN, MSNBC, or Fox need to make shareholders happy, YOU are the shareholder for NPR.
So here’s my one opinion as transparent as I can make it: I enjoy NPR. I listen every day. It’s not a shock jock yelling, 12 panels of feeling, and sometimes it’s a few hours of facts repeated most of the day, BUT it’s the closest thing to the facts out there. For me, that’s all I need to make my own opinions.
