Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg admitted he fell to White House pressure over COVID-19 and censored posts. It’s no longer just a conservative conspiracy. While center-right and far-right news outlets rejoiced at yet another so called ‘conspiracy theory’ proven to be a fact, outlets on the left need to start questioning if the vetting system they are using needs a change.
The big red flag most outlets used against the censored COVID-19 posts story was the ‘tabloid’ it came from, the New York Post. While yes, the outlet is a tabloid, don’t let it diminish their work because they do put in a lot of effort to properly vet stories (and they are on quite the winning streak at the moment).
TMZ is another tabloid, yet their work has almost always been found to be credible (even though they have questionable ethics paying for sources). Saying you can’t vet the story because it originated in a tabloid tells the viewer you haven’t actually tried (and it also gives light to your own bias).
With this in mind it’s hard to believe most news outlets trust AP (widely considered a reputable news outlet) to vet sources properly when they have been accused of bias in their reporting for over 100 years. In 1912, political cartoon artist Art Young represented the then head of AP pouring lies into their ‘news’ well in his image titled “poisoned at the source”. Yet here we are, more outlets are subscribed to them over Reuters or Getty.
While AP hasn’t admitted to wrongly claiming there was no pressure on social media companies from government officials when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic, they wrote a clean headline, listed the facts and got out of dodge. At least they have some integrity.
For other outlets who initially got the Meta story wrong, the one thing you should not be doing is sweeping it under the rug. Admitting you had the wrong information in the beginning puts you in a better spot with readers and viewers today. Why? It makes you more honest. Dismissing your mistake makes you look like a bias lair. An honest news source is a more trustworthy one.
When CNN writes, “Mark Zuckerberg’s election-season gift to Republicans” as a headline, it’s not admitting they failed at being a news outlet. The so-called ‘analysis’ should just be called a ‘crybaby column.’
They additionally wrote, “Republicans, who have long falsely claimed that social media platforms colluded with liberal government officials to censor conservative voices,” is now a false statement. Yet, they continue to go with a false statement. Zuckerberg fully admitted to colluding with the Biden-Harris administration. Digging in your heals saying there is no evidence of ANYTHING is being blind to the truth and a failure of journalism (even in an opinion column).
Vetting news sources is becoming more difficult for viewers too. Even though radio stations and newspapers are closing there are still so many places to get news. The number of outlets available online since 2000 has exploded. This doesn’t even mention the number of ‘social media influencers’ who the DNC and RNC believe are ‘journalists.’
If the possibility of any person with a camera and a social media account being considered a journalist doesn’t concern you about the future of vetting news stories, perhaps Artificial Intelligence will. While Microsoft Bing’s ‘Copilot’ admits to the failures of Meta and censorship of COVID-19 information, it is only as unbiased as the programmer behind the curtain.
News outlets are similar because they are only as politically balanced as the management team behind the newscast. If 70%-90% of your staff all believe the same political jargon, it is a problem. Any outlet which wants to call themselves ‘fair and balanced’ better make sure this is represented in their staffing.
This is not meant to be a dig at the left at their inability to vet sources (even though it’s been a tough few years of right-wing conspiracies which turn out to be true). There’s plenty the right messes up (and I’ve called them out on it). This latest blunder, however, should be a wakeup call to the media as a whole. Do better, be better, and most importantly be able to put aside your own personal politics for the betterment of our industry.
Taking the extra step to report against your bias will make your story more solid. Just because this once called conspiracy theory turned out to be true doesn’t mean others will be true (looking at you QAnon believers). There are enough of people out there posing as journalists or ‘news’ and let us not be conflated in that.
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
