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As the New York Times claims Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrong on the amount of artificial ingredients which are in U.S. Fruit Loops, media outlets on the right are supporting Trump’s cabinet picks – without questioning a single thing. The media is playing their political games at the expense of news.
Combined with the rise of jack-tavist (political activists who are disguised as independent journalists), selective news reporting is on the rise. A Pew Institute Research study found 21% of U.S. adults receive their news from social media influencers. The percentage jumps to 37% when only looking at age 18-29 (Gen Z).
Most of these influencers (85%) can be found on X (formerly Twitter). Likely because it is the outlet where they can make the most money – thanks to Elon Musk. YouTube and Instagram fall further behind with 50% and 44% respectively.
Only 48% of these jack-tavist identify with a side of politics. 27% claim to be on the right and 21% identify as left, Pew claims half of the jack-tavists “do not express any clear political orientation.” A hard statistic to believe when you are scrolling through your ‘news feed.’
77% of these jack-tavists have no former news organization relationship or background. The question no one seems to be asking is where or how do they vet information? Are they getting information from other activists? Journalism sites? Are they filling out FOIA’s? Finding original source material? How can we be assured what they are telling us are actual facts? The same questions we should be asking of our journalists need to be asked of a jack-tavists.
The internet is full of lies and deception, which is why it was nice to have good news organizations who would give you all the information you need. Now instead of reading news, most Americans need to decipher selective information, weed out the opinions, to find the facts (and hopefully truth). This is something many outlets and jack-tavists often conflate. While CNN and Fox News selectively pick their facts, you can (almost always) clearly identify fact from opinion.
MSNBC and Newsmax often select (or remove) certain facts and opinion. Take these unrelated examples:
MSNBC Headline: “What to know about Trump’s pick for FCC chair, Brendan Carr”
MSNBC Subheadline: “Trump’s choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission is a MAGA loyalist seemingly hellbent on helping Elon Musk.”
Here is what they didn’t tell you: Carr has been a member of the FCC since 2017. He was re-appointed to the FCC as a commissioner by President Biden when he took office. The outlet can conflate he is a republican ally, but the Biden administration appointed him to the position of commissioner before Trump more recently appointed him to chair. If Democrats didn’t want him involved in the FCC, they would not have appointed him in the first place.
Newsmax Headline: Trump: Investigate Pollster Ann Selzer for Fraud
(they don’t use sub headlines on their website… but if they did it could enhance their SEO on Google)
The polls in 2016 were even more off than Ann Selzer’s. Why is the President-elect picking on one pollster for fraud when the entire polling system is a scam? A Berkley poll found only 60% of the time political polls are correct (even though they claim to have a 95% confidence). This is why the left was fearful of President Trump, not just because he is picking another fight with the media.
This vindictive nature is unhealthy for the future of the country and could escalate similar to the prosecution of Jan. 6 protesters. America should not be holding political prisoners on either side. If Newsmax is so hellbent on getting the Jan. 6 prisoners free they should not be amplifying a voice to hold a political prisoner from the left (when at the end of the day, it’s just a bad poll— there’s a LOT of them).
All of these headlines have one thing in common, selective fact picking to continue their narrative. Despite this, these outlets are held in high regard by thousands across the country. We do have a small bit of hope the left is looking for more fact-based reporting. MSNBC hosts Joe and Mika attempted to hand President-Elect Trump an olive branch by meeting in Mar-a-Lago, much to the chagrin of politicos in Washington.
Everyone seems to forget, the three (Joe, Mika, and Trump) were all friends before he ran for political office. As a businessman, Trump has worked with both the left and the right (and donated to both left and right campaigns) in order to get things done.
While the left is trying to get back in touch with America, the right is unreasonably going scorched earth on the media landscape. You the American public lose in both instances because your news no longer attempts to be neutral.
Publishing at the end of this week, my book ‘Politically Media’ can help you identify when outlets are providing you only half the news you need to know or conflating opinion with facts. Unfortunately, bias news continues to grow. Hopefully, at least one news outlet will be able to provide neutral news. Until then, I hope ‘Politically Media’ helps those looking for real unbiased news in all the haze.
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.
