#FakeNews: The Media's Devotion to Left Wing Confirmation Bias

Ever since Donald Trump won the presidency, those normally tasked with presenting the current events of the day to its readers have lost their ever-loving minds with a neurotic devotion to the task of “exposing” the man as a con artist, fraud, racist, incompetent moron of epic proportions.

Advertisement

This devotion to a goal that clearly compromises their ability to be neutral and objective in their reporting has left media critics with ample opportunity to write the same things we’ve been saying for years about their behavior. The press has seized on to every rumor, whisper, and inkling of wrong-doing that has popped up, and has in many, many cases had to retract or change the stories they have written in order to reflect the true facts of the case.

The #FakeNews Menace, such as it was during the race, was centered around people clicking links to stories that seemed to confirm what the readers already believed about the candidate they were researching. It’s called “confirmation bias” – to be so biased that you go seeking only the information that confirms your hypothesis – and it has led to a great many incorrect stories being presented as true.

However, it was a series of sites that were not run by professional news outlets that created and pushed the fake news during the election. In the months since, the biggest pushers of fake news have been the traditional media itself.

On a nearly constant basis, reporters for major, traditional media outlets have grabbed on to a story and run with it, only for that story to collapse under the weight of its own bull@#$%. Each and every time, almost without fail, the retractions have been quiet and not discussed with the level of fanfare that the original stories were given.

Of course, this is somewhat understandable as the corrections you would have to make on these stories would include “Welp, we assumed the worst about Trump/Trump Supporters/Republicans/People Who Disagree With Us and it turned out we didn’t do our job reporting the truth.”

Advertisement

These are the people who have given themselves the mantle of Truth Bearers, and they should therefore be held to high standards when they screw up on such a great magnitude. It may sound harsh, but if someone is so egregiously guilty of this kind of mistake, they should be suspended, if not fired.

This type of confirmation bias is not new, nor is it limited to just Democrats and the Media. However, some of the biggest blockbuster stories that have been pushed at us have been written promoting left-of-center agendas (It doesn’t have to be about Trump. Just ask Rolling Stone and the University of Virginia.).

After the 2016 election, several media outlets held in-house reviews of their current practices and what needed to be changed. It appears that, no where in their reviews, were pushes to hold reporters accountable for embarrassing misreporting… so long as it pushes a certain agenda.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos