Yesterday NJ.com published an editorial “It’s not just Fox. Conservative media is lying to you.” I have no problem with the comments about Fox; the revelations in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit are pretty compelling, for example. While it may be true that “other conservative media channels . . . trash the basic rules of fairness in journalism,” the editorial neither names such “other” channels nor provides any examples.
The editorial then proceeds to compare the situation to two well-known cases where “mainstream”((“Mainstream” is NJ.com’s word. I have described such outlets as “professional media” to distinguish them from me, the hobbyist.)) media (the Washington Post and the New York Times to be exact) had to apologize for fictionalization by their reporters.
The purveyors of news should be accurate, and I am in no way defending Fox, but I do not know who these “26 leading right-wing outlets” are. I doubt very many of them provide significant news reporting. I think I’ve said this before((For example, here and here.)): a significant proportion of the “news,” even from “mainstream” sources is opinion, whether labeled as such or not. No doubt there are many “left-wing outlets” who also ignore inconvenient facts.
At the risk of repeating myself: news stories should be accurate and detailed. How many “mainstream” news outlets provided detailed reports of President Trump’s claims about widespread vote fraud? They merely labeled such claims as “false,” (which they are, but the point is give us the facts, don’t just expect the reader to trust your conclusions).
Jay Bohn
March 13, 2023