What we feed into our minds can either enrich us or poison us. I am reminded of Beatrice Rappaccini, the fictional character of Hawthorne, who, having never left her father’s infamous garden is ignorant of the realities of the outside world; whose continual contact with her father’s vast array of poisonous plants make her poisonous to others.
Many Americans fill the very oxygen they breathe with the poison of alternative news sources rather than more balanced reporting. This includes a friend who insists that “Obama continues to try and destroy America.” Being open to less biased and more factually reported news would breathe fresh air into their minds.
Likewise, a column published earlier this year on this page denigrated mainstream media for trying tell people “what to do and feel through imagery and repetitive propaganda.” The writer listed three of the sources she relies on for opinion development, each guilty of doing what she despised. I checked them for their ratings by mediabiasfactcheck.com, a source for measuring the degree of bias and reporting integrity. That organization admits there isn’t any true scientific formula for determining bias that is 100% objective. There are, the site maintains, objective measures that can be calculated, though there will remain some degree of subjective judgment involved. Nevertheless, they provide a decent measuring stick. Here are how that writer’s sources stack up. Health Impact News is a leading proponent of the anti-vaccination movement and was cited for its “quackery on its level of pseudo-science.” It rates low on factual reporting. American Thought Leaders is a product of Epoch Times, which was found to be “borderline questionable.” American Thinker, known for promoting conspiracy theories and propaganda, was listed as “extreme right-wing ideology” and rated low (the second-worst rating) on factual reporting
Three major mainstream media news sources each are rated as left-center biased, and each has recently had their ratings on factual reporting downgraded from high to mixed. Fox News rates as right-wing and mixed on factual reporting. CNN and MSNBC, are rated left-leaning, and both have recently had their factual reporting lowered from high to mixed. I prefer Newsy and the BBC for their less-biased editorial content and high reporting accuracy. I confess that I take my morning coffee with Morning Joe, then switch to Fox News and sometimes CNN. I then turn to Morning Express with Robin Meade because I require her infectious smile to counter biased and contradictory reporting.
An example of the idiocy of accepting garbage into the mind in order to validate one’s thinking is that people buy into the satirical fake news posted on social media by Christopher Blair. Despite disclaimers such as “nothing on this page is real,” they are shared by millions of people without the disclaimers in order to cement their beliefs. Blair says “the truth is no longer important to them. All they care about is holding on to their hate and fear.” “These people”, he contends “absolutely do not respond to logic and reason.”
I highly recommend utilizing mediabiasfactcheck.com to put your sources into a proper light. You will find numerous sources that rate as “least biased”, including The Indianapolis Star and Politico; and these I recommend you pay attention to when seeking facts. Perhaps, then, more Americans on both sides of the political spectrum would respond to logic and reason. I doubt, however, many will accept my recommendation. The sad reality is that objective truths are less important to most people than their “personal truths,” and that is exactly why conspiracy theories and fake news are so readily accepted by so many.
Michael Adkins formerly was chair of the Hancock County Democratic Party. Send comments to [email protected].
