Media loses credibility due to ‘fake news epidemic’

Ashley Verdugo/ Contributing Writer

Fake news became the phrase of the 2016 presidential election, thanks to Donald Trump. CNN and the New York Times became his target, and journalists were called out for being biased against the president.

But many of us don’t think fake news was the big deal that the president has made of it.

“Fake news has become a way for people to ignore the problems going on in the real world when it’s not convenient to their viewpoint,” Christopher Gonzalez, a senior in broadcast media and TV production said.

With only six major corporations controlling about 90 percent of the media in America, it’s easy to see that there is a certain narrative being pushed onto society.

“A lot of news stations do have a more liberal agenda. They are not shy in their opinion towards Trump or Republicans,” Gonzalez said. “You can’t try and sway people to your perception of the truth.”

This proved to be true during the summer when former FBI director James Comey addressed in his testification that the New York Times story on the Russian was false.

Gonzalez, like many others, shared that the reporter was probably trying to catch a big break and didn’t verify the information. Actual malice may not have been intended as the story was redacted after, but it shows how quick journalists are to show their bias.

“Journalists are allowed to be biased, but it depends on the subject they’re writing about. If you’re reporting on something that people need the facts on, you need to remain neutral,” Gonzalez said.

However, in this case, the “facts” (the New York Times story) was fake news.

Additionally, late night talk show hosts have taken news reports into their scripts to make jokes. In 2016, Samsung phones were recalled after randomly exploding. Trevor Noah decided to bring up race in his segment after a white man was escorted off the plane when his phone exploded. Noah said that was an example of “white privilege.”

“To an extent, he was justified in bringing up white privilege in the report but we can’t keep pushing down racial divide between white people and everyone else,” Gonzalez said.

Fake news isn’t a problem that can be easily solved. Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook make it easy for people to constantly post false content and receive nationwide attention.

“If you can get something trending, you can get enough people believing it to be true,” Gonzalez said.

Today, the access of information is literally at our fingertips with smart phones and laptops, but the media has slowly lost credibility. The next three years of Trump’s presidency will test journalists continuation of informing the public and shedding light on the truth.

 

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Photo taken from Flickr.