Fake News
In this essay, I will review the main types of media deception. All are variants of the generic cherry-picking fallacy. The establishment media rarely tell outright lies, but they often lie by selecting facts, images, interpretations, etc. to fit a preconceived narrative. The narrative comes first, and everything else is selected to fit the narrative.
Selecting Facts
The media lie by presenting facts or statistics that support one view, while omitting facts that support an opposing view. For example, they will report that blacks are shot by the police in disproportionate numbers, while not reporting that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime.
Example: The Racial Dimension Of New York Police’s Use Of Force In 1 Graphic
Selecting Images
The media lie by showing images of an event that support one view, while omitting images that support an opposing view. One example is showing only women and children in an article on refugees, even though the refugees are majority male. Another example is selecting flattering or unflattering pictures of politicians, depending on their political positions. Another example is using stock photos of black men to illustrate a “feel good” story about fatherhood, while using stock photos of white men to illustrate a “scary” story about violence against women. Images affect us subconsciously, so they are a very powerful form of manipulation.
Example: A shocking image of a drowned man and his daughter underscores the crisis at the US-Mexico border
Selecting Headlines
Headlines are concise, they create a frame of interpretation, and many people only read headlines. The media often use misleading headlines to frame a story and bias the reader toward a certain interpretation.
Selective Phrasing
A lot can be done with words. For example, an “It’s okay to be white” sign found on a college campus will be labeled as “white supremacy” or “neo-Nazism”. Riots can be called “protests”, and protests can be called “riots”, depending on the political position that is represented. If an election produces an anti-establishment result, it is called “populism” rather than “democracy”. Criticism on social media will be labeled “online abuse” when it is directed at women, non-whites or left-wing politicians, but not when it is directed at men, whites or Donald Trump.
Selective Editing
The media lie by editing speech and video in a misleading way. A long interview will be edited down to a few sound bites taken out of context that support the narrative. For example, Roger Scruton was accused of racism for supposedly saying that Chinese people were carbon copies of each other. What he actually said was that the Chinese government was trying to make Chinese people into carbon copies of each other.
See: Roger Scruton on the interview that got him fired
Selecting Perspectives
The media lie by selecting the perspectives that fit their preferred narrative, while excluding other perspectives. For example, after a Muslim terrorist attack, they will seek out Muslims to denounce the attack and say that they are concerned about a backlash. After a white nationalist terrorist attack, however, they will not present white nationalists denouncing the attack and saying that they are concerned about a backlash. This not only presents a biased sample of public opinion, it subconsciously trains people to empathize with one side and not the other.
Example: Orlando nightclub shooting packs double punch for Halifax man
Selecting Experts
The media lie by selecting experts to present opinions that fit their preferred narrative, while excluding opposing views. Often this consists of using advocacy research from academics. Sometimes they will use anyone who has the desired views, regardless of their qualifications. For example, the media will present Anita Sarkeesian as an expert on video games and internet harassment. An “expert” is just a person who is given a voice by the media.
Example: Can gaming industry culture be changed?
Selecting Opinions
The media can propagate a lie by simply reporting it as an opinion of an “expert”. This allows them to dodge responsibility for its accuracy. And, because establishment media are viewed as authorities by other establishment media and sites such as Wikipedia, once a lie starts circulating in the establishment media it can become a generally accepted belief.
See: No, 1 in 5 women have not been raped on college campuses
Selective Criticism
The media lie by criticizing some people and views extensively, while not criticizing others. For example, Trump has been extensively criticized for spreading misinformation, such as incorrect crime statistics. By contrast, Obama received very little criticism from the media when he spread the false “1 in 5” rape statistic in speeches.
Selective Importance
The media lie by promoting certain events as more important than others, based on whether or not they support a narrative. For example, white hate crimes against blacks (real or hoaxes) are extensively reported on, while black hate crimes against whites are under-reported. In recent years, mainstream media have uncritically reported on several alleged crimes that turned out to be hoaxes, such as the Jussie Smollett attack hoax and the Rolling Stone rape hoax.
See: Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax, A Rape on Campus
Selective Memory
This is a special type of selective importance, in which events that don’t fit the narrative are quickly forgotten, while events that fit the narrative are remembered over and over (because they are considered important, of course). A great example is the murder of Emmett Till, which occurred in 1955 but is still considered important.
Selecting a Value Perspective
The media lie by making value judgments from a perspective, and then presenting those value judgments as if they applied to everyone. For example, the media generally report on increasing asset prices, such as stock prices and house prices, as “good”, and falling asset prices as “bad”, even though increasing prices do not provide any net benefit to society.
Selective Moral Framing
The media lie by presenting facts within a selected moral frame, while excluding other frames. For example, illegal immigration is typically framed as a moral issue of care and concern, rather than as an invasion. This moral frame defines a virtue-signaling opportunity. If it is a “refugee crisis” then we can signal virtue by saying “let them in”. If it is an “invasion” then we can signal virtue by saying “keep them out”. Moral framing is a powerful way of manipulating public opinion.
Selecting a Social Issue Frame
The media lie by presenting facts as part of a larger social issue. For example, a mass killing by a white nationalist will be linked to “the threat of right-wing hate”, but a mass killing by a Muslim will not be linked to “the threat of Islam”. The choice of frame is not just about the focus of the frame, but also about its size. The media will assign blame very widely for a killing by a white nationalist, and very narrowly for a killing by a Muslim terrorist.
Example: Islamophobia may finally be getting the attention it needs
Constructing Social Issues
The media lie by constructing social issues. For example, the Canadian media have recently made “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women” into a major social issue. This is highly arbitrary. Yes, indigenous women are more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women, but indigenous men are three times more likely to be murdered than indigenous women, and indigenous people are much more likely to commit murder than non-indigenous people. The cultural prominence of “MMIW” is based on its promotion by the media, not on its actual importance as a social problem. The same is true for “Black Lives Matter”. Many social issues have been almost entirely manufactured by the media.
Summary
I haven’t exhausted the ways that the media deceive the public, but hopefully I have covered the most important ones. In the modern West, the media are profoundly dishonest. The news has to be understood as propaganda, not as an unbiased source of information about reality. It is literally fake news.