Community Magazine August 2017

46 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Has the Media Lost Its Credibility? DAVE GORDON T his past June, a representative from media watchdog Project Veritas used a hidden camera while interviewing John Bonifield, the senior producer of CNN. Their discussion centered on Donald Trump, Russian collusion, and the presidential election interference. Though CNN claimed to have aired factual coverage, in a shocking admission Bonifield conceded that the story was “mostly” made up. “We don’t have any giant proof,” he admitted. He further noted – again, while secretly being filmed – that they “haven’t seen any good enough evidence” that Donald Trump did anything wrong in his dealings with Russia. “I think the President is probably right to say, 'Look you are witch hunting me,'” Bonifield allowed. He also acknowledged the ideological bias of his colleagues, who would “like to see [Trump] get kicked out of office.” Stories like these were perpetuated for the ratings, he wasn’t shy about saying. This was true to such an extent that the network’s CEO continued to give the Russia story priority, at the expense of other stories. Trump’s alleged collision with Russia is just one recent and glaring example of how the media twists stories. This time, they were caught, but countless other stories shaped in the same way are not pronounced false. “Fake News” Hyperbole sells newspapers and brings in ratings. For this reason, truthful reporting is not a guarantee in the mainstream media. This reality has been the case for decades, but only in the past two years have the words “fake news” entered our lexicon. Under the watchful eye of President Trump, media outlets have been caught red-handed in countless examples of manufactured facts and shameless hypocrisy. Often, through the spin of a media news story, a double standard is revealed. In What Is Fake News? a video put forth by Prager University, Andrew Klaven posited the following: “[A] white cop shoots a black suspect and the mainstream media treats that story as representative of general police racism – even though studies show cops don’t use deadly force more often on blacks than on whites. On the other hand, if a Muslim commits an act of terrorism, and someone is bold enough to point out that the terrorist act is, in fact, representative of the daily acts of Muslim terror around the world, this is considered Islamophobic.” As Michael Goodwin, chief political columnist for The New York Post , recently noted, “There was a time not so long ago when journalists were trusted and admired. We were generally seen as trying to report the news in a fair and straightforwardmanner. Today, all that has changed.”