The Big Media Conspiracy Theory

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All summer I noticed a strange twist in social media, especially on X. Almost every day I saw people wondering why a particular story wasn't getting as much media coverage as they thought it should.

It made me wonder whether we were better off long before the days of social media.

The Shared Belief

I’ve seen variations on the following so many times this summer I’ve stopped being surprised. The comments on X go like this. “I can’t believe the media is downplaying what Trudeau said about (fill the blank). Or, “You know the media is really on Pierre Poilivere’s side when it refused to report (fill in another blank)”. Or, “Why doesn’t the media report every time Donald Trump (another fill in here)” Finally, “Why isn’t the media investigating what Kamala Harris said about (fill in yet another blank).

Throw in comments made on the conflict in the middle east and the war in Ukraine and it seems almost everyone thinks there's a media bogeyman.

It’s maddening. Media conspiracy theories are filling social media.

People seem convinced the news media is biased, or refusing to report or investigate a number of issues. They think if there’s a story that'll harm a politician or political party they don’t like, they accuse the media of refusing to cover the story.

In Canada, many people I’ve seen commenting on social media believe the CBC leans left in its coverage and CTV leans right. That’s probably the case. In the US, there’s no question CNN leans left and Fox News is solidly on the right side of the political spectrum.

If that’s true, why is “the media” not covering a story? If it’s something that made Poilievre look bad, you would think CBC would be all over it. If it’s something that would hurt Trump’s chances wouldn’t CNN be blowing it up?

It's Like Hockey

It reminds me of Saturday night games that have the Edmonton Oilers playing in Toronto against the Maple Leafs. Toronto fans are all over social media complaining about how biased the announcers are in favour of the Oilers. After all they say, Craig Simpson used to play and coach the Oilers, while Chris Cuthbert was in Edmonton for years. These comments are mixed with Oiler fans accusing the same announcers of being biased for the Leafs because it’s Hockey Night in Canada and it always gives preferential treatment to Toronto.

Isn’t it time people realized their outlook on the news media and politics really depends on who they support politically? Maybe it’s their personal bias that’s off? Perhaps the media is more balanced than these people give it credit for?

Why Rumours Don't Get Reported

Don’t get me wrong. Certain media outlets have taken positions on all sides of the political spectrum. There’s no doubt it’s been happening for years, but to suggest all media outlets are soft-peddling certain stories is nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory.

I’ve seen some people question why media outlets aren’t investigating a wild rumour to see if it’s true. I think people should consider the size of newsrooms these days. TV outlets don’t have enough reporters to give them the luxury of digging into every rumour that comes along. I wish they did, but they don’t and haven’t for years. That’s why there’s so little investigative journalism done. It’s not because media outlets don’t want to get to the bottom of a potential story, but in most cases, they just don’t have the resources to do so.

It’s dollars and cents and not a conspiracy theory.

It’s interesting how pundits with political axes to grind want to get the media on their side to try to make a politician or party look bad. It really is a desire on their part to use the media as a weapon to make somebody lose support.

I’m not even sure why many people are crying for the media to run negative stories on certain politicians. These days, a rising percentage of people around the world don’t trust the news media. The outcomes of surveys vary, but generally speaking, around one person in every three clearly states they don’t trust the media. If they don’t trust it, why would others believe a negative report about a certain politician?

Again, you can't have it both ways.

Are We Better Off Today?

Many years ago, this wasn’t a discussion. When you watched Harvey Kirck deliver the late-night news on CTV, or Knowlton Nash on CBC you took them at their word. If Harvey or Knowlton told you something had happened, you damn well took it to the bank. Nobody sat there and wondered if ol’ Harvey was favouring the Liberals or Conservatives. You took it as gospel. Now, not so much. A rising number of people don’t trust what they read in newspapers, watch on TV, or hear on the radio because they assume that media outlet has a political agenda.

To make things on social media even worse these days is the misinformation that’s generated. With the US election now less than two months away, it’s getting absolutely ridiculous.

Last week I saw an account on X display a graphic, supposedly from Fox News that showed a massive lead in black voters for Kamala Harris over Trump. I quickly realized the numbers weren’t real because they were so one-sided, but the graphic did look exactly the same as Fox would produce. It even had the Fox logo. It was fake news though.

I’ll ask the question. Are we better off today when it comes to information coming from the news media and social media than we were 50-years ago when we only had newspapers, TV, magazines and radio?

We do get information quicker than ever before and there’s far more of it, but the quality and accuracy of what we’re getting is nowhere near to what we got a couple of generations ago. Traditional media is doing much the same job as it always has. There’s just less traditional media journalism than there used to be. News on social media has become a cesspool.

Whether you don’t trust the news media, or social media, the result is the same. We’ll never turn the clock back, but then we had a level of trust we don’t have today.

Photo credit: CBC