Journalism and Indifference to the Truth

I keep banging on the idea that modern journalism is all about The Narrative™. 

Everything you see and hear is motivated. Sometimes it is completely true, often it is incomplete and grossly distorts reality, and almost as often, what you are seeing and hearing is a hoax. 

In other words, even when they are telling you the “truth,” they are spinning a yarn, and the only thing that matters is The Narrative. 

“Fact checks?” Narrative. Reporting on the war in Gaza? Narrative. Trump and Russia collusion? Narrative and total hoax. COVID reporting? Narrative. “Sharp as a tack.” Narrative. “Brat Summer?” Narrative. Hunter Biden’s laptop is “Russian Disinformation” hoax. Narrative. Climate change will sink all the islands by X date? Narrative. 

Amazing new @TIME cover featuring @antonioguterres & his call for #climateaction pic.twitter.com/vlGf6z4GQy

— Nancy Groves 👩🏻‍💻 (@Nancy_Groves) June 13, 2019

There is not damn thing that gets reported in the Pravda Media (that is an exaggeration–there are a few decent reporters, but most of them are fleeing to become “Independent Media) is ever a proper representation of reality. It is all motivated. 

🚨In the past 48 hours, NPR’s Katherine Maher and PBS’ David Brooks have both claimed their respective organizations report

“Straight down the line.”

Repeating this absurd lie is a prime example of why these entities are propaganda outlets and deserve zero taxpayer dollars. pic.twitter.com/TZGgL27k5c

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 4, 2025

There has always been an element of spin in the news–for a long time, newspapers were openly partisan, which was, at least, honest. But a myth developed in the mid-20th century that the news media were nonpartisan and were doing their best to tell the truth, and indeed a norm developed that pressured journalists to at least try to do so. Even journalists who had partisan leanings often tried, unless they worked for The New York Times. 

These days, Pravda Media figures still try to cling to the illusion that they are neutral arbiters of the truth, but the creation of narratives is the sole goal of most “journalists.” They are so indifferent to the truth that they will engage in the most appalling slanders and repeat the most absurd lies, and even fact check those who challenge The Narrative. 

The latest in a long line of examples is the bizarre claim that Elon Musk is a worse mass murderer than Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, and Genghis Khan. Some academic “experts” concoct a “scientific” study with the credibility of the Proximal Origins paper or Gaza Health Ministry statistics, and “journalists” like David Brooks dutifully repeat (or even exaggerate) the conclusions to bolster The Narrative. 

Once again, lunatics like NYT/PBS David Brooks don’t really believe the things they say. They say these ridiculous things because they want attention from their low-IQ, weak minded audience who actually do believe their rambling nonsense.

pic.twitter.com/sZt6LADZw8

— Liberals Leaving 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 (@LiberalsLeaving) June 1, 2025

Brooks is particularly important because he sits at the top of the “credibility” pyramid for centrists, who bask in the fact that even a sane “Republican” will confirm their priors. He is on PBS! He writes for The New York Times! He worked for Bush!

See? We are bipartisan!

Unexpectedly. https://t.co/nnOVQg9w4s

— Blame Big Government (@BlameBigGovt) June 3, 2025

That a “sane” human being can sit next to Jonathan Capehart without laughing at his absurdities–instead treating him as a reasonable man–shows how off kilter Brooks is. Capehart, you recall, felt unsafe in the Washington Post’s Editorial Board because he had to endure losing his humanity if he stayed. 

In his book, Capehart, who remains a columnist at the paper, writes that he clashed with Tumulty over an editorial which took issue with then-President Joe Biden’s criticism of a 2021 Georgia voting law.

Biden described the law as “Jim Crow 2.0” — a characterization that the Washington Post editorial board deemed to be “hyperbolic.”…

“Tumulty took an incident where I felt she ignored and compounded the insult by robbing me of my humanity,” he wrote in the book, which was published last week.

“She either couldn’t or wouldn’t see that I was black, that I came to the conversation with knowledge and history she could never have, that my worldview, albeit different from hers, was equally valid.”

David Brooks is of that world, and as dedicated to truth and rationality as any other Narrative™-obsessed journalist. 

Truth has no meaning to people. Reality is what they say it is. Want to attack DOGE and Elon Musk? Invent 100,000 deaths a month out of thin air. 

Liberals eat it up. 

They are at war with reality because reality doesn’t stroke their egos, and if they acknowledge it, then the entire foundation of their grasp on money and power crumbles. If enough Americans wake up to the Truman Show, the Truman Show loses ratings and gets discarded.