Fake News!
Fake News!
Story by Liam Syrvalin
Design by JJ Evans
Opinion: There is no such thing as unbiased journalism.
On Nov. 15, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a raid and invaded the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital complex in Gaza. Israeli and American intelligence officials have alleged that the hospital was used as a Hamas military command center, citing the presence of underground tunnels beneath the hospital as evidence. However, as of this writing, an independent investigation has not yet taken place. The Israeli government has yet to produce concrete evidence proving that Hamas had sustained a semi-permanent presence in the area. Months passed before the world discovered that multiple mass graves were found at Al-Shifa.
On Nov. 18, 2023, CBS News published an article regarding the siege, with the headline, “Hundreds leave Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as Israeli forces take control of facility.” If readers were to see this without examining the rest of the story, as many do, they could walk away from this headline thinking that it was an orderly operation and that civilians were free to leave. A reader would walk away unaware that just days before, an ambulance was attacked by the IDF near the hospital complex, as reported by Doctors Without Borders.
That headline from CBS, one of the many mainstream media outlets that prides itself on unbiased, fact-based reporting, leaves out information that would denote civilian suffering at the hands of the IDF. Whether intentional or not, that headline is biased.
These are countless examples of similarly slanted headlines and stories coming out of respected publications and cornerstones of journalism. Even a story from one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the world, the Associated Press, is guilty of similar pitfalls.
On Aug. 30, 2021, AP reporters Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor wrote a story titled, “Last troops exit Afghanistan’s ending America’s longest war.” Although that headline is reasonable, it is the perspective of the story where issues surrounding bias begin to arise.
In a section referring to the last stand at the Kabul airport, Burns and Baldor wrote, “The airport had become a U.S. controlled island, a last stand in a 20 year war that claimed more than 2,400 American lives.”
Three paragraphs after the previous excerpt, they report, “More than 1,100 troops from coalition countries and more than 100,000 Afghan forces and civilians died, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project.”
Not only did the authors of that article imply through their writing structure that Afghan lives are worth less than American lives, they also made sure ideas, myths and biases pervade every corner of the country they reside in.
AP, and other news organizations in America, will always operate from that bias, making it impossible to avoid.
Condemnation of media conglomerates that impose editorial values is crucial. Conglomerates operate and own many sources of media, and sometimes it can be hard to trace publications back to the companies. Mass media conglomerate Axel Springer SE, for example, has clear editorial positions and biases that are acknowledged within the company, but not directly in the publications that they own and operate.
Some of those values, as stated on their website, include the support of both Israel and the principles of a free market economy. Axel Springer, the founder and namesake of the German media conglomerate, was a Nazi paramilitary solider with the National Socialist Motor Corps.
Those editorial positions, and that added context, affect the media companies that are owned by Axel Springer. Those publications include Politico, Business Insider, Bild (the largest tabloid in Europe), Upday, Morning Brww, Onet and more.
One solution to ownership bias is to allow individual publications of media conglomerates, like Politico, to operate under their own editorial positions. That will ensure that massive owners will not have a mandated position enforced upon every publication within the company they own. Conglomerates should clearly state their values on the front of every publication that they own, so readers are aware of them
Those solutions would require a greater social and political upheaval that collapses the corporate stronghold of the West, but that horizon is not yet in view. Until then, readers need to stay vigilant and create their own solutions to counteract biases.
Every consumer of news media should make sure they know who owns the organizations from which they receive information. Seek out independent media as a primary source of information. Most importantly, anyone who ingests news should diversify what they consume. Look at news from different countries and continents on a regular basis, especially during times of war. Those outlets should advocate for anti-corporate reforms to the mass media landscape.
It would be foolish to suggest that these recommendations would completely fix media bias, but it would be a start.
The views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect those of Backdrop.