“Mainstream media outlets like CNN, NYT, and the Washington Post just report the facts. The problem is that conservatives don't like hearing the truth.”
CNN settled Nick Sandmann's defamation lawsuit. The NYT had to retract its Caliphate podcast. Major outlets ran with the Steele Dossier, Covington, Jussie Smollett, and 'very fine people' — all false. Trust in media hit a record low 32% in 2023 per Gallup.
Key Talking Points
- 1CNN settled the Nick Sandmann defamation case; Washington Post settled similarly — both got the story factually wrong
- 2The Steele Dossier was reported as credible for years before its key claims were debunked and its source charged
- 3Gallup trust in media hit a record low 32% overall and 11% among Republicans in 2023
- 4The Hunter Biden laptop was dismissed as 'Russian disinformation' before NYT and WaPo confirmed its authenticity
The Full Response
The idea that major media outlets are neutral truth-tellers is contradicted by their own track record, their own corrections, and the public's own assessment of their credibility.
Let's look at major stories that mainstream outlets got catastrophically wrong in recent years:
The Steele Dossier: CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post spent years reporting on the Steele Dossier's claims about Trump-Russia collusion as though they were credible intelligence. The dossier's primary sub-source was later charged with lying to the FBI about his sources. Major claims in the dossier — including the most salacious ones — were never verified and many were debunked.
The Covington Catholic incident: In January 2019, virtually every major outlet published stories characterizing high school student Nick Sandmann as a racist aggressor confronting a Native American elder. The full video showed the opposite — Sandmann stood still while he was approached. CNN and The Washington Post both settled defamation lawsuits with Sandmann.
The Jussie Smollett hoax: Major outlets uncritically amplified Smollett's claim of a racist, homophobic attack in Chicago, with some commentators blaming the "MAGA movement." The attack was staged, and Smollett was convicted of filing false police reports.
The suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story: In October 2020, The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN either ignored or actively discredited the New York Post's reporting. Twitter banned the story. Over a year later, the Times and Post quietly confirmed the laptop's authenticity.
These aren't minor errors — they're systematic failures on stories with enormous political significance, all erring in the same direction.
Gallup's annual trust in media survey hit a record low of 32% in 2023. Among Republicans, it was 11%. Among independents, 27%. This isn't because Americans are stupid or misinformed — it's because they've watched these institutions fail repeatedly while maintaining a posture of infallibility.
A 2018 Knight Foundation study found that 66% of Americans believed the news media could not separate fact from opinion. This tracks with research showing that "news analysis" and opinion content has dramatically increased as a share of coverage at outlets like The New York Times, blurring the line between reporting and editorializing.
Good journalism exists, and many individual reporters do excellent work. But the institutional claim to objectivity is not supported by the evidence.
How to Say It
Stack specific examples rather than making general claims about bias. Each individual failure is harder to dismiss than a vague accusation. The Gallup trust numbers show this isn't a partisan complaint — independents agree. Acknowledge that good journalism exists while arguing the institutional track record is poor.
Sources — The Receipts
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