There is no truth in the news and no news in the truth.

My father told me that one of the running jokes throughout most of the Soviet dominion over Russia was this assessment of the two newspapers by the non-Communist citizenry: "There is no Pravda in Izvestia, and there is no Izvestia in Pravda" or in English "There is no truth in News, and there is no news in Truth." But this was said carefully and to people who would not report you to the Central Committee."

Today what are called “news outlets” are simply weapons used by each side of the political spectrum to intellectually clobber the other with in order to advance their agenda and promote their respective world views. In other words it’s all propaganda. A nice formulation of the “pox on both sides” formulation. There is however a different take which I support:

Journalism is homogeneous because of the wire services in general, and the AP in particular. The wire services constitute a continuous virtual meeting of all major news outlets, and the result is what Adam Smith would have predicted. From Wealth of Nations (1776):
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. -
The way journalism is homogenized - the “conspiracy against the public” - is determined by the commercial interests common to all journalists their need (and desire) to attract attention:
- If it bleeds, it leads
- Man Bites Dog, not Dog Bites Man
- Always make your deadline, and
- Never denigrate the objectivity of a fellow journalist.
Those rules make journalism negative and superficial about society, and also superficial about themselves.
Since journalists claim objectivity while knowing that they are negative, journalists are cynical about society.
Since any criticism of society provides a rationale for a “there oughta be a law” response (see, “gun control”), cynicism towards society corresponds to faith in, even naiveté towards, government.
Cynicism towards society and naiveté towards government are the defining characteristics of socialism.
The Democrat Party simply sails downwind of the pro-socialist tendency inherent in journalism. Republicans, flawed vessels that they are, are the public’s only defense against socialist propaganda. Fox News - claiming to be “fair and balanced” yet defines itself as a news organization, and is flawed in that respect.

The ancient Greeks developed a formulation to describe this situation. sophist 1542, earlier sophister (c.1380), from L. sophista, sophistes, from Gk. sophistes, from sophizesthai "to become wise or learned," from sophos "wise, clever," of unknown origin. Gk. sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt. Ancient sophists were famous for their clever, specious arguments. philosopher O.E. philosophe, from L. philosophus, from Gk. philosophos "philosopher," lit. "lover of wisdom," from philos "loving" + sophos "wise, a sage." "Pythagoras was the first who called himself philosophos, instead of sophos, 'wise man,' since this latter term was suggestive of immodesty." [Klein] Journalists and Democrat politicians correspond to Sophists of old. The only effective defense against sophistry is to be a “philosopher” in the original sense defined above f(rom an etymological dictionary). And the only prominent exponents of philosophy in that sense are talk radio hosts. Talk radio hosts are defined by:

their open espousal of a point of view. They don’t claim to be “objective,” or anything of the sort.
their willingness to listen as well as talk - their credibility depends on their taking on opposing points of view.
their rejection of ad hominem and other illegitimate argumentation.

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