The marriage of the moment: Mistrust joins with misinformation

Last week, The New York Times sheepishly admitted that a story it and many others in the mainstream press once dismissed as Russian disinformation was, in fact, true. The timing of the story, first reported by the New York Post in October 2020, and its subsequent dismissal, provoked major social media enterprises to cancel and silence the New York Post piece on their platforms. Twitter even blocked the Post itself, one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the world. It was a scandalous moment revealing the power of information control social media outlets now possess.

Hunter Biden, the troubled son of President Joe Biden, is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. That is now confirmed. It is an inquiry, begun under the Trump administration, that looks into possible influence-peddling in foreign affairs, including Hunter Biden trading on his father’s name. We should be wary of a kind of politics that goes after the children of public officials. Their lives are not license for our gossip and prurient interests. Yet, an investigation seemed important enough in the late stages of a presidential election for the Fourth Estate, which purports to serve as a watchdog of the public trust, to have taken notice, or so you would think.

Instead, many media outlets not only refused to do their due diligence but also actively dismissed the Post story of the discovered laptop as Russian disinformation, an obviously cynical attempt to conceal it from the public. Biden campaign officials took that line of argument as well. In an age of misinformation, where bad actors can inject chaos into our information ecosystem, it’s wise for journalists to be discerning before publishing unverified information and prudent for political pundits not to repeat what look like coordinated talking points. But many of the same journalists were just as eager to run with the now-discredited Russian dossier that purported to reveal salacious details about former President Donald Trump.

Did the collusion of the social media giants and mainstream media alter the course of the 2020 presidential election? We don’t know. Perhaps it would have been one more story in an ocean of news that dominated perhaps the weirdest election cycle of the modern era. But, regardless of the outcome, journalists had a duty to follow the story about the son of the Democratic nominee and pursue the truth. But they did no such thing, adding to the perception that the media is little else than an extension of the Democratic Party. Americans, especially Christians, should desire the pursuit of truth regardless of party politics, even if the spotlight reveals damaging truths about candidates we prefer. This is basic justice and shows how a necessary ingredient, namely trust, is essential for a working democracy.

This catastrophic mistake, repeated way too often by the media in the last several years, sows even more distrust into an institution already bleeding credibility with a large majority of Americans. This comes at a time when misinformation and conspiracy theories are enjoying widespread acceptance. But you cannot combat untruth when the very institutions we depend on to deliver the news are found to have been captive to a partisan spirit that keeps them from aggressively pursuing the truth. When trust is low, belief in misinformation runs high. Repeated mistakes by institutions we are supposed to trust lead to cynicism.

Christians should desire good journalism because we need to actively pursue what is true in a world of deception. Thankfully, there are many journalists today who do good work, putting their lives on the line to report from some of the most difficult places in the world. Such as the two Associated Press journalists who delivered a first-person, harrowing account of life in Mariupol after the Russian shelling of the port city in Ukraine. Or the Fox News photojournalist and his guide who lost their lives capturing images that helped the outside world see what was happening on the ground.

The temptation to dismiss or suppress news that might damage our political friends or the temptation to inflate news that might punish our political enemies is not merely an inducement for members of the media. That’s so easy for all of us, blinkered by our biases, catechized by our favorite voices, and shaped by our echo chambers. Sometimes the truth—truth as it is and not as we wish it to be—is hard to hear, but, ultimately, we are called to face reality rather than avoid it.

This is why, in an era of mistrust and misinformation, we need discernment to sift between what is real and what is fake and the courage to follow the truth wherever it leads. We need institutions worthy of the trust we invest in them. Sadly, many of our current institutions are failing that test.