“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy” (Prov 12:22).

How naïve I must have been. I well remember the days when I used to think that ‘The News’ was simply the news. If I wanted to know what was going on in the world, I simply turned on the TV or the radio, listened to whatever news bulletin happened to come on, and took that as all I needed to know.

Bias and prejudice

Things gradually began to change when I realised that the news headlines and stories rendered tended to vary considerably depending on which news channel I tuned in to. It even got to the stage that I would try to predict what news item the BBC was likely to highlight on any particular day; which event ITV news would focus on; and which would be the main story on Channel 4 News. It became a fun activity, and I was struck by how accurate my predictions regularly were.

I became increasingly aware of a partiality that seemed to run right across the media.

In the process, I became increasingly aware of a partiality that seemed to run right across the media – whether on TV, radio or newspaper (broadsheet or tabloid): an avoidance of anything that criticised Islam or Muslims; an anti-Christian (especially anti-evangelical) slant; and a generally left-leaning political skew.

Pure propaganda

Then came Covid. That changed everything. Moderate political bias turned to overt propaganda and a deliberate policy to broadcast from a singular perspective, with the utter avoidance of anything that remotely challenged or contradicted that ‘official’ narrative.

Hence, fears regarding the seriousness of the dreaded Covid were ramped to hysterical proportions, while any dissent was entirely eradicated. Lockdown policies were promoted as not just reasonable, but essential - the BBC conspiring in the campaign of fear that brought Britain to a near standstill. And all stops were pulled out to promote the worship of a new god – the Covid-19 vaccines. To this very day, reasonable, science-based discussion on their noted dangers is effectively denied.

What was most alarming was the alacrity with which the broadcast news media fell into line – with boundless enthusiasm – as they were given a key role in the day-to-day dissemination of government authority. As the medium through which the official information was conveyed – with, as we now know, often misleading modelling projections and outdated death figures – they went from being public service news media to what the BBC notably has always insisted it is not: state broadcasters. From disinterested journalism to Pravda in a single bound.

From disinterested journalism to Pravda in a single bound.

Many believe that 2020 marked the year when journalistic integrity truly died in the western world. It was the year that many of my friends gave up on established TV and radio channels entirely, relying exclusively on alternative news outlets (which of course carry their own risks and biases).

One-sided reporting

When I tune in to mainstream media (MSM) these days, I do so with caution – fully aware that what I hear will likely represent simply one particular take of events. I will need to check various other media sources for a fuller picture of what really occurred.

In the last couple of weeks alone, I have been disturbed by the MSM reporting of a number of specific stories – and they’re by no means confined to Covid and the vaccines. Among recent headlines have been the following:

• We were informed that the hundreds of thousands (of mainly young protestors) who engaged in ongoing and, at times, violent street protests across France in recent weeks were rallying against the state pension age rising from 62 to 64. In fact, they are symptomatic of a much deeper and longstanding malaise – including outrage at President Macron’s authoritative, anti-democratic rule.
• An eagerness to show the mass protests across Israel, protesting the coalition’s far-reaching reforms to the legal system – but a failure to show the 80,000+ strong pro-government demonstrations that countered them. An anti-Israel bias is widespread across the MSM, as almost daily updates from Honest Reporting ably reveal. 
• A recent headline story highlighted the false rape claim of a white female by a grooming gang in Cumbria. What the media failed to do is clarify that this was one false claim out of literally thousands of very real instances of grooming gang rape across the country perpetuated by mainly British Pakistani men. Yet, when Rishi Sunak insisted this week that the ethnicity of grooming gangs must be taken into account to ensure abusers do not evade justice due to ‘cultural sensitivities’, MSM such as the BBC and Channel 4 were quick to criticise him; pointing out that the “vast majority of sexual abuse cases” involve white men (which, among other things, utterly ignores the fact that over 80% of the UK population is white).
• The tragic story of three pupils, and as many staff, being shot dead at a school in Nashville, Tennessee quickly disappeared from the MSM, which found it awkward that the assailant was a trans man, with a likely anti-Christian agenda. The BBC, after brief condolences to the families of the murdered children, mourned at length the death of the murderer, whom it regarded as a ‘victim’ of transphobia.
• We note the endless gaffes made by US President, Joe Biden, virtually none of which ever get reported on MSM. One of his latest was his ‘joke’ about chocolate-chip ice-cream just prior to making a statement on the Nashville school shooting. This is in great contrast, not just to the way every foolish tweet by former president Trump was latched onto, but to the obvious glee with which the MSM has been reporting Trump’s arrest and court hearing in regard to his ‘hush-money’ case.
• Ireland’s grassroots working-class anti-migrant protests have rallied around the slogan ‘Ireland is Full’. There have been hundreds of such protests across the country, some gathering thousands of people – but the MSM barely remarked on them.
  Where the press has reported on anti-migrant protests in different parts of the UK, it has invariably termed the protestors ‘far right’ activists, rather than adequately outlining their legitimate concerns.
• The media (together with Kate Forbes’ political opponents) faced charges of ‘anti-Christian intolerance’ and ‘bigotry’ in their coverage of her running as candidate for SNP leadership – some feel this ensured her failure to win. Humza Yousaf, by contrast, failed to attract similar scrutiny over his religious views – no one pressed him, for example, on how his pro-abortion stance or his approval of gay marriage accorded with the teachings of the Koran or historic Islam (which has led to gays in many parts of the world facing execution).

Seekers of truth

Most of the time, the facts reported are correct – it’s often when significant details are ignored or omitted that balance goes out of the window.

Of course, we need to be aware, not just of media bias (mainstream and alternative), but of our own prejudices.

Of course, we need to be aware, not just of media bias (mainstream and alternative), but of our own prejudices – being, perhaps, so pro-Israel, or anti-vax, for example, that it colours our take on almost everything, and stops us seeing truths that contradict our own thinking.

So, we need to be aware of the importance of employing reasonable means to check out the facts of various news stories we hear, if we want a proper understanding – and not just rely on news outlets that we feel will confirm our own prejudices. We need to be seekers of truth, and be ever discerning (1 Jn 4:1).

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).