I've worked for a news outlet(pretty much smack dab in the newsroom) and I have friends and family who have either worked for other news outlets or are journali

I've worked for a news outlet(pretty much smack dab in the newsroom) and I have friends and family who have either worked for other news outlets or are journalists; while I agree that they are generally well-intentioned, their motivations aren't as simple as telling an accurate story. There's a growing number of young journalists who believe that objectivity is wrong and, because of that, choose to be overtly biased in what they report. In the broader sense, it's extremely common for news outlets to pass over stories that don't fit the narrative of their political affiliation. Even otherwise good journalists may pass on a story if they know it will result in them being seen unfavorably by leadership. Even leadership at these companies may steer the newsroom in certain directions if they seem favorable to their parent media company, whether they agree with it or not, because they know they have a chance of getting axed if their publication or broadcast says the wrong thing. > The idea that these news organizations are monolithic structures where hive minded journalists are endlessly seeking to push their master’s message is on its face ludicrous, as are all conspiracy theories. Have you had any actual experience inside a newsroom? In my experience, there's tons of groupthink that happens among journalists. There's nothing that makes journalists any different from average people, whom have a tendency to form cohorts with likeminded people. At one news outlet I worked for, a certain person in leadership(whose name and title I will leave nameless) mentioned in a meeting that there happen to be some journalists at the company who lean conservative; people in the meeting couldn't believe it and nearly flipped out, like it's a bad thing that someone is conservative, or that it's a given that all journalists identify as liberal. Lots of thought and communication among journalists occurs over Twitter, which helped facilitate an echo chamber rather than diffuse it. I simply don't agree that notions that there are hive minded groups of journalists are "all conspiracy theories". I'm sure there are some good groups of journalists out there but, from where I'm standing, they seem few and far between. There's nothing farfetched about a company having its own culture and unique hiring practices; it's human nature that happens all the time in and outside the media. It doesn't necessarily have to be driven by overt plans to manipulate anyone. Rather, what a news organization publishes is often influenced by whatever the incentive structure is. For journalism, the incentive structure that governs it promotes low-grade reports on news that hasn't been fully fleshed out combined with some carefully disguised opinion material intended to keep people reading. Currently there's little to no enforcement of efficiently informing readers since the desire for profit and prestige has overtaken the desire for integrity. None of this is new, though. It's just been accelerated recently. Look up the history of "yellow journalism". American journalism has a long history of publishing tripe to sway the public at the behest of media titans.