Fifty percent of Americans believe that the news media lies in order to promote a narrative.

Only 25% actually believe this isn’t true. The rest are skeptical, unsure of what to think. Guess who that 25% are…

These numbers don’t come from some right-wing polling outfit. They come from Gallup, not Rassmussen or OneAmerica.

If you look at these numbers Americans believe that the news media is rich, but don’t care about them or tell the truth. Which, to be honest, is exactly right. They are wealthy and do only care about themselves and their allies. And they surely lie whenever it suits them.

A former Washington Post editor has argued that objectivity is an outdated concept. The New York Times and Washington Post share a Pulitzer based upon unrelenting news coverage that turned out to be lies. That coverage was so awful that the Columbia Journalism Review has a huge multi-part story on how awful the coverage was and how badly the public was served by the spreading of outright misinformation.

The press lies. It lies constantly. It does so both consciously and as a result of living in a bubble. On stories that aren’t political, they still lie or spread ridiculous speculation that combines laziness and indifference to the facts. The New York Times itself did a story about how ridiculous statistics get thrown around that are based upon information as flimsy as a 9-year-old’s science fair project.

No, I am not joking. Plastic straws are banned across the United States because of a 9-year-old’s science fair project, and the ridiculous fact that the news media spread the idiotic conclusions.

Americans don’t trust the news media and they shouldn’t. All the media does is confirm the prejudices of the people who comprise their audience. This tends to be true across the political spectrum, but the MSM far outstrips the Right-wing media and dominates the infosphere.

And at least Fox News admits it is conservative, at least in its commentary. Most of the MSM pretends not to have a point of view. They are just presenting “facts.”

You see far more liberals on Fox than conservatives in liberal news outlets, and this is reflected in the well-established fact that conservatives understand what liberals believe and not the other way around. Liberals live in a constructed fantasy world. Conservatives can’t because the liberals run everything.

We know what they think and can see immediately when the MSM is simply spreading the talking points handed to them by the elite.

The Elite is panicking about the decline in trust, and they have come up with a sure-fire solution: ban dissent and call it disinformation. They are desperate to do this and have been largely successful. Even the staunchest (former) defenders of the 1st Amendment have changed their tune and for good reasons.

First, the loss of trust is a loss of power; second, the loss of trust leads to a loss of money. People have quit subscribing to news media and it has been a disaster.

A few media outlets have figured out how to survive, notably the New York Times. But it isn’t their news coverage that makes them much money: it is their coverage of entertainment, food, travel, and games. Wordle, anyone?

The Washington Post, the tentpole of the Washington DC media isn’t so lucky. It is bleeding subscribers and bleeding money. Censorship wouldn’t work to save it, but it would help.

There’s a reason why I and other conservatives keep pounding on the lies the media tells; often the lies themselves must be exposed to help people make good decisions. But as important is eroding trust in the media itself, because it is the bulwark that preserves the power of the elites.

We need to take that power away.