How do you solve a problem like the media?

This is why it’s necessary to read the source material. If a pundit should cite a study favorable to his or her conclusions, check it out. This goes double if it’s one of those “everyone knows” statistics. The same goes for other types of source material. If I’d sat down to the relevant passage from Carson’s autobiography, it would have been obvious that the accusations being leveled against him were wrong, and I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself by eagerly sharing the story.

In other words: do your homework. Some of the time it won’t amount to anything. But lots of times you’ll realize how wrong certain conclusions really are.

As I said, you don’t want to make yourself paranoid that the media are 100 percent liars 100 percent of the time. That would not be helpful, and it simply isn’t true. You do not want to be paranoid and insulated from so much media. But neither should you accept everything uncritically, without an eye towards the fact that a great many members of the Fourth Estate are biased, unfair, unprofessional, and happy to publish incorrect or misleading information if it gets the results they want. This is true now more than ever.

So be critical of what you’re reading, watching, or listening to—for Ben Carson, and for who inevitably comes after him.