The national media: Trend now, facts later

In an age of increasing availability to news and information, it appears as though the national media is emulating high-profile celebrities that have come before them.

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Think of the stars that have risen to the top in the digital-age: Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian types. You may be surprised at the similarities between them and national news entities.

What the aforementioned celebrities, and so many others, have in common is their ability to get in front of you. It’s the knack for saying and doing things that will shoot them to the top of your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feed.

In the digital age, or perhaps a better-coined term, the age of getting “clicks,” celebrities have skyrocketed to the top. Whether you, the reader of this article, personally talk about them or not, other people do.

This is what we’re seeing with national media outlets as well.

Today, the desire of a journalist rarely seems to be to get the story right. It instead appears to be to spread the story. The name of the publication and the name of the journalist are immensely more important.

Let’s look at it from their perspective: Who cares if the facts are wrong? You’re talking about my story. You’re talking about me. Even if the facts are wrong or unverified, many of you still believe it. And if you don’t believe it, you’re talking about how my publication crashed and burned, thus, making us the most talked about outlet in the country.

Enter Buzzfeed, whose brand I just described to a T.

A recent story from the outlet alleged the following: A pair of Mueller team members leaked documents showing President Trump told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

The Buzzfeed reporters were on CNN hourly and being discussed throughout the media world. But what happened after the Mueller team came out and dismissed the premise of the story?

The Buzzfeed reporters were on CNN hourly and being discussed throughout the media world. Never had the word, “Buzzfeed” been mentioned more. Well, you know, besides the whole Steel Dossier debacle.

That’s right, this wasn’t Buzzfeed’s first rodeo. We, being the consumers of news, should have been on edge about Buzzfeed’s reporting in the first place, even before its coverage of the Steel Dossier.

Wasn’t this the outlet mainly known for analyzing movies and pop culture, as well as covering the latest celebrity plastic surgery? This was the “news organization” that was seeking to verify the ‘pee tape,’ video evidence of a sitting president urinating on Russian prostitutes.

Buzzfeed isn’t the only media outlet engaging in these tactics. Two weekends ago, CNN rushed to talk with a Native American, who claims he was harassed by 16-year-olds in MAGA hats.

A quick fact check would have shown that the Native American, Nathan Phillips, wasn’t telling the whole story. As it turns out, it was actually the kids who were being harassed by a group of Black Israelites, and Phillips exacerbated the situation. But hey, CNN was the first to get Phillips on air.

NBC then wanted to jump in on the action. After the facts were out for everyone to see, they got Phillips in front of the camera and lobbed some softballs in his direction. End result? NBC News Anchor Savannah Guthrie trending on Twitter and Facebook with the interview playing throughout the stratosphere.

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Again, I don’t want to pick on just three outlets. Time Magazine editors rushed to put a crying Honduran girl on their cover because they incorrectly thought she had been separated from her parents.

The Arizona Republic featured 2014 pictures of kids in cages to show how the Trump administration detained children last year. And The Washington Post blamed border patrol for two deaths of illegal immigrant children despite them contracting a flu-like illness during their commute across Mexico. Those are all from just one issue the media went bananas over.

It appears the age of getting “clicks” and top trending topics has gotten the best of the American media. This is not to say all media outlets are like this; for every one national outlet engaging in dishonest journalism, there are 100 smaller, local news agencies trying to get facts to its people.

For CNN, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post and others, it’s evident they have taken the “no publicity is bad publicity” approach. And it has ultimately paid off. Don’t believe me? Go on Twitter and look in the trending section.