News Blinders

On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, a jury in Washington, D.C., delivered its verdict in a two-month-long federal trial. They found the head of the Oath Keepers (a militia group), and one of his codefendants, guilty of seditious conspiracy. This was for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Seditious conspiracy is a serious federal crime that can result in up to a 20-year prison sentence. The Oath Keepers’ trial was the first time in over 25 years that anyone had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy in the U.S. And it was the first time anyone associated with the January 6th attack was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a court trial (three pled guilty without a court trial). Sedition means to incite rebellion or violence against the government, and conspiracy means you planned it with others.

Regardless of one’s thoughts and feelings about January 6, 2021, the verdict of this trial was by itself a noteworthy news event.

Accordingly, this verdict was reported top-of-page by a number of centrist news sources:

• Associated Press
• Reuters
• Wall Street Journal
• British Broadcasting Service

But there were also a number of news outlets that made absolutely no mention of this trial verdict:

• Fox News
• Brietbart
• Newsmax
• Townhall

It is not that these last four news sites did not know about the story. All these news outlets track and compete with each other, 24×7. They always have their ear to the ground. Instead, these news outlets simply made an editorial decision not to include the story, which is within their First Amendment rights to do.

And, although the last four sites above are conservative, other news sources also engage in this same editorial behavior. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, many news outlets did not report on the concerning contents of a laptop said to belong to (now) President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The most common reason given for this omission is that these news sources thought the laptop story was made up to throw the election in favor of Biden’s opponent, (then) President Trump. But it would have been very easy to simply report on this story while also reporting on the authenticity concerns.  

So why do these omissions happen? One explanation is that right and left news sources simply want their political team to win. But another explanation, as many cognitive psychologists will tell you, is that humans (including news site editors) engage in a type of psychological filtering known as confirmation bias. We edit (delete, distort, add) our perception of the world so that our views appear comfortably correct.

Because news outlets that engage in self-censorship, to produce comforting (and lucrative) echo chambers, circulate and keep out information of their choosing, not only are favored positions amplified but out-of-favor positions are also silenced. The distortions and additions are easier to spot, but the omissions are not. One of the hardest things for any human to recognize is what is not present.

So why does this matter? After all, a seditious conspiracy conviction in Washington, D.C., is not likely to affect the lives of people living in Platte County, Nebraska, or most other places.

The Benjamin Franklin Party believes incomplete news matters because it distorts our view of the world. Just as it is unsafe to drive a car with a limited view through the front windshield, it is unwise to base decisions and form political opinions on incomplete news. We ignore information at our own peril.

In authoritarian countries, one of the first things to be controlled is news sources. It is a well-known axiom that freedom of speech is essential to a properly functioning democracy. This applies to censorship of others, but – importantly – it also applies to censoring oneself to neatly fit the views of a news audience.

So, how can we ensure we are getting as accurate a view of the world as possible? There are four ways:

1. Obtain your news from a variety of reliable sources (see #4)
2. Learn which ideas are contrary to your own, and listen to how proponents of these views justify those positions (with the goal to learn, not refute)
3. Ask yourself which points of view have the preponderance of evidence on their side and why that might be
4. Do a media bias check on your news sources

At the Benjamin Franklin Party, we believe that having a view of the world that is as accurate and complete as possible is important, because accurate views reduce the most human suffering, and are the most tax-efficient. That is why you will always see the Franklin Party post its sources, either inline or as footnotes, on any controversial statements. Our goal is for our policies to reflect reality as much as currently possible. We encourage everyone to do the same.

Yours in republic keeping,
James Carroll
BFPNC Chair