Fake News in the 21st Century:The egregious unethical sin of omission
“The omission is the most powerful form of lie, and it is the duty of the historian to ensure that those lies do not creep into the history books.” —George Orwell,author of ‘1984’
We have heard a great deal about Fake News over the decades. But we have not discussed the fake news that is the result of the egregious unethical omission of facts.
I am old enough to remember Donald Rumsfeld when he wrote about the known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Many laughed. I didn’t. I realized that he could be talking about the failure of MSM – the failure to report ALL the facts:The unknown unknowns. Sadly, once Fake News is shared online, it is there forever. Far too few people fact check. They just blindly believe.
I am also old enough to remember journalists like Walter Cronkite and Huntley/Brinkley. Days before cable news.
We have witnessed the most egregious sins of omission these past few years as the left-leaning legacy media tried desperately to prevent Donald Trump from being elected a second time, while having tried to destroy his first Presidency.
Always the same modus operandi – share half a quote – blow it up on social media and MSM. Take those half quotes and synthesize a false conclusion. Trump is hitler. Trump is a fascist. Trump is a danger to America. Put all of this on social media where it lives forever.
Remember the “Bloodbath” comment-taken out of context? A prime example of the egregious sin of omission. “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election.” Then you read on and realize he is talking about the car industry – but who reads on?
And this:
“Trump’s ‘bloodbath’ and other rhetoric inflame his 2024 campaign trail”
“During a March appearance alongside a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, Trump warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails to unseat Biden in November’s election.”
That’s the Fake News – the egregious sin of omission.
“At the time Trump was discussing the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from overseas competition, and Trump and allies later said he was referring to the auto industry when he used the term.”
Remember when MSM reported:
President Donald Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people” in the wake of riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 — ?
We heard it over and over and into the 2024 election. The egregious sin of omission at play.
Here is some of Trump’s speech at the event in Charlottesville, August 2017:
I do think there is blame – yes, I think there is blame on both sides. You look at, you look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either. And, and, and, and if you reported it accurately, you would say…
Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.
VERY FINE PEOPLE was a key piece of “evidence” cited to support the claim that Trump is a racist who is inciting mass shootings.
And one more: Trump says ‘war hawk’ Liz Cheney should be fired upon in escalation of violent rhetoric against his opponents Just one of many headlines accusing Trump of calling for the killing of Cheney. But… he didn’t say that. Doesn’t matter – the egregious sin of omission took predominance over facts. And MSM kept sharing the omission and accusing of Trump of escalating violent language.
Let’s put the statement in context.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
I think the most egregious sin of omission came from CBS 60 Minutes when the media outlet actually changed a response to a question put to Kamala Harris. This just wasn’t the omission of the facts. It was the intentional changing of facts. And the outlet has not been charged with anything? Nothing? Mike Wallace must be rolling over in his grave.
It is fairly easy to investigate facts that are shared. Sometimes people make mistakes. But how do you verify the unknown unknowns? How are you to know what you don’t know? This egregious unethical sin of omission has led to the divisions within freedom loving countries – pitting citizen against citizen. When you don’t know what you don’t know you are condemned to a closed mind – one so closed that nothing new can get in. On the other hand, you do not want a mind so open that everything falls out.
How do we fix this?
It seems on-line media outlets are taking over – in the form of podcasts and Conservative voices being shared like:
American Thinker: Right Side Broadcasting Network: Renew America: Conservative News and Views: National Review News: Citizens Journal: Rebel News: Daily Wire: The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
Most importantly, we must hold all media accountable. We must call them out, loud and proud. We must demand all the facts be shared or the media outlet is to be shut down. People who intentionally omit facts need to go to jail.
And we must never allow government to fund any media outlet or be in charge of “Disinformation” or “Misinformation” because that is the fastest route to the egregious, unethical sin of omission and the fall of freedom.
Let’s end with some results of the egregious sin of omission during the 2024 election.
The topic of abortion was very important to the Democrats in 2024. The Fake News Media promoted the view that Trump was against abortion, over and over and over. He was a threat to the very freedom of women and their right to choose!
But Trump had clearly stated his views.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account.
“Many states will be different,” Trump continued. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.”
After Trump’s win, women, sure that their right to abort a fetus had been taken away(MSM had assured them this would happen) joined the ‘4B movement‘—no dating, no sex, no marriage, no kids with men.
And then:
SHAVING HAIR IN PROTEST
I don’t know what to say
Hmmm. There are consequences to the egregious, unethical sin of omission. Is it possible this particular egregious sin of omission has led to an increase in mental illness, perhaps a case of mass psychosis formation regarding abortion and women’s rights?
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
Diane Weber Bederman
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