I would like to talk about the mainstream media and their relationship with the idea of "Participation in Self-Government" and with the truth. In the past, before internet was widely available, people mostly relied on the news to get information on what's happening outside their communities and around the world. Before news on TV, there were newspapers. News organizations had a vested interest in telling the truth, as they still should.
Nowadays, however, because of the creation of the internet and forwarded by the invention of the smart phone, regular people can research news topics on their own very easily and don't have to rely solely on what they hear on the news. As a matter of principle and to help the average citizen be able to effectively participate in self-government, we need to know the truth.
This is where I think the media has run into problems. Americans' trust in the media is at an all-time low, and more and more individuals are taking it upon themselves to fact-check the news and deliver it on their own, such as on YouTube channels or in podcasts. And this lack of trust in the media is not undue, nor is it particularly surprising.
To the point of it being fair to distrust the mainstream media, they have been found time and time again releasing faulty, misleading, or outright false reports. This has been especially exacerbated with the 2016 Presidential election. It's no surprise that the media has a political bias; everyone has a worldview. But before President Trump took office, the media did a better job hiding these biases. Now, however, ranging from their relentless pushing of the Russian collusion narrative for 3.5 years (which turned out to be a total hoax) to them claiming that the BLM riots are no more than "mostly peaceful protests" (all while erroneously claiming that most political violence stems from the right) to them saying over and over that Trump refuses to condemn white supremacy (despite him doing so over and over again), the media has been shown to push (whether through ignorance, incompetency, or outright malice) lies.
The thing is, the media is perfectly able to categorize reports stemming from their political opinions as such while categorizing reports that consist solely of the facts under "news," but they've blurred the line between them so much that they are often found reporting nonsensical opinions as fact. And as the old adage goes, "If you say something loud enough and often enough, people will eventually accept it as true."
I don't want to assign motive to anyone, and what I can attribute to ignorance or neglect I would rather not attribute to malice, but given that such an overwhelming majority of "mistakes" the media makes in reporting favor one political side and hardly ever favor the other, there's some point where it's not just an "honest mistake." And the thing that makes me the most angry about this is that when the media jumps ahead, doesn't wait for the facts (or outright ignored them), reports a false story, and are then called out on it, their correction doesn't seem to get 1/100th of the attention. People have already heard the story, drawn their conclusions, and dialed up their outrage to the point where the truth hardly matters anymore. From stories like the Jussie Smolett case to the Covington Catholic case to even George Floyd, Jacob Blake, and Breonna Taylor, the media has spread lies, mistruths, and propaganda for too long.
This is the big problem I have with the media. As a conservative, I believe that the government should stay out of as much as they can, but on the other hand, I'm sick and tired of the media getting away with this. It goes against my belief of the role of government, and I know that if this were to happen, it would be just a matter of time before this sword is wielded against me, but I think the media needs to be held accountable for their actions. If citizens aren't given the truth, how are they supposed to participate in self-government? How are we supposed to pursue better lives for ourselves and individuals, members of a community, or even as humans if we can't tell what's true or false?
Here is an article reporting on the false coverage of the Jussie Smollett story and the fact that Smollett was prosecuted for making a false police report:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jussie-smollett-indicted-by-special-prosecutor-in-chicago
I can't say for certain completely how accurate this graph is, but it seems pretty accurate to me:
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