What's up with confirmation bias journalism?

When it comes to outlandish assertions, San Joseans have seen it all from left- and labor-backed news sites. California Globe commentator Thomas Buckley explores how many media outlets have abandoned the "Pentagon Papers Principle" and now prioritize bias-driven, advocacy-oriented narratives over, you know, verifiable facts.

As Matt Taibbi points out so well here, there was a long-standing media ethic that if something was true and important you printed it even if you knew the person who gave you the info had an axe to grind with the target of the story.  In fact, while many of the reasons people leak at all are noble – public service, respect of the truth, correct a lie, make people aware of a problem, etc. – one reason is usually “those people finally went to far and I’m really angry and I’m going to make their lives deservedly miserable.”

While that is not an ulterior motive – it’s actually a very exterior one – it is nonetheless still a motive.

What has happened over the past few years is the purposeful destruction of what was called the “Pentagon Papers Principle,” which made the authenticity of the information the be all and end all of deciding whether to run the story.

Now, according to Janine Zacharia and former Obama and Trump Cybersecurity Policy Director Andrew James Grotto, “authentication alone is not enough to run with something.” Read the report here....

In came the simplicity of open advocacy, only quoting “experts” they already agree with, only profiling groups they need to be more popular and powerful. Being a “journalist” is a very easy job if you always know what you’re going to write, how you’re going to write, why you’re going to write, and for whom you’re going to write it, not to mention that you can just have the PR flack/personal friend involved write it for you.

And this is the crux of the ulterior media.

The media has embraced the idea of the ulterior motive to the point that it is gospel, but when the public questions, let alone points out, the media’s own motives they are shouted down by an infuriated press as loudly and as strongly as a cleric shouts down heresy.

This article originally appeared in Substack. Read the whole thing here.

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