Why do we never see the raw data in the news?
Truth and data
As a country, we seem to be severely divorced from data, therefore, the truth. The news media gives us opinions dressed as facts, but never the actual facts. Perhaps it is just a method to sensationalize the news to generate more viewers, but I see a disturbing trend. Let’s dig.
Prior to Donald Trump’s election, the news media predicted a complete stock market collapse. Many, including billionaire Mark Cuban, predicted catastrophic losses. Those predictions were in the headlines for the weeks preceding Trump’s inauguration. Reality? The stock market hit record highs, and virtually every measure of unemployment hit 20-30 year lows—some sectors as low as has ever been measured. The GDP growth was truly an economic boom for the US. Those stories never generated the buzz of the prior predictions. In fact, many news outlets tried to give credit to the GDP increases to the Obama administration, even though they couldn’t point to a single Obama policy that would cause improved…anything (even Obama spoke of the ‘new normal of 1% growth’). The Trump administration did several things: decrease personal income tax rates, decrease corporate tax rates, and decrease regulations—all that could contribute to the hot economy. The booming economy hit a virtual wall with the COVID-19 virus, and the governmental restrictions imposed to combat the spread of it. Now that States are reopening their specific economies, the news downplays any potential for possible success. Why?
The COVID-19 virus numbers itself are potentially biased. Reports from MANY sources show that medical professionals nationwide are encouraged, if not demanded, to list every possible death that MIGHT have been COVID-19 related as COVID-19 deaths, even though some were not tested, and some had such severe underlying health issues that COVID-19 was clearly not the cause of death, just present. There a financial consideration here, as hospitals are receiving increased funding for ANY COVID-19 death, vs any other. YouTube has deleted the video of two doctors explaining the raw data they encountered pertaining to COVID-19. Not because they have any issue with the data (they never questioned it)—just because they disagree with the findings, and those findings disagree with the World Health Organization. And it isn’t like the WHO has been accurate in ANY facet of this pandemic. But the question remains: why over-state the death numbers? Why under-estimate the spread? Is the shock value necessary for the news, or are these numbers inflated to exaggerate the decisions made upon those numbers?
Jussie Smollett, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, while vastly different circumstances, share one common element: sensationalism. All were touted as severe racism, yet upon further review, they were at best under-pressure, understandable reactions, and at worst, a likely hoax. But the over-the-top promotions of these stories as ‘obvious’ racism examples brings the point to mind: if racism was as big a problem as advertised, why would the media have to inflate or exaggerate anything? Shouldn’t they be able to walk out onto a random street and see OBVIOUS evidence of a widespread problem?
The similarities in the above examples shows a disturbing trend: the truth (fact-based data) is either ignored or glossed over, in favor of hype. The retractions when proven wrong are miniscule compared to the size of the original stories. Yeah, I get that the media HATES to admit fault, but that isn’t my worry. It’s that data and facts simply do not support the positions they champion (or emphasize), so they readily replace those facts with exaggeration, conjecture, and ‘unnamed sources’ (whether they exist or not is someone else’s investigation). The net result: media viewers have a skewed view of reality based upon fiction. It is ‘common knowledge’ that: GOP is racist, White people are racist—along with privilege of some sort, COVID-19 is the deadliest thing EVER—worthy of shutting down our entire economy to prevent ANY additional cases, and whatever Narrative the Media would like to feed us. If the real data supports any of these statements, please share the data. But maybe the panic was the intention from the very beginning?
Great article!