When a news organization’s primary commitment is to reinforce a desired narrative rather than presenting an honest and accurate account of facts relevant to an event, then that “news” organization is guilty of biased reporting, if not outright propaganda. Two recent news reports serve to demonstrate the fact that this is what the mainstream news media has become. The first and most egregious instance comes from ABC News, which aired video footage during which a reporter asserted, “This video, obtained by ABC News, appears to show the fury of the Turkish attack on the border town of Tal Abyad.” The problem is that was not what the video footage depicted, rather the footage of heavy machine-gun fire amidst a series of explosions was actually taken from a 2017 event at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky. It had no relation whatsoever to the events in Syria.

Only after ABC was alerted to this gross “mistake” did it remove the video and release a statement on social media: “CORRECTION: We’ve taken down video that aired on ‘World News Tonight’ Sunday and ‘Good Morning America’ this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy. ABC News regrets the error.” ABC failed to explain why the footage in question was aired but promised to investigate.

There appear to be two possible explanations for how this “mistake” could have occurred. The first is that it was not a mistake at all, but an intentional decision to deceive with the assumption that no one would know it was fake. Besides, the Turkish military had indeed just engaged in operations in northern Syria. But the second and probable reason is confirmation bias. ABC News is committed to the anti-Trump narrative, and the video footage seemed to support that narrative. Therefore, no due diligence was done to verify its accuracy.

The second example of the MSM pushing narrative over news comes from the story of a meme video depicting President Donald Trump violently killing individuals portrayed as the MSM in a church. The meme was adapted from a 2014 movie scene. While the White House, the Trump campaign, and everyone working with the president roundly condemned the parody video — most having never seen it or heard of it before the MSM reported on it — the narrative presented by the likes of The New York Times is that Trump is still culpable because fringe Trump supporters created it. The Times lectures, “The connections underscore how the president’s escalating war on what he calls the ‘fake news’ media has elevated people from the far-right fringe into allies who defend Mr. Trump with extreme language and images.”

Tellingly, the MSM refuses to hold Democrats, the Left, and even themselves to the same standards they use to loudly castigate Trump. Did the Times take any responsibility for sowing discord by its overwhelmingly negative coverage of the president, which in turn motivated Kathy Griffin to post an image of herself holding a bloody decapitated head of Trump? Has the MSM backed off its repeated promulgation of fake and biased news? Americans don’t distrust the news media because of Trump; they distrust the media because the media has failed to live up to the standards of genuinely objective journalism.