While artificial intelligence may make the student research paper obsolete, if today a student does their own research and writing, it's quite possible they will use Google to search their topic, and Google will invariably send the searcher to a Wikipedia article.
If they were to write about cable news, the Wikipedia results are as biased as ... well, cable news. Their entries on Fox News Channel and Newsmax are remarkably different from the ones on CNN and MSNBC.
Right away, in the second sentence, Wikipedia tells us Newsmax "has been variously described as conservative, right-wing, and far-right."
The third paragraph goes straight to defamation lawsuits. "After the 2020 United States presidential election, Newsmax broadcast numerous conspiracy theories made by President Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, and a Newsmax host, which alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election. ... In 2021, Newsmax issued an apology and retracted its voter fraud conspiracy allegations."
Then you're told the network has settled lawsuits with Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for making false and defamatory statements about them. Later in the article there's much more on the 2020 election lawsuits.
It's the same for Fox News Channel. The third paragraph in their Wikipedia entry begins: "It has been identified as engaging in biased and false reporting in favor of the Republican Party, its politicians, and conservative causes, while portraying the Democratic Party in a negative light. Researchers have argued that the channel is damaging to the integrity of news overall, and acts de facto as the broadcasting arm of the Republican Party. The network is pro-Trump."
The fourth paragraph adds: "The channel has knowingly endorsed false conspiracy theories to promote Republican and conservative causes. These include, but are not limited to, false claims regarding fraud with Dominion voting machines during their reporting on the 2020 presidential election, climate change denial, and COVID-19 misinformation." Lower in the article are 11 paragraphs under 2020 election fraud allegations and lawsuits by Dominion and Smartmatic.
Wikipedia's entry on MSNBC has zero mention of defamation anywhere, despite their settlement of a defamation lawsuit in February. They allegedly spread lies about a Georgia doctor they labeled "the Uterus Collector," accusing Mahendra Amin of performing medically unnecessary hysterectomies for ICE.
Even their leftist tilt is questioned! "In October 2019, American socialist magazine Jacobin argued that 'MSNBC embodies the politics and sensibility of Trump-era liberalism', but argued that MSNBC 'wasn't always liberal.'" Then they quoted Tom Jones, the Poynter Institute's version of Brian Stelter, who "argued that the primary distinction between MSNBC and Fox News is not left bias vs. right bias, but rather that much of the content on Fox News, especially during its primetime programs, is not based in truth."
So Fox is even maligned in the Wikipedia entry on MSNBC.
The Wikipedia article on CNN mentions a defamation suit, if you read deep down more than 50 paragraphs. You get this brief and vague note: "In January 2020, CNN settled a multi-million-dollar defamation lawsuit from Nick Sandmann, a Covington Catholic High School student involved in an encounter with Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C." There was no mention of CNN settling a defamation lawsuit after a Florida jury found them liable for defaming Navy veteran Zachary Young over his business in getting refugees out of Afghanistan.
Wikipedia maintains a page of "Reliable sources/Perennial sources," and naturally CNN and MSNBC are recommended as "generally reliable" (along with leftist rags like Mother Jones, The Nation and The Atlantic). Fox and Newsmax are considered unreliable, as are many conservative media outlets.
This underlines that Wikipedia can be classified as liberal media.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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