The Liberal Media: Biased, Yes, But Also Incompetent

Tomorrow’s Star Tribune includes an Associated Press story on “fake news.” There is much that can be said on that topic. Over the last year or two, some fraudulent news sites have appeared. They mimic, say, ABC News, but actually have nothing to do with ABC or any other legitimate outlet. That is illegal, and I would encourage news sites that are so impersonated to file suit.

On the other hand, the mainstream media have also published a great many false news stories. This is a much more damaging form of fake news, since far more people are likely to fall for it. I personally became somewhat well known after participating in the exposure of a fake news story about then-president George W. Bush that was promoted by 60 Minutes and CBS News.

But I want to focus on a much smaller point. Check out this screen shot of the Star Tribune’s version of the AP story:

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The spelling error probably jumped out at you as it did at me. “Pedaling” is what you do on a bicycle. If you peddle stories that aren’t true, that is “peddling.” To be fair to the Star Tribune, the error didn’t start with them. They duplicated the AP’s literacy fail. This is a screen shot from the Associated Press’s web site. Click to enlarge:

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So “pedaling” originated with the AP. Here’s the point: there was a time when newspaper reporters and editors were good at spelling and grammar. That was considered part of the job. But those days are gone. When it comes to basic competence as writers and editors, today’s liberal media are poor. This, in addition to rampant bias, explains why knowledgeable consumers of the news don’t have much respect for them.