The mainstream media may not show you everything you need to know. There are so many things that you won’t see on the usual front pages or your Instagram feeds-things that are affecting the world all around us but you won’t see it because it is not something that would “catch your attention” or “sell well.”

The news is a business, not charity. As they say “if it bleeds it leads.” The news does tend to report actual news and most likely it’s not “fake news,” but they choose what they’ll show you. Like any business with a following, they have a demographic to which they appeal and whom they know quite well. 

A simple and broad example of this is how CNN is  quite openly against Trump and Fox is for Trump. CNN caters to people who don’t like Trump while Fox caters to people who do like Trump. However, they will cover stories that they feel are 1) actually important and/or 2) supportive of their agenda. 

For example, when Trump began the withdrawal process of the U.S. out of the Clear Skies Treaty, which allows countries that are part of it to do unarmed reconnaissance on each other if concerned with a short notice ahead of time,  in May of this year, it wasn’t in the first few pages, but on page 20 of The New York Times. This was one of the many treaties he has pulled the US out of. This is a very important subject because it affects us and our future of security and peace but lots of people don’t know about this even happening. 

Again, a lot of news outlets do report actual news. There’s just always bias – sometimes lots of bias – to change your mind on subjects. One way to help eliminate bias in at least the large news sources of information is by supporting laws that enforce this or that make incentives to make news sources neutral. As a reader, sending emails and messages to the news sources also helps. You can also check the news source by looking for corroborating information.