With constant accusations of “fake news” being touted by President Trump, there is no better time than now to examine the validity of mainstream news sources. As many already know, mainstream media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox each hold their own strong political alignments, thus their news reporting strongly embodies those political beliefs. Unfortunately, there appears to be a constant battle amongst the networks concerning which political ideology is the best. As a result, there is a great divide where the facts tend to be blurred or outright exempt from news discussions.

Many Americans are beginning to take notice of this ideological war between news outlets, and the statistical data proves it. According to Gallup’s annual media confidence poll, only 32 percent of those polled said they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. How did the media reach this point? The answer rests in the facts, or lack of them.

Facts are fossils. They are buried deep, but if one is able to dig them up and analyze them, they can begin placing the pieces of a story together. Unfortunately, when the mainstream media unearths facts, they choose to only display a few of them. This would be to the likeness of a dinosaur exhibit at a museum only displaying parts of the whole structure. CNN may provide the horns, FOX the spine, and MSNBC the tail. However, without displaying all the pieces together, one will never visualize the larger picture.

President Trump’s recent decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord can serve as an example. If one were to turn on CNN, they would hear claims such as “leaving the Climate Accord is a mistake future generations will regret" followed by a plethora of pundits espousing the severity of global warming. However, CNN will not tell its viewers that the United States paid China and India billions of tax dollars to stop polluting, as they continued to pollute quite heavily. Fox News will be quick to praise the decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, but will never tell viewers that renewable energy creates three-times more jobs than fossil fuels. The main point here does not fall in one’s opinion toward said Climate Accord, but rather in the lack of facts media outlets give their viewers which are needed for them to formulate their own opinions.

Pew Research Center, found that the majority of Americans — 62 percent — believe the media “tends to favor one side” when covering social and political issues. The shock factor rests in the fact that 62 percent of Americans acknowledge the blatant media bias, yet continue to do nothing about it. Objectivity was once the golden standard, but in a time where media success is measured in clicks and views, news outlets have overwhelmingly chosen to abandon those standards they previously possessed.

It is quite obvious that mainstream media outlets cannot be trusted. Thomas Sowell once said the following concerning the media: “Media bias in editorials and columns is one thing. Media fraud in reporting 'facts' in news stories is something else. ...The issue is not what various journalists or news organizations' editorial views are. The issue is the transformation of news reporting into ideological spin, along with self-serving taboos and outright fraud.”

So what can one do in order to prevent manipulation by untrustworthy media outlets? Be the archeologist! Find all the fossilized facts, put the pieces together, and create self-made opinions. Do not read or watch one news source. As emphasized above, reading or watching news from a singular source will only grant the opportunity to receive one side of a given story. Utilizing an array of news sources can allow one to slowly piece together different facts, thus regaining the ability to formulate one’s own opinions.

The great philosopher Socrates famously stated “To find yourself, think for yourself.” In an era of ideological battles between news outlets, the ability to think for oneself has become a difficult task. However, if one varies their news sources and searches for the facts, they will not only be able to visualize the bigger picture, but rather find what is most important, themselves.