There is a scene in A Beautiful Mind where John Nash (Russell Crowe) asks Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) to pick a shape. She chooses an umbrella. Looking at the stars, he then picks out a number of stars that form an umbrella. She is impressed and asks him to find an octopus. This reminds me of the news. There are countless events that happen around the country and the world every day, but there is only so much room on the front page or the evening news. Someone has to choose which of those countless events are newsworthy. Let's just consider murders. If the media gave every homicide equal weight, the picture that would be painted is thus (FBI Crime Statistics 2020):
Consider that the African American population is 14% of the nation but accounts for 50% of the offenders and 56% of the victims. Black Lives Matter would have us believe that white cops are gunning down unarmed blacks. In fact, gang members are killing other gang members. Given the option between stopping all the cop shootings or all the gang shootings, which would result in a better outcome for the African American community? What does the news imply?
Of course, the editors must pick and choose among the stories of the day, but it is incumbent upon the news consumer to realize that someone made this particular selection. The selection inevitably reflects the views of the selector. If one does not sample news from multiple sources with different points of view, the 'news' is, in fact, propaganda. That may not be intentional, but that would be the effect.
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