THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE MAGA MOVEMENT Day 11
THE BELIEF The mainstream media never tells the truth. These are the same outlets that lied about Iraq, buried Hunter Biden’s laptop, and now suppress anything that makes the left look bad. If they were ever honest, why do we have to rely on alternative sources to learn what’s really happening?
THE PERFORMANCE This belief is performed as a litany of betrayal, recited with the cadence of a preacher naming sins. It appears in primetime monologues on Fox News, in Donald Trump’s rally speeches, and in the viral threads of conservative influencers like Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino. The tone is one of exhausted certainty—of course the media lies, because of course the powerful protect their own.
The origin story traces to a 2016 tweet from then-candidate Trump: “The Fake News Media is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” The phrase “enemy of the people” was not new—Stalin and Robespierre used it—but Trump’s repetition turned it into a rallying cry. By 2020, a Pew Research study found that 78% of Republicans believed the media intentionally misled the public, up from 25% in 2016. The performance relies on two rhetorical tricks: first, lumping all mainstream outlets into a single, monolithic “media”; second, framing every correction or critical story as proof of bias rather than evidence of accountability.
THE DOCUMENTED RECORD The claim that the “mainstream media never tells the truth” collapses under the weight of its own examples. The outlets now accused of deception are the same ones that exposed some of the most consequential scandals in modern history:
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Watergate (1972–1974): The Washington Post, then a regional paper, published Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s reporting on the Nixon administration’s cover-up of a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The story relied on deep sourcing, including an FBI informant (Mark Felt, later revealed as “Deep Throat”). Nixon resigned in 1974. The Post’s reporting was later validated by the Senate Watergate Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, and Nixon’s own White House tapes.
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The Pentagon Papers (1971): The New York Times and The Washington Post published a classified Defense Department study revealing that the U.S. government had systematically lied about the Vietnam War. The Nixon administration sued to block publication, but the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) that the press had a First Amendment right to publish. The ruling is now a cornerstone of press freedom.
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Abu Ghraib (2004): The New Yorker and CBS News published photographs and reports documenting the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The story led to military investigations, court-martials, and a 2005 Senate report confirming the abuses. The Pentagon’s own internal review, the Fay Report, corroborated the media’s findings.
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NSA Surveillance (2013): The Guardian and The Washington Post published Edward Snowden’s leaks revealing the National Security Agency’s mass collection of phone records. The Obama administration initially dismissed the reports as exaggerated, but a 2015 federal appeals court ruled in ACLU v. Clapper that the program was illegal. Congress later passed the USA FREEDOM Act to reform it.
These stories were not anomalies. A 2018 study in the American Political Science Review analyzed 50 years of investigative journalism and found that 60% of major scandals exposed by the media resulted in official investigations, resignations, or policy changes. The study concluded: “The press is not perfect, but it is far more likely to correct power than to serve it.”
The record also shows that when the media does get it wrong, it corrects itself—often loudly. In 2004, The New York Times published a front-page apology for its flawed reporting on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. In 2020, The Washington Post retracted a story about a “Russian hack” of Vermont’s power grid after it was debunked. These corrections are not evidence of a conspiracy; they are evidence of a functioning press.
THE AUDIENCE This belief resonates with people who feel ignored or misrepresented by institutions they once trusted. For many conservatives, the media’s shift from neutral reporting to explicit opposition to Trump—epitomized by The New York Times’ 2016 editorial calling him “a danger to the country”—felt like a betrayal. A 2021 Knight Foundation survey found that 74% of Republicans believe the media is “increasingly looking like propaganda,” compared to 20% of Democrats.
The grievance is real: media consolidation has reduced local journalism, and corporate ownership has prioritized profit over depth. But the belief that the media “never tells the truth” exploits this frustration by offering a simple villain—them—instead of grappling with the complexity of a fragmented, profit-driven industry. It turns a legitimate critique of media bias into a blanket dismissal of all reporting, even when the facts are on the record.
THE CONTRADICTION If the mainstream media is so powerful that it can suppress the truth, why does it keep getting caught? Why did The Washington Post publish Watergate when Nixon controlled the FBI? Why did The New York Times risk a Supreme Court battle over the Pentagon Papers? If the media is the “enemy of the people,” why do its exposés lead to resignations, indictments, and laws? The belief requires its adherents to ignore the very evidence it claims to value: the record of the press holding power to account.
THE THING THEY GOT RIGHT The media is biased—not in the way the belief claims (a coordinated conspiracy to deceive), but in subtler, more systemic ways. A 2020 MIT study found that journalists are overwhelmingly liberal, with 78% of New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporters identifying as Democrats. This doesn’t mean they fabricate stories, but it does mean they often frame issues in ways that align with their worldview. The media also has a profit motive: sensationalism sells, and outrage drives clicks. The belief taps into a real frustration—that the press is often more interested in narrative than nuance—but it mistakes bias for malice, and complexity for corruption.
REMEMBER The mainstream media has exposed more government lies than it has ever told.
This newsletter uses direct quotes, public records, court documents, and documented biographical fact. It does not make claims beyond what the record supports. Readers are encouraged to consult primary sources and reach their own conclusions.