Opinion

Don’t Fall For The Legacy Media’s Lies Of Omission

While it’s crucial that we hold the media accountable for what they say, it’s even more important to hold them accountable for what they choose not to say.

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 12: World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden (L) and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attend the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC.
Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA

For conservatives, the coverage of political and cultural topics by legacy media is an almost constant barrage of irritation and criticism. Hypocrisy, editorialization and outright lies occur daily, with the following scrutiny dismissed as “conservatives pounce!”

There is, however, one form of media malfeasance which often goes unnoticed and is, in many ways, the most powerful of all. While the legacy engages in lies of error, distortion, denial, minimization, exaggeration and outright fabrication, one form stands above all others: omission.

The greatest intellectual and journalistic crime committed by the legacy media has nothing to do with what they choose to cover, but everything to do with what they choose not to cover.

The most impactful ideological victories achieved by the Left in 2020 were all made possible by the legacy media’s strategy of omission.

Would Joe Biden have won the election if the legacy media had not coordinated with social media giants to suppress and silence the New York Post’s bombshell report that seemed to indicate corruption, or at the very least the willing use of the Biden name for financial gain? Days later, CNN called it “dubious,” the New York Times cited anonymous sources which undermined the story, and Washington Post fact checkers went to work on “explaining” the story. The Daily Beast also ran headlines like “Russian State Media Is Desperately Trying to Keep the Hunter Biden Story Alive” and “FBI Examining Hunter’s Laptop As Foreign Op, Contradicting Trump’s Intel Czar.”

While the story’s suppression serves as an example of denial, minimization and distortion, what should concern Americans most is that it was part of a broad decision by the legacy media to omit any mention of Hunter Biden until the election was complete. After November 3, there was no election to lose, so stories about Biden’s reportedly corrupt son were deemed “safe.”

Such deliberate omission was present throughout every notable and contentious event in 2020. The Chinese Communist Party’s culpability for the global COVID-19 pandemic was ignored or dismissed in favor of domestic stories, until Biden won. The rampant violence of Black Lives Matter protesters — endorsed in many cases by Democratic politicians — was ignored until literal flames in the background made it impossible to deny the obvious. The statements made by Kamala Harris about the man she would later endorse for president — namely that he was potentially guilty of sexual assault and had supported racist policies — were journalistically erased.

The list of ignored stories goes on and on, whether it be Trump’s once-in-a-generation foreign policy achievements as a result of the Abraham Accords, or the astonishing achievement of delivering multiple effective vaccines in record time — despite the legacy media denying this was possible just months prior — or that some election irregularities or suggestions of impropriety even existed.

No one is more demonstrative of this problem than CNN’s Chris Cuomo. Throughout 2020, he provided New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with a platform for overt propaganda. With the governor’s career trajectory taking a nosedive after the reality of his administration’s disastrous COVID-19 mandates and his alleged habit of sexually harassing his own staff finally allowed to come to light, Chris Cuomo’s interest in the biggest stories of the week seems suddenly muted.

While it’s crucial that we hold the media accountable for what they say, 2020 taught us that it’s even more important to hold them accountable for what they choose not to say.

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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