The demise of mainstream media—and its replacement with social media, YouTube videos, email, and endless podcasts—is in large part a self-inflicted demise. Translation: they deserved it.

Take as an example that horrible stabbing murder of a Ukrainian refugee by a man who repeatedly had been released from jail by a liberal court system.

Hardly any mainstream liberal outlets carried it, or did so belatedly. We have suffered through decades of this.

Facts must be faced, and one fact is that the “mainstream” or “legacy” media were and are blatantly biased. They present facts, yes, but do so with a spin that is almost always liberal (and often unchristian).

In recent years such bias has been called “fake news” when technically it usually isn’t “fake” news, but rather, as stated, biased. Let’s be accurate.

Twisted? Yes, on occasion.

Unfortunately and ironically, the channels of information that have largely replaced the mainstream media, especially podcasts and blogs, are often filled with “facts” that are highly questionable, and, yes, actually fabricated reports. Contrived facts are replacing biased ones. Neither serve the common good.

Algorithms often prioritize content that drives engagement (as opposed to accuracy), allowing sensational or polarizing posts to overshadow factual information. The evolution of media into now thousands of vehicles, many of them spewing unproven or directly inaccurate facts, has caused major segments of society, especially among us conservatives, to be isolated in bubbles of misinformation.

What was once rumor and private chatter or far-flung conspiratorial theory is now put out there as established fact—in some cases by podcasters and amateur journalists with millions of “followers.”

If one is going to indulge in the news, one should look at it from various sources, not a single chatroom.

Take the Jeffrey Epstein case: his story was told in such an incomplete fashion by podcasters and the new “media” that many did not know his interactions went beyond just liberals and Democrats.

Now, there is shock and outrage at what has come or is coming to the surface.

Facts?

One major podcaster has lost more than $1.3 billion in lawsuits lodged by the parents of children killed at Sandy Hook, Connecticut, after saying this tragedy was a “hoax.” He similarly and also successfully was sued by parents of those killed at the school in Parkland, Florida. Recently a young person in a social media forum complained, “My parents will confidently share ‘facts’ they heard some random podcast or read in a Facebook post, then get genuinely upset when I question the information. I’ve watched my dad repeat conspiracy theories he saw on YouTube as if they were confirmed by multiple journalists. My mom will share articles from websites I’ve never heard of, insisting they’re more trustworthy than ‘mainstream media.'”

In addition, we must be careful now about “deepfakes”: the new A.I. capability to create entirely bogus videos or pictures that look just like the real thing or person.

It’s to the point that the Vatican has created a video where one can check actual videos of the Pope to make certain they’re real! Many YouTube videos (including near-death experiences and health clips) are A.I. generated.

Fictive.

Has the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Truth—ever been needed more by all sides in whatever debate?

One simple thing for all sides to always remember: the Bible says “the truth will set you free,” not “the truth is what you want the truth to be.”