Where’s the Virtue of Truth in the Truth-Telling Industry?
When the Syrian government fell last year, a CNN reporter was filmed “rescuing”a man from prison, only to learn later that he wasn’t an inmate at all. “Adel Ghurbal” was not an enemy of the state but Salama Mohammad Salama, one of the regime’s intelligence officers. This embarrassing episode for “the most trusted name in news” is not a once-off problem. In fact, the entire news establishment has all but lost the faith of its consumers.
Getting the news once meant subscribing to a newspaper, listening to the radio, or flipping to one of three TV networks. By the 1990s, 24-hour cable news ushered in a new era of news consumption. The need to turn viewers into consumers and keep them tuned in had a predictable effect on the whole process. As Denzel Washington once said, (sounding very much like Neil Postman and John Sommerville) “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed.” He went on to note that one of the long-term effects of “too much information” was that the media now had “a need to be first, not even to be true.”
Now, social media platforms deliver salacious outrage and constant “breaking news” even faster, but they are also forced to deal with algorithms and an unprecedented level of competition. The more emotion a post can manufacture, the more interactions. This has created a feedback loop where crazier ideas get platformed, more nuanced approaches are sidelined, and everyone can be an expert.
Even more important has been the postmodern “mood” permeating both popular and academic culture. Generations of students have been taught that truth and ethics depend on where people fit on an intersectional hierarchy. The “no one really has the truth” mantra has permeated pop culture for years. If facts are imaginary and morality is determined by perspective, then society shouldn’t be surprised when, for many, it simply doesn’t matter whether what is said is true.
The same ideas have spilled into public policy. When the world shut down five years ago due to Covid, news outlets and social media platforms shut down debate. Questions about Covid policy, origins, or cures were silenced instead of answered. When only the party line is allowed, abuse of power is essentially inevitable, as is the cynicism that results.
This was evident when former President Biden’s mental and verbal lapses became harder to ignore, yet that’s exactly what many in the media did. Only after his disastrous debate performance did CNN admit that reporters failed to tell the truth. Later, The Wall Street Journal fully chronicled how the White House attempted to hide the President’s decline.
Any time information is suppressed, the claim seems to be that it’s done for the good of the people. Ironically, this hubris only further deteriorates public trust and makes conspiracy theories more attractive. When people are treated like, as C.S. Lewis once put it, “infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals,” society is robbed of two essential elements: people committed to seeking and speaking the truth and collective trust. A healthy society needs both, and that’s why journalism is a public good. But only if it is trustworthy.
Trust matters because truth matters, and vice-versa. Insisting on both is a way Christians can love God and their neighbors.
Photo Courtesy: ©GettyImages/Tero Vesalainen
Published Date: February 13, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
