False Equivalency For Celebrated News Outlets Is A Major Threat To Democracy
Originally seen in the NY Times
Recently, while I was perusing Newsweek, I came across an opinion piece published in January 2024 by U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) titled, “Joe Biden is the Real Threat to Democracy.” Throughout the article, the Senator critiqued President Joe Biden and his policies, arguing that they have harmed the national security interests of the nation. The Senator’s article, however, was a propagation of several factual inaccuracies and blatant falsehoods.
In the past, Senator Marshall endorsed former President Trump in his current election bid and was one of six U.S. Senators who objected to the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021. In his Newsweek opinion, Marshall begins with a series of hyperbolic claims, such as that there is “lawlessness in our streets,” and repeats the trope that President Biden, during his 2020 campaign, hid out in his “basement”– a Fox News refrain during the pandemic, meant to weaken and denigrate his candidacy, despite his vigorous, masked public appearances.
Continuing his argument that the President is a threat to democracy, in the third paragraph of the article, Senator Marshall alleged that “it was none other than President Biden who directed his Justice Department to indict his political opponent.” Marshall continued: “The New York Times made [clear in their reporting] that Joe Biden had told his ‘inner circle’ that Trump ‘should be prosecuted’ and that Attorney General Merrick Garland needs to ‘take decisive action.” After reading this false statement, I found the actual New York Times piece in question from April 2022. The New York Times reported that President Biden told his inner circle that he believes former President Trump should be indicted over his actions during the January 6 insurrection. However, the New York Times writers explicitly state that “the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland.”
Ironically, Senator Marshall has endorsed President Trump, who at a 2023 rally, stated that he would be able to weaponize the Justice Department to indict political opponents, the very claim that Marshall makes against President Biden.
The lie that President Biden interfered with Justice Department operations and the Attorney General’s office was disproven in August 2023 by Newsweek itself, the very same outlet that published Senator Marshall’s op-ed.
In the August article, The Newsweek reporters discussed the multiple steps that take place before an indictment is handed down. Their article explains the role of a special counsel. In this case, the article refers to attorney Jack Smith, who is tasked with investigating former President Trump over the January 6th insurrection and his mishandling of sensitive documents. Newsweek illustrates how a special counsel works independently from the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, and the White House. Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton told Newsweek in an interview that, “a president may not direct specific cases, investigations or prosecutions.” The Newsweek article, published in August 2023, also states that “the indictment was issued by a grand jury, which is made up of an impartial body of citizens.” The presence of the grand jury adds another layer of checks and balances to ensure that there is no political manipulation and interference with legal investigations.
Although Senator Marshall’s Newsweek opinion can be quickly disproven by reliable sources, its presence on this platform raises troubling questions as to why a celebrated and reputable news organization would publish an article with lies that have been debunked by other news organizations, including their own. At base, the problem stems from a larger issue than Newsweek alone. For the last decade, publishers have grappled with the problem of bias, and being labeled as too liberal. In response, a growing problem has arisen in which publishers, as evidenced by this piece, allow “contrary” viewpoints to go unchecked, even when they perpetuate falsehoods on a large platform.
PBS has examined the “both sides” and “false equivalence” logical fallacies. In a February 2020 piece by Marcia Aspersion, she states that fairness is “listening to different perspectives and opinions” which have “no right or wrong answer.” On the other hand, fairness to both sides does not mean publishing false information. In this instance, Senator Marshall has legitimate differences of opinion with President Biden’s immigration policy at the Southern border and its effect on the security of the United States in his Newsweek editorial. However, as the PBS article references the former U.S. Senator Pat Moynihan’s famous adage: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
In the case of the Newsweek article, Senator Marshall may believe that President Biden’s policies have threatened American democracy, but he cannot spread lies to support his argument.
The Atlantic has also examined how some news organizations can utilize false equivalency in their pursuit to appear non-partisan. Some news organizations fall prey to “both sides” and “false equivalence” in response to appearing liberal. Contributing Atlantic writer James Fallows writes in this Atlantic piece: “The instinct toward structural balance is so powerful in the press–and because several institutions, notably NPR and The New York Times, seem so hyper-aware of the criticism they receive for having a ‘liberal bias’ — much of the press presented things that were not similar as if they were.”
Fallows goes on to provide other examples in which news organizations “balanced” two topics to appear “non-partisan.”
The New York Times succinctly describes the problem of false balance. In a 2016 article, Liz Spayd writes: “False balance, sometimes called ‘false equivalency,’ refers disparagingly to the practice of journalists who, in their zeal to be fair, present each side of a debate as equally credible, even when the factual evidence is stacked heavily on one side.” In everyday language, this means that if a reporter walks outside and it’s sunny, he or she doesn’t have to go find someone who says it is raining. Similarly, a healthcare conference doesn't have an ethical duty to present false information about vaccines in the name of “fairness.” When applying this maxim to the Newsweek opinion by Senator Marshall, it is clear that Newsweek sadly published this article to appear non-partisan, even though the article was factually wrong and spread lies, debunked the previous year by their own well-regarded reporters. It’s crucial to remember that the first and foremost job of the news is to report the facts, even if they support one side of the political spectrum.
The motto of the Washington Post is “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” which encapsulates how the free press is critical to the preservation of liberal democracy. However, democracy can also die when reliable and trustworthy news organizations spread false information to appear politically impartial and “fair” to “both sides.” Unfortunately, Senator Marshall: there aren’t both sides to facts. When considering the importance of truth in journalism, it is pivotal to heed Ambassador Andrew Young’s words, “There can be no democracy without truth.”
Wilson Urist is a freshman in High School in Lower Manhattan. He became a Next Gen Civic Fellow this past September and he is passionate about democracy renovation and foreign policy.