Its rather sad how close we are to a 1984-esque "believe everything you hear on the 'news'" society. I hope one day we can move past that, and better realize that nearly all news is founded on Outrage designed to get advertisement views.

Here's your litmus test: If you read a news story and it invokes some emotional state within you, immediately preempt that and use your head. Is it possible they could be exaggerating, or straight up lying? What are their motivations and biases? Are there corroborating "ground" reports from individuals with different biases?