To pick a random example Injust noticed the other day: how often has the New York Times parroted the Democratic talking point that “Medicare is prohibited by law from negotiating drug prices.” It’s a point that is not only misleading but completely non-sensical. (Medicare doesn’t directly provide prescription drug coverage. Prescription drug coverage is offered by private supplemental plans under Part D, which do negotiate drug prices.) I’m constantly running into stuff like that, where journalists unthinkingly repeat talking points that turn out to be misleading upon deeper inspection.

To use another example, the Washington Post recently had to issue a correction in an article that falsely claimed that education spending in the US has decreased over the last several decades.

Perhaps worse still is the narrative and lack of context. How often did the New York Times mention that Trump’s corporate tax cut would bring us in line with countries like Sweden, France, Canada, and Germany? How often do articles about Warren’s wealth tax proposal mention that Sweden and France recently abandoned theirs? How often do they mention that the biggest difference between taxes in the US and in Europe are not lower taxes on the rich, but vastly lower taxes on the middle class? Does New York Times coverage of education ever mention that school choice, including public funding of religious schools, is common in Europe? Does it ever mention that we spend more than almost any other OECD country per capita on K-12 education? Does it ever mention that abortion is legal to 22 weeks in Georgia but only 14 weeks in France and 12 in Germany? Did the New York Times ever put Trump’s “anti-Muslim rhetoric” in context by pointing out that Islamic head coverings are illegal in many European countries? (By contrast, when the international context advances its political agenda, the Times happily provides it. How often does the Times invoke the fact that developed European countries all have universal healthcare coverage, or stronger gun control? Apparently, the views of people on the other side of the pond are highly relevant in deciding what kind of health care system to have, but not in deciding what kind of tax system we should have to pay for it.)