The foremost imperative of a news outlet should be to tell the truth. At times, of course, this ideal conflicts with an individual reporter’s desire not to be accused of political favoritism. If the truth falls mostly on one side of the partisan divide, might this not suggest to a polarized audience that the person who reports it is not being objective? One handy solution is to indulge the reflex to “tell both sides of the story.” Yet in an environment rife with disinformation, this is the worst possible way to report on a factual matter, because it not only gives oxygen to a lie but might
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