MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki lamented the rise of popularity in Americans obtaining unfiltered news and opinion from online social media platforms without so-called fact checking. The horror!
During a recent interview on the Next Question with Katie Couric podcast, Psaki complained that Big Tech platforms are not required to censor allegedly inaccurate news content. “Local TV is held to a higher standard of accountability than social media platforms, in terms of having accurate information on their platforms. That is crazy,” she said, implying that Americans are unable to discern fact from fiction.
What is really crazy is Psaki suggesting Americans can't discern information for themselves. In response to the disturbing rhetoric that the MSNBC host spewed, MRC FreeSpeech America Director Michael Morris warned of the consequences of cracking down on speech on social media. “If social media deals with information the same way that legacy media does, the only information you’ll get will be from the left.”
Psaki lamented the rising popularity of social media platforms becoming news sources. “One of the things that has changed, even since I got involved in politics, is the rise of people who get their information off platforms that have no fact-checking mechanism and no accountability for having misinformation spread,” she said. Continuing Psaki added, “How does this change? How are people held to account? Laws need to change.”
Psaki’s suggestion that social media content must be fact-checked and censored shows her true attitude toward the American public, namely that Americans are too stupid to discern their own information and that platforms and the government should do it for them.
Coincidentally, Psaki’s observation of two different standards is correct. There are two separate standards for social media platforms and legacy news networks, and rightly so, as they are two completely different things. Social media provides individuals with a platform to express their Constitutionally protected free speech whereas news networks are to provide the public with useful and accurate information.
Psaki’s suggestion that it is the social media companies and not news outlets that are failing to meet high standards reveals how oblivious she is to Americans’ mistrust of the news media. A recent MRC NewsBusters report revealed that only 1 in 14 American citizens trust the claims made by the legacy media.
Jen Psaki says "laws need to change" because people are getting their news from social media instead of public TV pic.twitter.com/SNFAfw2d5B
— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) November 15, 2024
This mistrust seems to be totally justified. Another MRC Newsbusters report, covering the 2024 presidential campaign, showed how skewed ABC, CBS and NBC coverage truly are. The report exposed that an astounding 78% of the coverage of Kamala Harris was positive coverage while Donald Trump received only 15% positive coverage, a shocking disparity.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representative and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable
