Where you get your news matters. Even where you get your information on media bias matters. But the fact that we have to have this conversation at all is all that matters. Left disputes right, right disputes left, and in the middle are the American citizenry just trying to determine what actually is happening in our country. 

For more than three years the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and a litany of other left leaning media outlets told us that President Trump (then candidate Trump) was colluding with Russia to steal the election. Of course, these reports only really started to surface after President Trump had been elected. These claims were overwhelmingly disputed by the Mueller report. Meanwhile, Fox News and a litany of other right leaning outlets told us that President Trump, his campaign, and his administration had been spied on by the prior administration. These allegations have been confirmed through the revelation of FISA warrants.

Meanwhile, sites like Ad Fontes Media rate the credibility of the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC higher than that of Fox News. When you review the Ad Fontes Media rating chart, you can't help but notice that the most well known left leaning media is rated, "Most Reliable," or, "Reliable for News," while the majority of right leaning media is rated, "Reliable for News," or, "Some Reliability Issues." This is in light of three years of those same left leaning news outlets getting the story on Russia collusion wrong. Some of these outlets continue to allege, without evidence, that President Trump is a, "Russian puppet," or a, "Russian agent."

All Sides News provides another media bias chart, one that tends more toward accuracy than Ad Fontes Media, though Ad Fontes Media seems to be the only chart that ends up trending on Facebook. All Sides News provides articles from online news sites and has a panel of liberals, independents, and conservatives rate the bias inherent to those articles. The only down side of All Sides News is that they only rate online content and ignore televised or print media.

Media has been engulfed in the click for pay e-commerce society in which we find ourselves today. Left and right leaning sites purposefully contort headlines to fit the political agenda of their target audience, to generate clicks, which drives revenue. An interesting exercise, one that I routinely conduct, is to visit All Sides News and just look at the headlines for the same set of facts from the Left, Center, and Right.

FROM THE CENTER

"Researchers Say Protests Didn't Increase Covid-19 Spread—But Republicans Are Still Blaming Them" - FORBES

FROM THE LEFT

"Black Lives Matter protests may have slowed overall spread of coronavirus in Denver and other cities, new study finds" - COLORADO SUN

FROM THE RIGHT

"Anti-police demonstrations may have sparked new coronavirus cases, some cities now acknowledge" - FOX NEWS ONLINE

So what actually happened? Did protests increase COVID-19 cases or not? Did protests actually slow the spread, and if so, how is that possible? Are the requirements to be shut down unnecessary if we can gather 20,000 strong in the streets shoulder to shoulder and slow the spread?

At 1776 Analysis, we do not pretend to be news. All of our articles are published long after the news cycle has had their takes published. When you come to 1776 Analysis you know two things have factored into our articles. First, we are taking the time necessary to review, understand, and analyze the data before providing input. Second, we are not trying to make the data fit a narrative. We are trying to strip the spin, bias, and narrative from the, "news," to provide our readers with the ground truth as analyzed through the lens of the founding, when possible.