Navigating the news maze from Washington DC

 

 I have been in Washington, DC, tracking the news and US President Donald Trump’s rants on social media.

But you don’t need to be in America to feel the ripples whenever Trump threatens countries with his erratic tariffs. We feel it in our hip pockets, on the supermarket shelves, petrol pumps, and the stock market.

Following the coverage of the US-Israel war with Iran and a tenuous ceasefire until April 22 is like navigating a maze of claims and counterclaims.

Each news source spins a certain narrative. Each media leak blurs the line between truth and falsehood. What is pledged in public is different from what is said in private.

The relationship between Trump and the American media points to a journalistic dilemma. Report Trump’s vitriol and journalists risk enabling it. Challenge his belligerence, and journalists are dismissed as “fake media”.

The tension between a nascent autocracy and American media independence is as strained as the friction between Trump’s conservative base and the liberal left. Malaysian readers will recognise this dynamic - the perceived credibility gap between our traditional print media and “reformasi” news outlets.

With ready access to sources anywhere, American media generally “report” beyond what is happening, blending video, audio, and text in their explainer long-form journalism. For instance, the Washington Post, the New York Times, NBC News, and National Public Radio (NPR).

Scepticism in an information flood

To better understand the global economic uncertainties under Trump’s “America First” administration, Malaysians need to read the US hypermedia like reading a novella.

This means paying more attention to the text and context, the tone and subtext, and the varied voices from different actors in the stories, each with their own motive and power position.

This also means reading the news with greater scepticism. What you read on your screen is just part of a developing narrative that may change in hours depending on which sources and opinion polls are cited in the story.

Put simply, American media do not reflect the national mood. News outlets and their political leanings are as wide-ranging as the 50 states are in their party affiliations, economic disparities, prejudices, indifference, and ignorance of events outside the US.

This means the ‘truth’ often lies in the tension among different media narratives.

The Internet is saturated with “experts” on the impasse in the Middle East conflict. Who and what to believe?

Conspiracies and informed analyses often blur into a narrative that is stripped of context. They are set to persuade and provoke. So it is important that Malaysian readers actively read beyond what’s on the screen.

The deluge of information is wearing us out. “News” comes to us via our algorithm-driven news feeds.

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In tracking the Middle East conflict, we need to actively seek out news to get a “balanced” picture of what is happening in countries we have neither visited nor experienced personally.

So, depending on our political leanings, we defer to sources that are American, Israeli, Iranian, Palestinian, or from independent observers with vague affiliations. Hence the paradox: the more “informed” we are, the less we know of realities on the ground.

How to separate fact from spin

Drawing from my experience as a former journalist, here’s how I figure out what’s true, plausible, or fake.

First, I’d ask who is saying what to whom, and why? How are they saying it? Journalists may not intend to mislead. But sources sometimes do. Under tight deadlines, even seasoned journalists rely on accessible sources who subtly frame the narrative.

For Malaysian readers, this means learning to recognise when the news is filtered through geopolitical interests and ideologies.

Here’s where fact-checking websites, such as independent investigative platforms like Bellingcat and FactCheck.org are useful sources for evidence-based analyses. For Malaysian issues, there are the less extensive MyCheck and JomCheck besides the government-run Sebenarnya.my.

Second, I would question the factual and contextual accuracy of the stories. This is often missing in conflict reporting, where history is compressed into digestible information capsules. For instance, in the American-Israeli retaliatory war with Iran, and the continual Israeli bombing of Gaza and Lebanon.

Third, I would cross-check the numbers. Statistics in conflict reporting are rarely neutral. Who produced them? How were they gathered? Can they be independently verified?

Casualty figures, economic losses, and even claims of “victory” or “retaliation” often serve strategic narratives. “Victory” and “self-defence” are read differently by Iran, the US, and Israel.

Fourth, I would resist a passive reading of the news. The fact is that falsehoods spread faster and further than truth, especially when unverified clips are shared uncritically.

Research suggests that misleading reports tend to be lighter on verifiable details: “Compared with real news, false articles tended to be shorter and more repetitive with more adverbs. Fake stories also had fewer quotes, technical words, and nouns.”

Finally, I would diversify my sources. Solely relying on left-leaning media only affirms what I already believe. The consequence? It isolates me from what the other side thinks. I would actively seek out outlets that make me question my assumptions.

The above tips on how to read the news are basic. But it’s a start. For Malaysian readers, the task is not just to follow the dribs and drabs of updates from the West. It is to understand how news is mediated, and how power, technology and media narratives intersect.

Reading the news from different media outlets with a more sceptical and critical mindset will pave a clearer path through the information conundrum. The truth often lies somewhere in the tension between opposing media narratives. - Mkini

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ERIC LOO is a former journalist and educator in Australia and a journalism trainer in parts of Asia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.