As an NPR article decrees, “You literally can’t believe the facts Tucker Carlson tells you. So say Fox’s lawyers.” 

The most watched cable news show, along with its bias and lies, present a problem: If conservatives can’t get their news from Tucker Carlson and Fox News itself (also broadly unreliable, where hosts even knew the 2020 election was legitimate and lied), where can they turn for good journalism and reliable reporting? Nowhere, it seems–and that’s a serious problem.

Bias in news media can be easily spotted within the events outlets choose to cover and by the columns they choose to publish. For example, Fox News’s heavy conservative bias is demonstrated by its front-page stories, which tend to highlight missteps by Democrats and neglect to highlight major events that may paint Democrats in a better light, like the Russo-Ukrainian war and its peace talks.

However, most major news outlets have a liberal bias. As a result, conservatives are left with the choice of using liberal outlets for relevant, important, and accurate news that doesn’t align with their politics or conservative media that is far less reliable. In fact, where liberals tend not to focus on one news source, conservatives overwhelmingly gravitate towards Fox News, and the next most popular major conservative news sources tend to be even further to the right.

Another issue presented by an ever-changing field of journalism and media is the brutal murder of local journalism, often reliable and more trusted by conservatives, and the rise of social media “journalism”, which often allows anyone with an account to share their version of a story–fake or otherwise. Journalism, especially local journalism, is essential to our democracy and protected by the first amendment. However, as the U.S. loses newspapers at a rate of two per week, misinformation runs rampant on platforms like Twitter.

Ultimately, a lack of reliable conservative news has actually led to a higher susceptibility to misinformation among conservatives, according to this 2021 study from Science.org .

So what is the solution? The obvious answer is to establish reliable conservative news alternatives and rekindle America’s desire for quality journalism. But that is a tall order and unlikely to happen for years, especially as America becomes increasingly polarized. 

One option is to look at sources like the Wall Street Journal, which is only trusted by 24% of Republicans but still maintains a center-right lean. There are also a number of news sources that claim to present only the facts of major news stories, theoretically taking bias entirely out of the equation. 

However, what journalism needs isn’t more unbiased media; it needs reliable journalism, regardless of bias.