Safe streets, accountable government and honest statistics deserve debate on their merits. My carousel examines political labelling, news trust and platform moderation, and argues for evidence before accusations.
By Doggy. Adapted from my original Instagram post.
A label is not a substitute for an argument
My view is that people should be able to question a policy without first defending their character. That does not make every criticism of the right unfair, or every disputed claim true. The useful response is to identify the claim, examine its evidence and explain the disagreement.
What the research can tell us
Pew’s 2022 research examined journalists’ perceptions of their organisations’ audiences and attitudes to covering different sides. Audience descriptions are not a direct measure of journalists’ own political beliefs, and an audience imbalance alone cannot establish bias in a particular report.
Research using the EU Digital Services Act Transparency Database found very large differences between platforms’ reported moderation decisions per user, including a comparison of TikTok with X. It measured reporting and moderation activity, not a demonstrated ideological suppression rate. Differences in categories, platform design and reporting practices matter.
The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that 15% of politically right-leaning Americans trusted news overall. That is a survey finding about trust, not proof of why respondents distrusted the news or whether any specific story was accurate.
My argument
I want difficult questions answered with sources, methods and counter-evidence. A political label may sometimes describe an ideology accurately, but it should not do the work of proving or disproving a factual claim. The original carousel below expresses that position; the research notes here keep its statistics in context.
Sources and further reading
- Pew Research Center: journalists, audiences and covering different sides
- Research paper: Content Moderation on Social Media in the EU
- Reuters Institute: 2026 Digital News Report, overview and findings
The original carousel
The remaining slides preserve my original presentation. The article above provides the definitions, source context and limitations.
Explore more
More media reports · About my research
I research and create these posts myself. Support my work on Buy Me a Coffee, or send a correction or source suggestion.