May 31 – June 5, 2026
Sifting for Gold
Remember Walter Cronkite? He signed off every news broadcast with six words: “And that’s the way it is.” Millions believed him. That world is gone.
Today, news is everywhere. So is noise. Social media, mainstream outlets, YouTube channels, and podcasts… the volume is deafening. Much of what floods our screens is distorted, incomplete, or flat-out false. How do we find what’s true?
It’s easy to argue, “Ban the outlets we distrust! Listen only to voices that align with our values! Stick to the conservative channels if you lean right, the progressive ones if you lean left! Build a wall and stay inside it!”
That’s tempting, but it’s not discernment. It’s just a smaller echo chamber.
Every media company has an ideological inclination. So does virtually every story they tell. That is not automatically a problem. Commentary and perspective have always been part of journalism. The trouble starts when a reporter or outlet distorts the facts to serve an agenda, when what actually happened gets bent to fit a narrative that misrepresents a given story. That is a betrayal of the craft. And it happens on every side of the political spectrum.
The goal, then, is not to find a perfectly neutral source. There is no such thing. The goal is to sift. Like a prospector working a muddy riverbed, we need to push past the sediment to find the golden nuggets of truth – the verifiable, documented, honest-to-goodness facts beneath the spin.
Here’s how.
