Kevin D. Williamson has a thought-provoking article at National Review Online about why liberal media outlets like Rolling Stone that accuse conservatives of spreading “disinformation” are so quick to trumpet transparently fake stories, from Jussie Smollett to the Ivermectin overdose hoax.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/like-a-rolling-stone/

They also give lots of attention to any dubious accusation against a Republican or a member of a class or group they don’t like, from fraternity members to Catholic school boys. Yet they ignore real offenses, such as rape and sexual abuse, if the accused is a Democrat or the victims aren’t in social classes they can relate to (poor urban blacks, say, instead of white college students), or the victims are in cities run by Democrats, so that reporting on the epidemic of that crime might reflect badly on their favored politicians.

Their “news coverage” isn’t about the facts, or what’s newsworthy. It’s about politics and social class and whether the story raises or lowers the status of their cultural enemies. For instance, the Ivermectin story made rural people (i.e., Trump voters who won’t take the COVID vaccine) sound like idiots, so they blasted it all over, and never mind that it was an easily-debunked hoax.

Another of many examples he cites: NPR will run countless stories on forgiving college loan debt, but nothing about school vouchers that would help poor, inner city blacks go to good schools and get out of poverty. And who works at NPR? Hint: it's not poor, inner city blacks.

A couple of quotes that will make you want to read more:

“These stories don’t get published because nobody knows how to prevent that from happening — these stories get published because nobody cares, because these stories serve the purposes of a particular narrow cultural agenda and flatter the prejudices of a particular narrow set of educated and generally affluent American professionals…A note to our progressive friends: This is your version of Q-Anon — falling for obvious, ridiculous lies because you want to believe the worst about people you hate.”