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00:00The media has always played a critical role in how the world understands international conflicts.
00:06When violence breaks out, the world turns to the news for information and for the truth.
00:12But what happens when the news is selective in which information it gives and which data it ignores?
00:18When outlets only rely on selective sources, facts can easily be construed into a narrative.
00:25We're seeing that now in the media's coverage of what's happening in Nigeria.
00:30Today's episode is going to feel a little bit different.
00:32I'm bringing in an outside perspective, Julie Mastrini, Director of Media Bias Ratings at All Sides.
00:38Now, if you're familiar with this show, then you know how often I reference this media watchdog group.
00:43I shared with them the patterns of bias I found in the coverage of Nigeria and how it fits into a bigger global problem.
00:50How media can distort the truth in times of conflict.
00:55This conversation is one I feel is really important.
00:57Not just for understanding this Nigeria story, but also for how we view media coverage of the war in Gaza, the Russia-Ukraine war, and any other conflict past or future.
01:09Welcome back to Bias Breakdown.
01:12Last week, we took you on the ground in Nigeria through the perspective of a Nigerian Christian journalist.
01:19Christians in Nigeria are living under a big cloud of terror.
01:25While the world widely acknowledges the horrific violence happening in Nigeria, where the world disagrees is why it's happening.
01:33Are Christians being targeted and killed because of their faith, or are terrorists indiscriminately killing anyone in their way of seizing mineral-rich territory?
01:43These are very serious claims.
01:45And you might think this should be easy to prove.
01:47Just show me the data.
01:49The data proves Christians are and are not disproportionately being killed.
01:55It all depends on the source of information and the news source that you turn to.
02:00Because we found left- and right-leaning media are citing completely different data sets, leaving their audiences with a distorted view of reality.
02:09Here are the patterns among partisan news outlets.
02:12The Associated Press, NBC News, The Washington Post, CNN, and ABC News.
02:18All of these news outlets, labeled by all sides and others as left-leaning, either cite or quote from just one source of Nigerian Christian death numbers.
02:29In their write-ups, they are citing the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
02:35This U.S.-based nonprofit reports this.
02:37Between January 2020 and September 2025, there were 20,409 deaths.
02:44317 of them were Christians who were targeted and killed because of their Christian identity.
02:51During that same time frame, 417 Muslims were targeted and killed because of their faith.
02:57All of the other deaths are deemed indiscriminate and not faith-based killings, according to the ACLED.
03:04This data would suggest Christians are not often targeted by terrorists.
03:09Now, here are the data patterns among news coverage deemed right-leaning.
03:13The New York Post, Fox News, The Daily Wire, Blaze Media, and The Federalist.
03:18These news outlets all cite other sources.
03:21The Nigerian-based nonprofit, InterSociety, and a Christian nonprofit, Open Doors.
03:27Open Doors' most recent data shows 3,100 Christians in Nigeria were targeted and killed between October 2023 and September 2024.
03:37A recent InterSociety report shows from January to July, the first seven months of this year,
03:44more than 7,000 Nigerians were killed for being Christians.
03:49These figures would suggest Christians are being targeted over their religious beliefs.
03:55The sort of clear pattern and divide in what sources news outlets selectively picked for their audience
04:01fits several forms of media bias.
04:03It's media slant and bias by omission of information.
04:08And this is where we bring Julie Mastrini from all sides into the conversation.
04:12Because the media watchdog group helps define and identify these types of media bias.
04:18This is a really good example of slant because you have the news media choosing to present information from one source and not another.
04:27Instead of giving you both and saying, you know, there's some disagreement over the numbers here.
04:31Here's what these two sources are saying and letting you decide.
04:34And when these news outlets choose just one data set over others, even though multiple sources are easily found
04:41with a quick Google search on Christian deaths in Nigeria, this reveals a clear bias by omission.
04:48The bias by omission serves the purpose to slant the story.
04:51So we often see them kind of holding hands in news coverage.
04:55So bias by omission is exactly what it sounds like.
04:58It's when information is omitted to slant the stories.
05:02In this case, we have bias by omission of different data.
05:07So the reader can't get the full story, is probably not going to understand that there's some dispute over the actual numbers
05:13if they only read news on one side of the political spectrum.
05:17While news outlets on the left and right side were selective over their data sets,
05:23news outlets rated as being center did offer multiple data sets that are critical to the heart of the issue over Nigeria violence.
05:31The Hill, News Nation, Newsweek, and in our own coverage from last week.
05:37These outlets all cited more than just one data group.
05:41And some even cited more than just the groups we've talked about so far.
05:45Some center write-ups also cite numbers from a Dutch-based non-profit,
05:50the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.
05:53The group reports 36,000 civilian deaths between 2019 and 2024.
05:59It says 2.4 Christians were killed for every Muslim during this period,
06:05a rate more than five times higher than Muslims when population size is factored in.
06:11This data subset would suggest Christians are disproportionately dying in terror attacks.
06:18The common theme for center news outlets was citing more than just one data source.
06:23By doing so, these news outlets offered a more balanced approach to telling the story.
06:28It's very important for media outlets to give the full story,
06:33especially if there's conflict within that story.
06:36If there's conflict about the facts, if there are different sources providing different facts,
06:41it is most noble for a journalist to provide all that information.
06:46Because the goal of the journalist should really be not to slant your perception
06:50towards the conclusion that they want you to reach,
06:53but to provide you with all the information so that you can decide for yourself.
06:57News outlets on the left and right also weaved their selective data talking points
07:02in a way to fit a left and right narrative.
07:05The New York Times wrote,
07:07there is no clear evidence to show that Christians are attacked more frequently
07:11than any other religious group in Nigeria,
07:14citing unnamed analysts and not providing the data that would show Christians
07:18are attacked more frequently.
07:20So for the journalist to come out and say there's no evidence or this is baseless,
07:24somebody else could just as clearly say, but there is evidence.
07:27See, look at this data set, right?
07:28While Fox News also inserted its own takeaway,
07:32stating as a matter of fact that the situation for Christians in Nigeria
07:36is reaching an alarming level.
07:38Fox News is doing the opposite of the New York Times and coming right out and saying,
07:42this is alarming.
07:42I'm going to interpret the data for you.
07:44I'm going to interpret what's going on for you and present you with a subjective opinion.
07:50And that is also straying from neutral journalism.
07:52So both of these sides are just doing the same things,
07:56landing the story in different directions.
07:58Something I think we do well here is identifying bias in the media
08:02and breaking down why a story is biased.
08:05What I want to get better at is helping viewers understand
08:08why left and right leaning outlets frame stories the way they do.
08:12This part of the story is more of a political analysis.
08:16We're bringing in all sides to help explain how the political left and right
08:21see an issue differently and how those different perspectives
08:24may shape the way left and right media cover a story.
08:29This is about interpreting the bias patterns and the media divide over Nigeria violence.
08:35And using their expertise in political narratives,
08:38All Sides offers one interpretation of why this media discourse over the issue exists.
08:46I said it before, the atrocities and horrific nature of these killings is not disputed.
08:52The difference is one side sees this as a serious systemic persecution of Christians
08:57and the other sees it as indiscriminate killings.
09:01There's a very clear difference in the media coverage here with one side
09:06seeming to play up that there are a lot of Christian deaths
09:09and the other side sort of trying to throw cold water on that claim.
09:13So the reason for that is ideological and religious differences in the West.
09:17So progressive leaning audiences in the West feel less identification with global Christianity.
09:23They tend to not be Christians and they see it as culturally dominant rather than vulnerable.
09:28Whereas Christian conservatives in the West see Christianity as vulnerable domestically and globally.
09:33Left-leaning journalists see Muslims as a marginalized or misunderstood group
09:37that doesn't hold entrenched power.
09:40So they might unconsciously or consciously downplay what they see as an Islamophobic narrative.
09:46So a story framed as Muslims are killing Christians
09:49risks in their mind reinforcing Western Christian dominance,
09:52even if the facts are accurate.
09:55And then on the other hand, the conservative media is more Christian sympathetic.
09:58It probably even contains Christians.
10:02Same with the Trump administration.
10:04So they're more willing to highlight Christian persecution.
10:07They are concerned about Christianity's decline in the West or the threat of Islamic dominance
10:11globally or domestically.
10:13So they would be more willing to select data sets that would reinforce that concern.
10:19While this is one of the more recent examples of media malfeasance
10:22when it comes to presenting the full picture of data to its audience,
10:28this is far from the first time we've seen this.
10:30We saw the same death toll discrepancy in the war on Gaza.
10:34Nearly a year into the Israel-Hamas conflict, some revisions in the count made headlines.
10:40All sides wrote the United Nations recently updated how it shows data on the Palestinian death toll in Gaza,
10:47making some figures appear to decrease by nearly half.
10:50Days later, Israel released its first estimate of the death toll in Gaza as 16,000,
10:56which is more than 50 percent lower than the toll kept by the Hamas-administered Ministry of Health in Gaza.
11:03Media on the left tend to accept the numbers from the UN and Ministry of Health
11:08and in some cases criticize them as possibly underestimating the true toll.
11:14Meanwhile, outlets on the right tend to suggest that Hamas may be intentionally inflating the death toll.
11:20We see conflicting death tolls with international conflict all the time, and it makes total sense, right?
11:27The entities that are meant to collect data, they themselves might have loyalties to one side or another.
11:34We would hope that they'd be neutral, but that might not be the case.
11:37Some of these are, you know, government entities that might have entrenched interests.
11:42It's a similar story in the Russia-Ukraine war.
11:45About a year and a half into that conflict, all sides wrote,
11:48there are no universally agreed-upon statistics for casualties on either side,
11:53as both the Kremlin and Ukrainian government have been tight-lipped about reporting casualties of their own soldiers.
12:00While these are of our most recent wars, difficulties in covering death toll data, it's nothing new.
12:05A war studies researcher told the outlet Al Jazeera during World War II,
12:11each side under-reported their casualties by half and exaggerated enemy casualties by two to three times.
12:18And the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where estimates would later show 800,000 to one million Tutsis
12:25were killed over their ethnicity in a span of about 100 days.
12:30An International Press Institute piece reported early published death counts were gross underestimates.
12:36On April 16th, The Guardian still reported only an estimated 20,000 deaths.
12:42Two days later, The New York Times repeated the same statistic,
12:46underestimating the actual carnage at that point by about tenfold.
12:51Data is hard to verify, especially coming from conflict zones where news outlets have little to no presence.
12:57When death count and data reports conflict, like the numbers from Nigeria,
13:02the media should just be transparent about that.
13:06Journalists are always going to have to be overcoming their own bias
13:09and being truthful and honest about differences.
13:13Instead of just avoiding or ignoring conflicting data or sources that they don't agree with,
13:21the journalist's role is to kind of overcome their own bias,
13:24to be honest about differences, and to present both to the reader.
13:28And when the media fails to do so, readers should recognize it as bias.
13:33This is not new. It's unfortunate, but it's really just another way that bias and loyalties
13:41and different perspectives are shown in the media.
13:44And it's really on the reader to always be approaching things with a critical eye.
13:48And that's your bias breakdown.
13:51This is different than any of our other previous episodes,
13:54and I hope you were able to get a really good understanding of the subject matter.
13:58I'm really happy with this collaboration that we did with All Sides,
14:01and I really hope that you have the same takeaway,
14:04that it was refreshing to just hear some truth and maybe even a little educational
14:09as we expose some of the left-right media bias.
14:12A big thank you to Julie at All Sides.
14:15She was so great to work with.
14:16Remember to find past episodes of Bias Breakdown.
14:20All you got to do is search for us on any of your favorite podcast platforms,
14:23and be sure to find us over on YouTube,
14:26where I can join in on the conversation with you in the comment section of our posted episode.
14:31I read through last week's comments, but I forgot to go back and respond to you,
14:35so forgive me on that one.
14:36This week, I will for sure be seeking out your comments and feedback.
14:40Say hi, and let me know what you think of this sort of format.
14:43It is definitely time for me to go ahead and wrap up now,
14:46but I just want to say one thing.
14:48I went down a rabbit hole researching this Rwanda genocide.
14:52It is a very interesting part of world history,
14:55especially reading about how the U.S. government later apologized for not intervening sooner,
15:00and how using the term genocide was so widely debated for so long.
15:05So I highly recommend researching that topic if you're looking for something historic to learn more about.
15:10Okay, it's time to go.
15:12A big thank you to Ian and Allie for the edits and huge graphics lift this week.
15:17Thanks again to Julie for her time and perspective on this story.
15:20Of course, thank you for watching, and I will see you next time.
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