People Need to Verify News Using Multiple Sources and Sift out Facts From Opinions: Newsmax Host Stinchfield

Grant Stinchfield- Going On the Narrative Offense by Exposing Communism | Crossroads (The Epoch Times)

People need to acquire skills on how to find news sources they can trust and verify what they read by checking multiple sources or websites, as well as train themselves to be able to separate the facts from opinions, said Grant Stinchfield, host of “Stinchfield” on Newsmax.

He did not discourage people from reading or viewing the mainstream media like CNN or Washington Post but advised them to also read conservative publications and “start to figure out where the facts are.”

“Start to use reason .... If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Stinchfield said in a recent interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.

Stinchfield warned that there are hucksters on the conservative side too, who take advantage of people’s conservative views like their support for former President Donald Trump and say for example that Trump somehow is going to be swept into office.

“People just need to use reason, common sense” when reading news, the newsman said.

Viewers and readers are usually not trained in news and use it just to gather information, Stinchfield continued. He advised them to start learning how to sift out facts from opinions on their own. “You do it by going to a lot of different sources.”

The host said he'd like to say everything on his show is factual and that he checked out the facts, but there are also a lot of opinions in his program, so he tells the audience that he is an opinionator. “I don’t hide the fact that I’m an opinionator. I tell people I’m an opinionator.”

However when it comes to mainstream media, “I think they want you to believe he’s [Anderson Cooper] an anchorman giving you the news, but sure, as heck, sounds to me, like he’s an opinionator. That’s dangerous for people,“ Stinchfield said referring to CNN not saying that Cooper is an opinionator, but he sounds like one.

“Reporters are human too, as much as it’s hard to believe sometimes, their bias affects their judgment when they cover stories.”

Fact vs. Opinion

Young reporters have been trained for over two decades to push a liberal way of thinking and this is why they now push a liberal mentality, Stinchfield explained.

However, when Stinchfield covered the origin of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, he found that “after testing thousands of animals, there’s still no evidence of an animal having this,” although mainstream media pushed the natural origin theory.

“That’s not opinion. That’s a fact. Let viewers draw their own conclusion from that,“ explained Stinchfield, a four-time Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter.

There is a lot of evidence indicating that the CCP virus could have originated in the lab, he said, adding that “these are all facts, conclude what you want from it.”

All these facts, when added up, led Stinchfield to a conclusion that the virus originated from the lab. “Do I have absolute proof that it came from the lab, yet? No. But I’ve got a lot of evidence leading me to believe that it came from there.”

A January State Department fact sheet raised questions about whether the outbreak could have been the result of a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). It said the United States has “reason to believe” that several WIV researchers became sick with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses in autumn 2019. The department also said the lab had been conducting secret military experiments on animals since at least 2017, and that it has a history of conducting research on modifying viruses to have new or enhanced capabilities.

Media pushed the theory of the natural origin of the CCP virus based on two influential articles published in early 2020 by scientists who were part of a response team of “experts” brought in by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), in response to a request from a White House official.

The articles were used extensively by media to promote the natural origin of the virus while simultaneously deriding alternative theories—including that of a possible lab leak—as conspiracy theories.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House in Washington on Sept.16, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

In dealing with liberal media, Trump taught Republicans that they can go after the media and can criticize them, Stinchfield said. “President Trump was simple, in one fact. He said what he meant, and he wasn’t afraid to say it.”

Republicans were often afraid to say things worrying about what mainstream media such as the Washington Post would write or say about them, Stinchfield said, advising conservatives to stop caring about it. “Be firm, be bold, and we need more people like that.”

Jeff Carlson, Hans Mahncke, and Cathy He contributed to this report.