Where Could Mainstream Media Outlets Have Done Better in 2025?

As 2025 comes to a close, some outlets have remarked on where mainstream media outlets could have done better this year.

From the Left: Aaron Blake of CNN Opinion (Left bias) analyzed what he believes are "the five most undersold political stories" this year. Reflecting on the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) cost-cutting efforts, he said, "It's becoming clearer that the effort cut almost no spending" and yielded negative consequences, such as "the loss of expertise in government" and "hundreds of thousands of deaths" worldwide, as reported on by ProPublica (Lean Left) and The New Yorker (Left). Blake also described 2025 as "the year the GOP got back in touch with its inner neoconservative," citing Trump's rhetoric on Canada, Greenland, and Panama, and actions against Venezuela and Iran as proof.

From the Right: Brittany Bernstein of National Review's Forgotten Fact Checks (Right) compiled a year-end list of the "worst media misses" she observed this year. Bernstein summarized a series of missteps by BBC (Center) that included rescinding a documentary which accidentally profiled the son of a Hamas member, regret it expressed for broadcasting Bob Vylan's Glastonbury set, and the lawsuit it currently faces for deceptively editing a 2021 speech of President Trump's. Bernstein also criticized "the media" for "on numerous occasions… uncritically" publishing "stories on immigration enforcement that fit their desired narrative that ICE is evil and Trump is 'disappearing' people." She added, "And the reporting seemed to work: a Fox News poll earlier this year found that nearly half of respondents believe ICE deportation efforts are too aggressive."

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