The media is obviously bad in the sense that it is deeply dishonest propaganda, but along the way it also became bad in the sense that it consists of people who call themselves journalists but have no actual skills like checking their facts (as distinct from ‘fact-checking’ conservatives to argue that the Hunter Biden laptops aren’t real and that Joe Biden is just fine) and are incapable of doing anything except pushing political narratives. And these are the consequences.

A dramatic video described as showing a Chinese paraglider surviving an unplanned 8,500m (27,000 ft) ascent and subzero temperatures has been pulled from a number of news sites over concerns that it may be AI generated.

Thousands of news organizations worldwide have posted the video in recent days, ranging from the UK’s BBC to France’s TF1 to the websites of newspapers such as The Guardian and The New York Times.

The video, which features Peng battling with strong winds and then looking dazed and frostbitten above the clouds, was first posted on Chinese video-sharing App Douyin, the country’s version of TikTok.

The footage was then licensed by Chinese State TV network CCTV and a number of other viral video distributors.

China produces a whole lot of dubious videos meant for social media to make it look really impressive. Most of these are propaganda. And some aren’t real.

Apart from TikTok, China’s best ally is our own media which loves denouncing conservative narratives as disinformation or misinformation, but has no gut instincts or skills when it comes to dealing with seemingly apolitical fake content.

And, more seriously, this is also why the media keeps pushing every fake Pallywood claim out of Gaza. Not only does the media like the content, but it’s incapable of performing due diligence to distinguish what’s real and fake.

Should you trust the media? Absolutely not.