Modern journalism revolves around opinion instead of the story being covered and can identify closer to propaganda than actual news.

Journalism is an old practice that was established to bring information to people with as much transparency as possible. Recently, journalists have become much less concerned about the news peg and more occupied with their own perspective.

Reporters from some of the most powerful news networks have lost their original goal of reporting hard news and now spin any story to fit the narrative they want.

Some reporters have gone as far as censoring information, to influence people with their opinion. Both sides of the political spectrum have news sources colluding with them and it is becoming more difficult to make out the true story behind the spin.

The political left has NowThis, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and others; while the right has Breitbart, Drudge Report, the Daily Wire, Info Wars, Fox News and multiple other sources.

During the presidential election, journalists ignored their duty in an attempt to help build up their candidate. For Hillary Clinton, some had been caught distorting and teeing up stories about the candidate and even going to lengths of removing any quotes she didn’t want to be public.

Distorting, teeing up and censoring stories is not journalism. Articles are not novels and aren’t intended to sway ideas about a character. New organizations are supposed to report as much information as it can. However, blocking information that doesn’t fit its story or opinions is becoming a common practice.

Fact checkers from liberal sources have been studied and shown to have a major bias against Republicans. People from the right are scrutinized while making sure people from the left aren’t exposed as factually incorrect.

When the 11-year-old tape of President-elect Donald Trump making very offensive comments about grabbing women by the genitals was leaked, news sources tried to downplay the audio. Every Republican news outlet used the same term, “locker room talk,” to describe the crude comment.

Beyond working to defend the comment made by Trump, some news sources interviewed him so people could sympathize with him and allow him to explain his actions. But the job of the press is to press the topic and make sure guests are on their feet, not casually give them a platform to explain the story in any way they please.

News sources weren’t just building up its candidate’s platform, but would only focus on tearing down the other side.

What’s truly disappointing is that most journalists would rather focus on helping justify their opinion instead of seeking the truth. While most of the population doesn’t trust the media, the fact that news has an influence on public opinion is undeniable.

Information is a form of power, and journalists today care only about controlling the opinion of people.

Jeff Guzman can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.