ZH has become a propaganda outlet. I’m not sure how you can come to the conclusion of “it doesn’t lie to you”.
If you don’t know who the owner of the news outlet is and you are not actively paying for your news, you probably shouldn’t trust it.
If you don’t know who the owner of the news outlet is and you are not actively paying for your news, you probably shouldn’t trust it.
This is called "framing" in psychology and it's an intrinsic part of passive measures.
Thinking that one is immune to it, while discarding other sources of information is a bit naive, IMO.
(ad-sponsored media measure what ratio of advertising to editorial maximizes their profit. Propagandists do the same; if you want eyeballs on the propaganda, you need plenty of straight content in between)
Linebarger, "Psychological Warfare" (1948)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm
"The intelligence that goes into the making of propaganda must compete for attention with the home newspaper of the enemy. It must therefore be up-to-date, well put, authentic. ... Even if exaggerations or nonsense appear in the commercial press of his own country, the propagandist must realize that he is Honorary G-2 to the enemy—a G-2 whose function consists of transmitting news the ultimate effect of which should be bad but which should go forth with each separate item newsworthy and palatable. ... The Japanese who obediently hated the Americans when it was their duty to do so nevertheless could not help looking at maps that showed where the Americans actually were. Nazis who despised us and everything we stood for nevertheless studied the photographs of our new light bombers. The appeal of credible fact is universal; propaganda does not consist of doctoring the fact with moralistic blather, but of selecting that fact which is correct, interesting, and bad for the enemy to know."
Note that in 2020, double-checking credible fact has become easier than it was in 1950.