Whenever we hear about a mass shooting or an outbreak of some frightening disease that no one’s ever heard of, you can guarantee that there will be nonstop media coverage in the days following. Although it’s good for people to hear about these topics, constant news coverage of them really does nothing but instill fear in people.

Unfortunately, this is how media outlets make money. When do people tune in to the news the most? When they’re afraid. Not many people watch CNN for fun. They do, however, watch CNN when a new terrorist group pops up that is an “existential threat” to America.

News stations know this, which is why topics like ISIS and the Ebola crisis have been blown way out of proportion. Every news channel has a story on one of these two topics at least once an hour, yet the likelihood of either of the two harming Americans is close to zero. Ebola does not spread through the air, and no ISIS militants are crossing our borders, yet many Americans believe that both present an imminent threat because the media tells them so.

News stations such as FOX News and MSNBC broadcast news to viewers like CNN does, but these stations have their own take on it. Both of these stations have well-known ideological bias, which makes them far more harmful to viewers than CNN, which just essentially gives people the facts while FOX News and MSNBC add political commentary to their stories. This makes them much more entertaining and appealing to viewers, but people must be able to differentiate between the two in order to prevent mixing up facts and opinions. The truth is objective, so putting an opinionated spin on it, as FOX News and MSNBC do, no longer makes it the truth.

News stations need to stick to reporting the news. The actual news. They shouldn’t be exaggerating a crisis to bring in more viewers, and they shouldn’t be blatantly spewing false and opinionated facts to appeal to their base. News stations are where many people go to find out what is going on in the world. They go there to hear about the good and the bad. News stations shouldn’t be telling people how bad a crisis seems, as opposed to how bad it really is. That should be left up to the many actual experts who actually know what they’re talking about.