It's far safer to assume the NYTimes and its ilk are lying to us sometimes, than it is to assume they are always telling the truth, or always lying. They are trying to deceive us at every turn, we don't have to debate that. These charlatans tell the truth a lot of the time to maintain some semblance of credibility with the masses. Your black and white thinking will certainly lead you awry. Ironically, the forces you're trying to defend yourself against are now completely in control of your future because they've tricked you into doing the opposite of what they say. Instead of thinking for yourself, you're on autopilot ("everything they say is wrong, do the exact opposite"), being taken where they want you.

That's the importance of logical thinking (aka reasoning). I mean the kind of thing you learn in philosophy. Logic isn't just a word - it gives us a framework for which to think and analyze our world, and helps us not to fall prey to the fallacies (such as black or white thinking) that are so commonly used to control us.

I've done dozens of articles (including a teaching series) analyzing the tactics of the mainstream media if you're interested, likely you've read some of them already.