diff --git a/tradingagents/agents/analysts/social_media_analyst.py b/tradingagents/agents/analysts/social_media_analyst.py
index 8537c533..673cab25 100644
--- a/tradingagents/agents/analysts/social_media_analyst.py
+++ b/tradingagents/agents/analysts/social_media_analyst.py
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ def create_social_media_analyst(llm):
         # Check if bright_data vendor is configured for social sentiment
         config = get_config()
         news_vendor = config.get("data_vendors", {}).get("news_data", "")
+        news_vendors = [v.strip() for v in news_vendor.split(",")]
         tools = [get_news]
-        if "bright_data" in news_vendor:
+        if "bright_data" in news_vendors:
             tools.append(get_social_sentiment)
 
         system_message = (
diff --git a/tradingagents/dataflows/bright_data.py b/tradingagents/dataflows/bright_data.py
index ad52cf2f..dcf239d4 100644
--- a/tradingagents/dataflows/bright_data.py
+++ b/tradingagents/dataflows/bright_data.py
@@ -78,13 +78,11 @@ def _serp_search(query: str, num_results: int = 10) -> list[dict]:
 
     # Parse organic results from SERP response
     # The SERP API wraps results in a "body" key as a JSON string
-    import json as _json
-
     body = data.get("body", data)
     if isinstance(body, str):
         try:
-            body = _json.loads(body)
-        except _json.JSONDecodeError:
+            body = json.loads(body)
+        except json.JSONDecodeError:
             body = data
     organic = body.get("organic", []) if isinstance(body, dict) else []
 
@@ -170,8 +168,8 @@ def _search_and_fetch(
                 if len(content) > max_content_length:
                     content = content[:max_content_length] + "\n[... truncated ...]"
                 r["content"] = content
-            except Exception:
-                r["content"] = ""
+            except Exception as e:
+                r["content"] = f"[Content fetch failed: {e}]"
 
     return results