How Biased is the News?

I often hear people complain about the news being biased and dishonest. Whenever I hear that, I want to ask which news source? What specific broadcast TV, cable and radio stations; books; magazines; journals; newspapers; and internet sites are they talking about? Do they think all of these sources of information are equally biased and dishonest? I get the impression they do, but then they’ll talk about a particular cable network, radio show, newspaper, etc. that they think is neutral and factual. I guess they think the information sources they like and respect are separate from the rest of the news.

Years ago, I had a good friend who loved Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone show on Fox News. My friend didn’t like “mainstream” news, since he thought it was biased, too liberal, and unfair to conservatives. He preferred to get his news from the O’Reilly show which he believed was factual, even-handed, and pretty close to center on the liberal-conservative line. After my friend encouraged me several times to watch the show, I did. To me, Bill O’Reilly seemed to do a lot of spinning in his No Spin Zone. I thought he was one-sided and cherry-picked his information to support his conservative opinions. I reminded myself there are two kinds of journalism: news and opinion. I also realized cable news, and Fox News in particular and despite its name, is and was an example of modern journalism, not traditional journalism.

Traditional Journalism

Webster’s defines journalism as “1 the work of gathering, writing, editing, and publishing or disseminating news, as through newspapers and magazines or by radio and television.” Traditional journalism, especially newspapers, focused on the news. Nearly all of the content was straight (no analysis or opinion) news stories. When I took a journalism class in junior high a few decades ago, I learned that every news story needs to answer these questions posed by the “five W’s and H”:

• Who was involved?
• What happened?
• When did it happen?
• Where did it happen?
• Why did it happen?
• How did it happen?

News stories answer those questions concisely and accurately. Ideally the first paragraph or two would answer all six questions, and the remaining paragraphs provided additional information. News reporters were and are ethically bound to keep their personal biases in check, to report facts that they independently verify from other sources (ideally sources who were directly involved or present during whatever the story was about), to be accurate, and fair (if there are multiple sides involved in whatever happened, the reporter presents those sides as well).

While there are many pages for local, national, international, weather, sports, business, etc. news reporting in a newspaper or journal, there is usually only one to two pages for opinion-based stories. These pages are clearly marked as Opinion or are opposite the editorial page (hence, the op-ed page). Unlike news reporters who report the facts with as little personal opinion and bias as possible, opinion writers’ purpose is to interject their personal views of the meanings behind the facts, what they think will happen based on the facts, whether what did or will happen is good or bad for those involved or for society as a whole. These additional pieces are regularly appearing opinion columns, letters to the editor, and longer op-ed articles. All these pieces have a byline indicating who wrote the piece and the pieces usually offer a wide variety of opinions.

Modern Journalism

As defined by Webster, there are relatively few journalism sources left. Modern journalism is a blend of news and opinion that has less straight news reporting, more analysis in their news stories, and more opinion stories than traditional journalism. Modern news reporters more often provide analysis in their stories than traditional news reporters did, and analysis can be a slippery slope toward opinion.

I believe professional, ethical news reporters, however, still try to follow in the steps of traditional news reporters. Are they biased? Of course they are–they’re human beings. Are they biased to the point of being partisan? No–not if they’re news reporters. If they’re a partisan, i.e., a strong supporter of a party, cause, or person, they’ve stopped being news reporters and become opinion writers.

Cable television and the internet have exponentially increased the number of information sources for people to consume. Most of those news sources have inverted journalism’s traditional mix of news and opinion by having relatively little straight news and much more opinion, analysis and misleading news. Some so-called journalism sources, especially on cable and the internet, have left the fact-based world of journalism entirely and have become entertainment shows whose primary purpose is to generate advertising revenue by providing emotional content to keep their audiences engaged and growing.

Fact-Checking the News

Journalists, including opinion writers, are taught to verify their sources by fact-checking. I’m not a journalist, but I do want the information sources for my opinions to be based in fact. Instead of fact-checking myself, I use the internet to crowdsource that effort to see what others think about the sources of my information. My Resources for Advocates page lists several hyperlinked sites I like to use for fact-checking. To gauge how trustworthy and biased a news source is, I like to use the Interactive Media Bias chart published online by Ad Fontes Media. The website explicitly explains how they rate media sources for both factual reliability and bias.

Another way I like to fact-check individual media sources is to be aware of my own biases and to mentally challenge what I read or hear rather than passively accept it. One of the key takeaways I learned from unSpun: finding facts in a world of disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson is to be especially critical of information that matches my own biases. I like to watch the PBS News Hour which, according to the Ad Fontes Media’s Interactive Media Bias chart, skews left and is a mixture of fact reporting and analysis. Knowing that it skews left, which matches my own bias, I remind myself to be especially aware of my own confirmation bias when watching the show. To do that I try to answer the following questions:

• Is what they are presenting based on directly observed facts or hearsay?
• Are they presenting straight news without commentary?
• Are they presenting analysis or opinion about the news?
• Are they using emotionally charged words or images?
• Do they present more than one side of a story?

I suspect my friend wasn’t asking those questions when he watched Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone. I suspect he thought that because the show was on Fox News, it was a news show. It wasn’t. Like most of Fox News’ programming, it was an opinion show. Moreover, it was an opinion show that matched his own bias, so he subconsciously let his guard down against the show’s own bias. Since O’Reilly’s views more closely matched my friend’s own moral framework than more liberal shows and more conservative shows, it seemed like a no spin zone to him because its baseline bias matched his own.

Based on this article, I do believe the news has become more biased. At the same time, I recognize the news is not a single thing, it’s a large conglomeration of individual news sources whose biases vary across wide spectrums of factual accuracy and political leanings. I hope this article made you think, made you question, and made you wonder about your own perception of bias is the news and in yourself. I’m curious about what you think. If you care, share.