Is all news media biased...

Dean wrote: js (Easy Money) wrote: Blacksword wrote: ^^^ Mother Jones should be in that far left column. They have articles like "Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are racist" and "Eating three meals a day is racist" They are as frothing at the mouth as Alex Jones is on the far right. Those aren't real articles, they are just something you made up. Now where is the bias? the PBJ probably is but the "Eating three meals a day is racist" isn't:  [www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/03/against-meals-breakfast-lunch-dinner]

The article itself is not near as bad as the title would suggest. The article title is a purposefully inflammatory title, which is unfortunate because the article itself is mostly about nutrition, with a short reference to cultural differences, but I never saw the word 'racist' used in the article.

I'm not sure why they felt the need to give this article such a shallow and misleading title, its a bad choice, probably designed to get people riled up over an article that did not mean to get people riled up.

^ ture 

^Where is TMZ on that thing? That seems to be the news that matters to most of the general public. 

were does french news paper Le Monde fit on that scale, and Al Jazera

There is no such thing as being unbiased, and anyone who says they are is selling something. Bias takes hold the moment you choose what "news" you are reporting.

Icarium wrote: were does french news paper Le Monde fit on that scale

dr wu23 wrote: I think the idea that the news is biased is exaggerated. If one simply reports an event....whatever the event....where's the bias ? I can see how the opinion pieces like those from O'Riley and Hannity are biased but not just general reporting.

There's always a bias. Simply choosing what is newsworthy is a bias. The very justifications one uses to arrive the decision of newsworthiness are definitive of a bias. They may be sound, reasonable, uncontroversial and unobjectionable decisions, but they are still the very essence of bias. For instance, covering crime betrays a law and order bias. Covering downtown development projects betrays a commercial and corporate bias. Covering people who are put out of their homes by eminent domain betrays a bias that values the interests of the less advantaged. The representation is necessarily biased. Simply deciding what appears on camera betrays a bias. There is no objective way of representing anything, unless one means to say unslanted or impartial, but this is not to the same as unbiased. Bias isn't necessarily bad. What is bad is when the biases are not openly acknowledged.

Dean wrote: When you know and understand the bias then you can interpret it accordingly.

SteveG wrote: I guess that Breitbart is so far right it's off the scale!

JJLehto wrote: Mostly, yes.  But I dont think biased = bad, and certainly not fake.  I never once have thought of Fox as fake news, though obviously it's bad, and sources like even Vox while extremely biased, do some good writing.  But we've now reached the point where 1: anything you dont like is just labeled "fake news" or 2: anything with a sniff of a bias is "bad" and that's just not true.  Which is just not accurate. Heard a great interview with the lead editor of the NY times, and he explained that while we need to be fair, fact based, honest etc the idea that if there's one iota of bias it = trash is quite unrealistic. He cited reporting on civil rights back in the day and how it used colorful, powerful language (and clearly showing a bias).  Would you say that pro civil rights coverage is biased fake garbage? Well to many Americans the answer to that is probably yes But you get the point.  To me the bigger problem with mainstream news are the agendas...that's what I hate, and think is detrimental to society, especially when it comes to favoring candidates and policies etc I wont even get into Breitbart and the Trumpers, they are so detached from reality and purposely twist everything to fit their camp it's not even worth wasting brain cells on. Just sad that sh*t has trickled up...now mainstream Republicans use "fake news" or say "that's a gotcha question! I wont answer" as ways to worm out of ya know, being asked real questions. That's the problem, they've now made us all have to defend the mainstream media, that many of us don't like, turning all this into more "us vs them" stuff instead of honest critique

Nailed it! Excellent post, each and every word.