Inherently Biased By Linda Stowe
I used to follow half a dozen podcasters who did nothing except talk about political news. For far too long I was under the impression that they were journalists offering in-depth reporting. I thought this because they seemed to have their fingers on the pulse of what was happening. But that wasn’t who they were or what they were about. Their insight came from connections built in earlier jobs—usually working for politicians or past administrations. What they offered was inherently biased because it reflected their opinions or best guess about events. Their commentary skimmed past the basic who-what-when-where of real reporting and lingered on their interpretation of the why.
Once I realized this, two things happened: I became less emotionally involved in politics, and I became more discerning about the news I choose to read.
Wordle guess words: about, under, pulse, guess
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Polly here.
I think we need to be careful of this on a general basis. News reports, broadcasting, podcasts, documentaries, and on. People have a way of injecting their personal ideas, feelings, and emotions into these things.
People often think documentaries are the gospel truth. But in reality, they are conceived and produced by someone who wants to tell a story about something. And oftentimes, that story is peppered with ideologies of that singular person or group.
Even Heather Cox Richardson writes her daily column with a bend.
We need to understand that there is personal bias, no matter who is reporting. Many times, in national news reporting, this is put aside by the major three networks, ABC, CBS, NBC. The one that shows frequent bias is FOX.
My major thought on this? If the majority of world news sources are agreeing on the “events” of a story (ABC, CBS, NBC, AP, Reuters, NPR, BBC, CNN, NYT, WSJ, WP, and on), then the story must be true. When there is only one singular media outlet reporting an alternate story (like FOX), we must question where they are getting their information. And why.
