Tells that a news source is biased
by Greg Krehbiel on 28 January 2013
Some things I hear on the news make me immediately assume that the news source is biased.
For example, when the default response to a gun tragedy is to assume we need more restrictions on guns, or when the second amendment is caricatured as preserving the right to hunt or shoot clay birds, I consider that source biased. Not necessarily with malice, or intentionally — but biased nevertheless.
Another is when “more revenue” automatically means more taxes, or when “equal rights” automatically assumes the pro-homosexual marriage position.
Don’t get me wrong, each of these positions is a reasonable part of the conversation. Responding to gun violence by wanting more laws is a legitimate perspective, as is more taxes for more revenue, as is homosexual marriage as a matter of equal rights.
But they are not the only legitimate perspectives, and should not be treated as the default, automatic reaction. When I hear a news source treat them that way, it screams bias.
So I’m curious. What things are tells for you — that show either liberal or conservative bias?
-- 2013-01-28 » Greg Krehbiel
28 January 2013 @ 1:27 pm
Or if they ever, ever, EVER use the phrase “tax expenditures” to mean “taking less of your money than they might if they made the tax structure different.”
More seriously: if they refer to any American politicians as right wing or left wing unless they use both terms.
28 January 2013 @ 9:20 pm
Anything named NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, And PBS tips me off.
29 January 2013 @ 6:12 pm
ok, i get the litany of “MSM” entities … and don’t necessarily disagree with varied degrees of biased leanings in each. but to leave FOX off of the list, just isn’t being intellectually honest.
i think that Fox actually represents a needed news organization to linchpin a conservative perspective … but they clearly are an “MSM” entity, despite their odd attempts to dissociate, and their bias is very, very clear. as there is an MSNBC, so should their be a FOX. but let’s call it what it is.
29 January 2013 @ 8:27 pm
I agree that Fox is biased, but … can you answer my question? Assume you’re listening to a show you haven’t heard before. What are some things that you hear that tip you off that it’s biased?
30 January 2013 @ 8:03 am
Citing the Heritage Foundation without any description, but identifying other “think” tanks as “liberal.”
Talking about the US becoming “the next Greece.”
Continuing to use discredited propaganda lines after they have been thoroughly debunked.
30 January 2013 @ 8:50 am
pervasive ridicule of one position, or perpetual fear-mongering of it. most often i note leading questions intended to guide the direction to one particular answer as being acceptable. repetitive use of the same sources for information. etc.
31 January 2013 @ 8:44 pm
For me it is hearing catch-phrases being thrown around. They are used as if they mean that now the entire listening audience will blindly accept the next five minutes. This is expected no matter what drivel follows. It is to be accepted wholesale because it follows from ~insert current buzz-word or renounced-demonized-position or yes-this-is-what-anyone-with-a-brain-has-to-agree-with-code-word~
I at least like to have the illusion that I am thinking for myself.