Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Nothing is unbiased. Look at any news article from a credible source, and you'll find even the tiniest word - perhaps only 3 letters long - that can change the tone of the piece in a hot second.
Well balanced means
- both sides are presented with the same amount of material
- with the same quality of sources
- absent of any words that can persuade a reader to take one side over the other
virtually impossible
I don't think that's a good definition of unbiased. Not all positions are equally supported by facts, and giving equal time regardless of the evidence is part of the problem with news. If we had to give equal time to people who believe the earth is flat vs. round, all for the sake of "balance", then the press has failed to achieve its most basic goal: to inform. Instead, it has given fifty percent of its time to misinformation.
Well, here's another way to look at it. Let's say there's an important bill in congress - it's about 1000 pages long with several provisions in it. The left will highlight the good provisions that favor liberals or pull out provisions that bash the right, the right will pull out provisions that favor conservatives or bash the left. no news source has enough air/print time to list ALL the provisions and discuss them or summarize them.
here's another example - there could be a bill that has a really good provision that everyone agrees with...say.... i don't know...killing kids is heinous and has extra punishment attached. Yay, everyone agrees that it's a great bill. But, someone (pick a side...left/right...doesn't matter) sneaks in a small amendment like,
oh, and everyone has to be taxed -flat tax - of 75% of their income. Now, the other side (right/left - whichever is opposite of the first side you picked) doesn't sign the bill.
What does the news do? They put out huge news bulletins that say the Right/Left does not think killing kids is heinous - refuse to sign bill increasing punishment on kid killers.
That's an example of not having both sides represented equally - or giving equal time.