Look, all reporting bears some imprint left by the people that report it. Selection of stories, choice of people to interview, questions asked, and so on. Good reporters work to minimize this; they research and check facts; good editors call 'em on it when they fail to, and send them back to mill to grind more finely. And honest media outlets label opinion as opinion when they present it.
Not all outlets are honest. Sometimes they're lying to themselves. Sometimes they're trying to pick winners and losers instead of just reporting who won or lost. And sometimes, they're lying to you.
These guys do their best to sort 'em out. It's a big job and they don't always keep up, but they don't stop trying.
Which direction do your news sources lean? Do you know? Are you sure? Find out.
I'm a Ground News subscriber myself. They do tell you the bias & ownership of the different stories being posted, and compare how the different sides are reporting it.
ReplyDeleteMy local news stations (I don’t watch any of them) are owned/manned by Sinclair or other right wing entities. I source news from known reasonably impartial outlets that don’t normalize bad behavior or spout propaganda; just the facts with verifiable evidence. One of them is the emptywheel blog and this blog too.
ReplyDeleteBear in mind that my blog -- I can't speak for any others -- is the editorial or op-ed page: opinion. It's already been news by the time I comment on it, and other people gathered it from primary and secondary sources.
DeleteWhen I tell people inclined to argue to refute me with facts, I expect them to put in at least as much work as I have, which is to look this stuff up and link back to where they looked it up. I try to do so, and I do that so readers can go see where I got it, and decide for themselves if they trust the reporting I worked from or not. One person's opinion is not just as good as anyone else's: see what it is based on, then decide.