Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Surveys show a lack of trust or bias in mainstream media and that is unfortunate.

We need accurate information to make decisions in our daily lives and when we come to select leadership such as in a voting booth.

I think there is some confusion about parts of the media. News departments of major media outlets, I’m talking about major national television networks such as ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NBC; major magazines like Time and Newsweek and major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today have news departments that report the news fairly and honestly. AP and Reuters provide news to all those outlets.

They have news departments that are separate from editorial page writers, opinion columnists and news talk shows.

You can look at news articles covering the same subject and you find some different nuances but the basic facts will be the same.

Editorial departments and news show commentators do have a tilt to the right or left, and they actually seek to get like-minded people to watch their shows or read the publications they work for because they bring money into the business.   

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are both national newspapers that are based in the same city but have national audiences. The Times is liberal when it comes to its editorial pages, the Journal is more conservative. You will find they will take different sides of an issue editorially.

Many decisions about how to display content occur in the process of presenting news gathered by reporters. One is certainly placement, is it the main story on the newscast or the top of the front page of a paper or the cover story on a magazine? How big is the type on the headline? How many columns wide is the headline? Is there a picture that accompanies the story? Is the picture in color?

All of the above can attract readers to a story. A news outlet may attempt to draw more attention to its story if it is a story that is original to that TV station or news outlet. It’s their way of saying “look what we found out for you.”

From the publication’s position it is also going to try to attract your attention to  information that may be important to you. That’s why weather reports often lead television news broadcasts where a newspaper’s report will be more general in nature. Stories that will affect your pocketbook also get attention.

This is not an exact science. For example, a regional publication may not see a national issue as such a big deal so it may place the story inside the publication and headline its broadcast or front page with a story with more regional interest.

Where people tend to sense bias most is when it comes to political issues. If a telecast or publication doesn’t give the proper attention to an issue or person it assumes that news source has a bias against the person or issue. That may not be the case at all, it can depend upon what other news happens that day. A local event may take precedence.

News stories are not always going to praise governments or officeholders for what they do. Part of the media’s job is to be a watchdog over government. So if your party is in power and doesn’t get glowing praise you might feel there is a bias.

That praise might appear on an editorial page or opinion page column. Or criticism over some action or lack of action on some issue might also appear on that page. Those are opinions, which should be based on fact, but they are opinions. You can agree or disagree with them.

If information from some source seems out of line don’t be afraid to check it with sites like snopes.com or factcheck.org.

The best way to make sure things are correct is to get news from several sources and compare them. You might find a different angle to a story, or an opinion piece that raises an interesting point you might not have thought of yourself. Being informed doesn’t mean you need to agree with it all of the time.