Quote:
Originally Posted by Apache
All I want is for the news channels to give me the facts. I can form my own opinions.
Apache
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In the strict sense, bias is unavoidable, but an emphasis on opinion is not. News organizations that purport to decode spin (beyond tracking down evidence for or against public claims) are engaging in it. They're also doing the job of the audience and doing it badly.
Audiences should be allowed time to absorb the information on which they opine and not be handed rote responses by the people who report the information. Explanations for the sake of clarity are not the same as wildly subjective interpretations.
Al Jazeera, the BBC and NPR are not objective, of course, but at least their emphasis tends to be on the story itself and not the reporters' and writers' reaction to it. At least the headlines tend not to exhibit built-in sarcasm, which is, again, the reader or viewer's domain.
I don't know that I've ever met a reader or listener who was too incompetent to make sarcastic or impassioned comments about a news story.