Bias in the News
...sguised as News A reporter should never use adjectives of adverbs, unless they are part of a quotation. Example: Asking leading questions to an interviewee. Bryant Gumble, on February 7th 2001 asked a guest questions filled with horrible descriptions including calling Ariel Sharon “not only a racist, a terrorist, and a murderous war criminal.” • Lack of Context By failing to provide proper context and full background info, journalists can seriously distort the real idea. Example: A BBC photo shows 2 Palestinians with their hands tied behind their backs, on their knees on the ground. Standing over them is an Israeli soldier with a rifle pointed at their heads. The caption that went with the photo said “Tension has been high around the Jewish settlements”. The bias in this is that it does not give the context of the photo. It does not say who the Palestinians are and why they are in that position. It also does not say what the soldier was planning to do. Was he waiting for reinforcement? Was he about to blow their head off and point blank range? That info was left for the viewer to assume. • Selective Omission By choosing to report certain events over others, the media control access to information. Example: Newspapers and televisions choosing to report on violence and crime as opposed to “happy news”. “Bad news is news. Good news is not news.”- USS Clueless.com • Using True Facts to Draw False Conclusions Lack of context and mishandling the facts lead to jumping to incorrect conclusions. Example: Many articles report that “hundreds of Palestinians had been killed”. This is an undisputed fact, but without more information...