Fake News?
In lieu of everything happening, I would like to remind everyone something I learned from my English professor. There is no such thing as unbiased news. Everything, whether from The New York Times, your local newspaper, Buzzfeed, FOX News, or reading tweets from someone who experienced an important event, is biased.
When you’re reading an article, you’re reading what the author has to say about the subject. When you’re watching the news, you’re hearing their version of events. That’s why it’s important to watch not only news channels you agree with, or to only read from newspapers/magazines who share the same views as yours, but to also read opposing views. No, it doesn’t make you a traitor. No, it isn’t “giving [insert insult here] a pedestal.”
When you’re only hearing one side of things, even if you believe that’s the only side of things, or the right side of things, you’re hurting yourself. You’re not giving yourself the opportunity to look at it from all angles; to look at something not from the “right” and “wrong” way, but from multiple points of views.
If you’re into politics or journalism, then you should know by now that everyone tends to have very strong opinions. When they’re delivering you news, making a video, writing an article, whatever, they’re telling it to you through their eyes, their views, their experiences. They are not bias-free.
However, this isn’t to say that every news outlet is “fake news” that needs to be boycotted or harassed. This is just so you’ll know that in order to remain a little less subjective you must take everything with a grain of salt, and then read another article on the same topic by a different author.
It’s easy to take things out of context, to argue from opposing view points, or even to jump to conclusions. If you’re interested in a topic, an event, a person, or whatever, go to multiple sources, and for your own sake, please give yourself a wide spectrum of sources and articles to read about.
