The questions

Find the news
and dismiss the opinion

Understanding how bias enters the news is just one part of becoming an informed news consumer. You must learn how to look at important news stories in a more critical way. We have four questions that will help you do just that. They are:

F	What are the Facts?
A	Does this story have Attitude?
L	Look for journalism.
S	Are Sources trying to manipulate the story?
E	Is there Editor or reporter bias?
?	Question yourself.

These questions -- using the acronym FALSE? -- will help you identify bias from reporters, editors, sources and even yourself. They will help you understand how the story is written and whether that perspective helps you better understand the facts or distracts you from important information.

What are the Facts?

One of News Consumer’s primary goals is to help you identify facts and separate those from the elements used by reporters and editors to tell a story.

Facts give you the foundation upon which you base your opinions. You may find that not all facts are important or that some vital facts needed to put the story in context are missing.

The strength of a fact is a matter of opinion and the journalists must use their own opinions in order to tell us a story. They judge some sources as more credible than others, decide which facts are needed to provide a balanced report and which facts don’t fit the narrative.

Our best defense is to gather facts from as many credible sources as possible and bring our own skepticism to the news.

The more we know, the better able we are to be our own fact-checkers.

Does this story have attitude?

It's one thing to have a point of view and quite another to have an attitude. Attitudes go beyond seeing things from a certain perspective, they advocate a position. They get in your face.

Stories with attitude are loaded with adjectives that taint the facts. This story reported by a Louisville television station provides a good example of attitude.

This story is filled with attitude and is, in our opinion, poor journalism.

The first indication of attitude is that the station is doing an investigation of an activity that they acknowledge is legal. The audience was also warned that the video may be disturbing, although there was no evidence of animals being mistreated or harmed.

Other indications are the use of a hidden camera. Using a hidden camera suggests illegal activity and was only done because the reporter believe cameras would not be allowed inside. The auction takes place on private property and the owner has the right to control admittance whether reporters like it or not.

The story is also accompanied by ominous-sounding audio. The barn is described as "dilapidated," but with no evidence to back up the claim other than a citation for property maintenance.

The story is filled with many other flaws, not the least of which is that the reporter and the television station put themselves into the story by "rescuing" dogs from the auction.

While some people might not like the idea of dogs being auctioned and it may be a story the station feels it should air, there are many ways to do the report without making the participants appear guilty of a crime. The goal should be to inform news consumers, not pass judgement upon the subjects of a news story.

This story may be accurate, but its context is questionable and the attitude is undeniable.

Look for journalism

Journalism requires that the information be verifiable, that it come from identified sources, that it be checked for accuracy and that it be placed in the proper context.

Reading or viewing a story will provide you the information about whether the information comes from identifiable sources and can be verified. Knowing whether it has been checked for accuracy comes from experience. If a news provider regularly makes corrections or is known to get the information wrong, then you know they're not doing their job.

Determining whether the story is in the proper context is more difficult.

When asking "Are the facts in the proper context?" there is no right answer. The purpose of the question is to help you separate the facts of the story from the context and determine if the emphasis chosen by the reporter is the same as yours.

See also: The importance of journalism

Are sources trying to manipulate the story?

Devious news sources are like pickpockets: you don't even know they've been at work until it's too late.

Manipulative sources represent the most dangerous type of bias because they intentionally try to twist a news story in their favor. The best of their breed are so good at what they do that you won't even know what they're up to.

In most cases, news reporters will keep them away from you, or at least warn you that the source has an agenda. More often than we'd like to think, those same reporters will bring highly biased sources right into your living room where you feel safe and comfortable and are the most willing to accept their version of the truth.

While there is no way to know absolutely whether a source is trustworthy, it's pretty easy to determine whether the source has something to gain or lose by how the story is reported.

The woman who witnessed a bank robbery has no stake how the story is told, so she is likely to give her best recollection of the events that took place. She may or may not be mistaken about the details she describes, but her motives are likely to be pure.

However, the automobile company spokesman explaining to reporters about a recall of the firm's cars very much wants to slant the story a certain way. We shouldn't automatically assume that the person isn't telling the truth, but we should want independent verification on whether the issue is minor or serious. Good reporters will seek out that verification and good news consumers will know to look for it in the story. If that verification is missing, news consumers will know to reserve judgement on the seriousness of the recall until more information is available.

See also: Source bias

Is there editor or reporter bias?

The most dangerous element of reporter and editor bias is that you can’t know what you don’t know. We have no way of knowing what choices reporters or editors could have made and what led them to tell the story in the way they did.

Having already stripped the facts out of a story, we should ask ourselves how else the story might have been told. If other facts had been given more weight, would other sources have been consulted? Would other questions have been asked?

The ability to recognize what’s missing from a story and understanding how a story came to be is the best way to judge whether reporters and editors have been leading you away from issues that are important to you.

In most cases, there will be no malicious intent and the story’s direction will be based solely on the reporter’s or editor’s judgement on how best to present the information. But the reporter’s best judgement may not reflect what’s most important to you. A review of the facts outside of the story’s context will help you decide what’s important and if the reporter and editor regularly fail to meet your needs, perhaps it’s time to find other sources for your daily news needs.

See also: Editor bias

See also: Reporter bias

Question yourself

As news consumers, our goal is to be informed, but when our opinions get in the way of the facts, we become our own worst enemy.

If our opinions don’t match the facts, we need to apply the standards of journalism to our own ideas. If the facts upon which we based our opinions have changed, then perhaps our opinions need to be adjusted as well. If we believe our opinions are truly based on more credible sources, then we need to ask ourselves why those sources are more credible. It’s not enough that those sources simply agree with our point of view.

We must also ask if our opinions are in the same context as the news story before us. No two stories are the same, but significant changes in circumstances may simply require a broader outlook, not a change in opinion.

The goal of testing your objectivity is not to question your opinions, but rather help you reconcile those opinions with fact. If the facts don't fit what you believe, then additional facts or research may be needed. Once you have all the facts, you can decide if your opinion is correct or needs updating.

Journalist can’t do the whole job for us – we’re the final editors of the news.

See also: Reader bias