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Let's play Spot The Bias!
May. 15th, 2013 11:01 pmAnd now, it's time for another round of Spot The Bias. Let's dive right in with an example:
Headline Based on Facts in Article: Doctor Convicted for Murders, Manslaighter in Infanticide Case.
Actual Headline: Kermit Gosnell guilty of three murders in late-term abortions.
There's nothing in that article that indicates the deaths occured inside the womb, and that death occured before viability. The babies were delivered and then killed. This is not an abortion procedure. The reason that "abortion" shows up in the headline is because...someone wanted to stir up controversy, I guess, because you can almost guarantee that if the word "abortion" appears somewhere, the fanatically anti-choice and the fanatically pro-choice will hash it out in the comments. The two paragraphs at the end of the article are very polite about what likely really happened in discussing the matter all across the Internet and elsewhere. There's a bias there, toward trying to generate controversy. I would have thought the Beeb would have been better about that.
Second example comes from the opinion pages, so headlines are relative, but just from the headline, you can tell what the piece is going to be about in general tone.
W outclasses Barack and Bill, without even trying. This particular piece relates to the opening ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Library (a little more on that and its biases later on), where five living Presidents were present - three Democrats (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama), two Republicans (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush). Mr. Curl is very fond of the W. Bush administration, which is why he makes sure to talk about several of the common conservative complaints about the Democratic presidents (although trying to cover it with a fig leaf of "The Democrats think horrible things about their Presidents, too, so we must be right." As if the Democrats are a monolith.
That fondness makes things like the speeches feel hostile or fake for Mr. Curl, as they talk about the legacy of George W. Bush - elected under a cloud of suspicion and the dispute over the election, the administrator during the 11 September attacks, and sticking to his convinctions about war and the presence of weapons even in the face of factual evidence to the contrary.
Which are secondary, apparently, to Bill Clinton trying for levity and Barack Obama trying to goad politicians into supporting a plan that at least has some roots in ideas George W. Bush was friendly to and wanted to make a part of his legacy. (Mr. Curl also brings in the common conservative complaint that Barack Obama is a divider, not a uniter, and is far too invested in appealing to his own base to appeal to everyone.)
It seems like most of the "class" displayed at this particular event is in the eyes of the opinion writer.
Let's take a look at the actual Presidential Library itself, and its signature exhibit - a "Decision Points" simulator that gives you an abbreviated briefing on the disasters of the G.W. Bush Administrations, then gives you options to follow in his footsteps or choose something else. Which would potentially be unbiased, were it not for Mr. Bush appearing to convince you that his decision was the right one should you choose not to follow in his footsteps. For a place that is supposed to be the library and museum of what actually happened during the Bush presidency, this piece of persuasion shows a definite bias toward making that particular President look good.
In all things, there are biases. Being able to see them (including the biases of the person trying to show you other people's biases) makes you better-equipped to find the truth in the accounts provided.
Headline Based on Facts in Article: Doctor Convicted for Murders, Manslaighter in Infanticide Case.
Actual Headline: Kermit Gosnell guilty of three murders in late-term abortions.
There's nothing in that article that indicates the deaths occured inside the womb, and that death occured before viability. The babies were delivered and then killed. This is not an abortion procedure. The reason that "abortion" shows up in the headline is because...someone wanted to stir up controversy, I guess, because you can almost guarantee that if the word "abortion" appears somewhere, the fanatically anti-choice and the fanatically pro-choice will hash it out in the comments. The two paragraphs at the end of the article are very polite about what likely really happened in discussing the matter all across the Internet and elsewhere. There's a bias there, toward trying to generate controversy. I would have thought the Beeb would have been better about that.
Second example comes from the opinion pages, so headlines are relative, but just from the headline, you can tell what the piece is going to be about in general tone.
W outclasses Barack and Bill, without even trying. This particular piece relates to the opening ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Library (a little more on that and its biases later on), where five living Presidents were present - three Democrats (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama), two Republicans (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush). Mr. Curl is very fond of the W. Bush administration, which is why he makes sure to talk about several of the common conservative complaints about the Democratic presidents (although trying to cover it with a fig leaf of "The Democrats think horrible things about their Presidents, too, so we must be right." As if the Democrats are a monolith.
That fondness makes things like the speeches feel hostile or fake for Mr. Curl, as they talk about the legacy of George W. Bush - elected under a cloud of suspicion and the dispute over the election, the administrator during the 11 September attacks, and sticking to his convinctions about war and the presence of weapons even in the face of factual evidence to the contrary.
Which are secondary, apparently, to Bill Clinton trying for levity and Barack Obama trying to goad politicians into supporting a plan that at least has some roots in ideas George W. Bush was friendly to and wanted to make a part of his legacy. (Mr. Curl also brings in the common conservative complaint that Barack Obama is a divider, not a uniter, and is far too invested in appealing to his own base to appeal to everyone.)
It seems like most of the "class" displayed at this particular event is in the eyes of the opinion writer.
Let's take a look at the actual Presidential Library itself, and its signature exhibit - a "Decision Points" simulator that gives you an abbreviated briefing on the disasters of the G.W. Bush Administrations, then gives you options to follow in his footsteps or choose something else. Which would potentially be unbiased, were it not for Mr. Bush appearing to convince you that his decision was the right one should you choose not to follow in his footsteps. For a place that is supposed to be the library and museum of what actually happened during the Bush presidency, this piece of persuasion shows a definite bias toward making that particular President look good.
In all things, there are biases. Being able to see them (including the biases of the person trying to show you other people's biases) makes you better-equipped to find the truth in the accounts provided.
