How to Detect Bias
Everybody’s biased in some way about something. But when it comes to the truth, biases shouldn’t matter that much.
In science, we don’t ask whether the discoverer of a new microbe is biased for or against microbes. We look at the evidence. In politics and the news, however, sorting through the evidence is the job of . . . politicians and newspeople.
Well, if you leave it to them, you can be certain of almost nothing but bias. We all know that most journalists show a bias. But it’s often hard to prove, because bias in the news shows in what’s left out of a story, as well as what’s put in. Bernard Goldberg, in his recent book Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite , demonstrated this very well with a famous news item.
In 2002, in Grundy, Virginia, a suspended college student stormed through his former campus with a gun, terrorizing students and then shooting the dean, a professor, and a student. Then, as the Washington Post reported, “Three students pounced on the gunman and held him until help arrived.” Great story.
There was one thing missing, however: two of those three students were also armed with handguns. Goldberg researched the media coverage, and discovered that only six of one hundred stories on the subject contained the crucial fact about the subduers of the murderer. The reporters who wrote the other stories either consciously suppressed the fact because of an anti-gun bias or followed the lead of those who did.
So it’s no wonder that most people are somewhat skeptical of the news. You should be.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
