How I Read the News
A friend recently asked me: what recommendations do you have for more neutral news sources that don’t lean left or right?
I have thought about this before, so I responded (edited):
- Check out the Media Bias Chart. Although of course “right” to “left” is an simplistic metric, at least this gives you an idea where each news source stands relative to other ones. This has led me to use the news services (AP, UPI, Reuters) as my “base” source.
- Whenever you are reading (even news services), remember that everyone has some bias; that cannot be avoided. The worst is when facts are misstated–when due to bias, it is a form of lying. Unfortunately, that is very common on social media and extremist news sites. So if things are really important, go look for other sources, especially ones from other perspectives to verify facts and make your own judgment.
- Read widely. Even if it makes you cringe. I regularly check three different SLO county web news sources, one is generally “right” and another generally “left.”
- Distinguish issues; neither the “right” or “left” agenda totally aligns with Scripture. So even if you totally disagree with some news site on some issues, it may have very good thoughts about other issues.