Extraneous Commentary: Fact vs. Opinion and Bias vs. Fake News vs. Satire vs. Editorial
I’ve adapted this from a couple of Facebook posts I put up last year, but despite the passage of time, it seems like these are more relevant than ever.
I keep seeing people talking about facts like they’re opinions, and vice versa, and it’s kinda making me nuts. So…
You can not refute an objective fact with an opinion. Opinions are only valid when they’re about something subjective.
For example:
If I ask you what the best ice cream is, then that’s subjective. You might say rocky road and I might say cookie dough. Without a further qualification of “best,” both of those opinions are entirely valid. You’re fully justified in having your opinion and I’m fully justified in having mine.
However, if I ask you what the most POPULAR ice cream flavor sold in the US is, then there’s only one answer, because it’s a fact based on empirical evidence (surveys and sales data in this case, with multiple surveys all returning similar answers): vanilla (chocolate comes in a distant second, and then strawberry and butter pecan tie for third; yes, I looked it up).
Now, you can have an opinion about that fact. You can say, “People who like vanilla are dumb, chocolate should be the most popular flavor.” But that doesn’t change the fact that vanilla IS the most popular flavor.
This applies to pretty much everything. If there is empirical data to back something up, then it is a FACT, not an opinion. Just because you think it should be something else, does not change it.
Now, if someone presents you with a fact that is backed up by data and you can find data that contradicts it, then you can start to get into a rational debate, which includes examining the sources of each data set (since not all data is created equal).
And here’s the thing about empirical data: peer-reviewed studies in reputable journals will always trump data collected by interest groups, corporations, and online surveys. I don’t care that some Fox News or CNN online poll indicates something: those aren’t from random samples and are therefore completely unscientific. Just because they support your worldview does not make them objective.
And seriously, STOP saying “well that’s your opinion” when someone is presenting you with FACTS. And stop presenting your own opinions as if they were FACTS.
You have every right to have opinions about things. But realize that your opinion does not beat objective fact, no matter how much you want it to.
Which brings me to the next point:
Bias vs editorial opinion vs fake news vs satire. This is something we covered, to some extent, when I was in high school, but it seems like either most high schools didn’t cover this or most people didn’t pay attention.
All news sources have some level of bias. Human beings are biased, we have opinions, and of course that carries over into our work. We are all products of our environments and life experiences, and that will color our perceptions of the world around us and how we represent information to ourselves and others.
The bias could be as subtle as just what order facts are presented in (whether you lead with the positive or the negative, whether you lead with a politician’s response or the event itself, etc.) to give a particular impression, or whether things are presented with positive or negative language. It could even be something like which school of economics a particular publication or writer favors and how that colors the way they report on business or financial news.
The New York Times, for example, skews left. The Wall Street Journal skews right. Both present facts—they don’t make things up—and are reliable sources of information.
Bias does not make news fake. You can train yourself to recognize bias and to focus just on the facts in a piece. Reading multiple reputable sources about a particular topic is one way to see what kinds of bias are present in each one and to get at the root of the actual story. Try to read things that skew both left and right so you get a more accurate picture of the situation.
Opinions, when presented as such (like on an editorial page or a letters to the editor page or a straight-up opinion section) are not fake news and they’re not necessarily indicative of the bias of an overall news source. Opinions and editorials are important parts of news, because they can shed light on a different way of thinking of things. They can present you with a different viewpoint that you may not have considered otherwise. But you have to remember that this is ONE opinion, not necessarily based on all the facts.
Fake news, on the other hand, is MADE UP. It has an inherent agenda, not just bias. In some cases, that agenda is as simple as profit (a lot of fake news sites were set up specifically to generate advertising revenue).
More troubling, though, is when fake news is reported JUST to distract from the real news, or in an attempt to refute FACT. This is what we’re seeing with “alternative facts”. The alternative to fact is fiction. Period.
Spotting fake news can be tricky. If something sounds a little too extreme, then it just might be. Your best bet at that point is to check with what you know to be a reliable news source (or sources) and see if there’s even a mention of what’s happening. If something reportedly happened in a specific area, check the local newspapers for that area and see if it was reported. Do a little research. Download a plugin that will alert you to fake news sites (they’re not foolproof, but are generally good at spotting things that are definitely fake). Ask someone you consider to be better informed than you are if they’ve heard of something. Basically, don’t believe everything you read.
Consider the source in everything you read, too. Does the person or organization stand to gain something from what they’re saying? Is it sponsored by an interest group or corporation? Are the quoted “experts” people who have a vested interest in a particular viewpoint?
Then we finally come to sites like The Onion, which are satire. They’re meant to be funny. They’re meant to entertain, while also shedding light on the state of the world by taking trends or world events to an extreme. Reputable satire sites will point out that they’re satire, somewhere on the site (either in their tagline or on their about page, generally). If they don’t point it out, they can be considered fake news.
So, bias, opinion, fake news, and satire. Figure out how to tell the difference, do a little fact-checking, and consider the source of what you’re reading/watching. In fact, with video, see if you can find the full video of whatever you’re watching, instead of whatever clip makes someone look bad/good/stupid/powerful/etc. Often the full video will provide context that the clip does not.
Finally, a note on omissions. This seems to be a very common tactic that’s happening among some “mainstream” news outlets. They’ll harp on a topic for days, generally a scandal that supports their particular bias, and when that scandal is proven to be false or is discredited, they never bother with any kind of retraction or clarification. While it’s not fake news per se, it’s the equivalent. Their viewers or readers often continue to believe what they were told, assuming that if it was false the news source would have told them.
Information is powerful. Knowing how to figure out what’s true and what’s not is an important life skill that we should all be interested in learning.
