Hacker News Reader

Comment by abyssin | Hacker News Reader

This is the root question. The discussion around fake news often touches the subject of press neutrality. Some will say mainstream press is biased and has an agenda, so-called mainstream will answer by proposing more fact-checking. However, truth and neutrality are situated in different dimensions. It seems to be relatively easy to avoid spreading lies for those who want to. Providing neutral news is an entirely different type of problem. Addressing the critics made to the press by promising fact-checked news might be perceived as only one more manifestation of unjust discretionary power of the press to determine what can be said.

Is striving for neutrality something the press should do? Or should it work on clarifying how biased it is, and why?

View on HN

The first thing to do is get the press to admit bias.

Bias is fine. Everyone is biased. Journalism in other countries works fine with admission of opinions. Just own your own viewpoints and quit pretending to be some neutral third party.

The important thing is to take the fiction off the table. "Of course we sound like marginally liberal establishment-supporters - we're the NYT." "Naturally we support the revanchists - we're Fox."

(See? My bias is up front.)

>> Some will say mainstream press is biased and has an agenda

The people that say that are generally conservatives (or a subset of conservatives). Liberals generally don't complain about the mainstream media being biased. I'm just pointing out that the idea of the mainstream press being biased and having an agenda is itself biased and has an agenda.

>> so-called mainstream will answer by proposing more fact-checking.

Fact checking is supposed to be automatic. When a mainstream news outlet gets caught reporting false information, it's a big embarrassment. The NY Times had the Jayson Blair incident a few years ago and it really stung. The Times also apologized for over-hyping the Iraq War[1].

>> Is striving for neutrality something the press should do? Or should it work on clarifying how biased it is, and why?

High quality news outlets already strive to do both. "Honest news" isn't a new idea; it has always been a part of journalistic ethics.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-th...

>The people that say that are generally conservatives (or a subset of conservatives). Liberals generally don't complain about the mainstream media being biased.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/25/media-bubb...

Its easy to use real facts to lie. This is IMO the MSM approach to fake news.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com