Are there any news outlets, anywhere in America, that the left and right agree are unbiased and credible, or at least minimally biased? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Are there any news outlets, anywhere in America, that the left and right agree are unbiased and credible, or at least minimally biased?
I have to bifurcate your question: You have joined “unbiased” and “credible” into one phrase, and that is a bit of mistake. Very few journals or news outlets are unbiased; most of them reflect the leanings of their publishers and/or editors, and while not all that many lean heavily left or right, most do lean one way or the other. That does not reflect on their credibility, it simply means that owners, publishers, and editors bring to their papers or networks certain world views that differ from others. The Washington Post leans left politically, but its credibility as a journal of accuracy is generally unquestioned (and when it is questioned, the Post does find fault with itself, and says so).
Credibility is about accuracy in relating the facts of an event or of a person. I commend to your oldies movie list the 1950 film Rashomon. It is about the credibility (or lack thereof) of multiple viewers of a single event. A good journalist viewing an event from his or her own set of biases (often unconscious), will, perforce, write quite credibly about the event. Their facts will be verifiable, their timeline generally accurate, and their inclusion of the key components of the event will be thorough. When they sit down to write the story, they will open with a unique lede (properly spelled), and a unique organization of the following sentences and paragraphs. How they organize their story—what facts they place first or last, what amount of color they add to the story, who they interviewed, etc.—will expose their publication’s bias, but their credibility will be sound.
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