MediaBias

"Is it possible to report news stories without bias considering the many opportunities (writing, editing, photography, reporting, interviewing, etc) to do so? How does one accomplish this (or how was this accomplished in the past) without being accused of slanting the news?

** From Bruce Hall, longtime Network News Correspondent: ** I spent 50 years in the field of Journalism and that is a question that has been seriously debated in every one of my 50 years in the business. Every journalist is a human being and all human beings have biases. The challenge is to understand your own bias and develop ways to overcome them. In my opinion most of our biases came from growing up, parents and families, personal events, and life experiences.

In my earlier days as a correspondent for Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News it was easier than it is now to overcome biases in writing, editing, photography and interviewing. The reason, it was slower paced time and there were more people reading and reviewing scripts and video (along with grammar).

Today, it is harder with tough economic times, fewer people on staffs and the 24 hour news cycles that put people “on the air” before any facts are known about an event. That leads to mistakes and misleading information and criticism of journalists.

I spent most of my career with the Washington Post organization, CBS News and NBC News. I found the best way to rid your stories of bias is to have people you trust or knowledgeable people in the field read you story and give you feed back. Have people with opinions different than yours read it and ask them “are the facts accurate and is it a fair presentation?” Listen to their responses. Explain your point but do not be defensive. Be open to change words or phrases that others believe are biased. Ask them for suggested phrasing. Look for compromises.

Does this take time and make the entire process more difficult? Yes, but it also means you are able to present a much more balanced and fair story.

In today’s times, there are a number of organizations that have a clear point of view. I can accept that as long as I know they have a point of view and they will be presenting material along those lines. In your own thinking you recognize that philosophy and try to find material with a different point of view, so both sides can be presented.

I welcome the hundreds, even thousands of outlets presenting “news” today, but that makes the whole issue of bias much more difficult to handle. I don't want to sound like the senior citizen that I am, but in the old days with more fact checkers, script reviews, it was much easier than it is today to ferret out bias. Good luck. I think the issue of bias has provided some of the most lively debates I have come across and I am happy those debates are still taking place.

Bruce