Just the facts Ma’am

Just the facts Ma’am - Joe Friday

Since the internet and cable TV went mainstream information is easily accessible so people no longer have to rely on the local nightly news and regional newspapers which quite often showed a distinct bias on their reporting of some subjects.

While it is human nature to try to influence people to your viewpoint it interferes with the reporting on the basic facts when the facts are interwoven with the writers opinions and interpretations.

Then there are the sources with agendas who purposely spin the facts to try to influence others to join their cause. They are easy to spot if you pay attention to their track record. Once challenged on a subject they immediately state that is was a mistake, it was misspoken or an aberration which may be true for some but for others it is a ongoing practice of altering the facts to prove their point without regard for the truth.

This is not to say that the new information sources are any less biased but that you have access to a lot of different biases which makes it easy to spot the different spins on a particular subject.

So what to do when you are looking for the facts?
1. Don’t rely on a single source, get as many as possible.

2. Take them all with a grain of salt all the time. Just because you had good results previously with a source doesn’t mean they are not biased about other topics.

3. If all the sources agree on certain facts then that is the part that is most likely correct.

4. Don’t become jaded, innocent mistakes are made even by the best.

5. Make a habit of thinking objectively and don’t just take others opinions as facts.