Bias In The News

Every morning we get up, either turn on the radio or pick up the newspaper and try to catch up with the news of the world that is constantly flying by us. Most of us trust that the news we discover in the morning is accurate and is by no doubt what is really happening in the world. The news we learn about in the morning can become topics for conversations later on in the day, but how much of what we learn in the morning is really as accurate as we think it is? Every newspaper, radio station and morning show all have their own unique bias and most of the time we perceive them to be as accurate as they could be.

 In our own Waterloo Region Record we have bias just like any other paper; it may be a surprise but if you look you'll find it. In the recent article from Monday that concerned the attack on the Guatemalan village of San Jose Nacahuil that left 11 people dead and another 18 injured there is a clear bias against the local police. From the title "11 dead in Guatemalan attack" we are instantly supposed to feel sympathy for anyone affected and the 11 people that had been shot. Now that we feel this sympathy we want to know more about who would do such a thing, which is clearly spread out before us in the subtitle. The subtitle of the article was labelled "Residents of remote town pin blame on corrupt police after 29 people shot." Right from the start of the article we are meant to form a picture in our heads of a bunch of disloyal and unfaithful police officers that are the source of the problem. Throughout the rest of the article we are given many other quotes, quotes that come from the affected family members of the people who had been shot that are all very directed toward the idea of the source being corrupt police. Throughout the whole article we do not get a single quote from anyone with the police describing their side of the story. Also, when we do get a mention that "Officials blamed the attack on gang violence" it is dismissed very quickly by a follow up of "skepticism by some of the residents of San Hose Nacahuil" who we already feel sympathy for and are more likely to side with. The situation is so far unresolved and is being looked into by further by more police forces, but with the possibility of corrupt cops will we ever really know what happens?

With every article that is published there will always be bias. When someone hears news of an event they have their own personal way of interpreting it and if they should pass it on or not. Due to this everyone will always take in news differently. Whenever something is published it will have the publishers own twist on the story; and when the reader reads or hears that news they will put their own twist on it if they choose to pass it on. This continual cycle of twisting what has probably already been twisted should make us wonder how much of the news we take in we should trust, and whether or not we are twisters in the news cycle. The next time that you hear a truly surprising news story, stop, take a second and think about if it as truly accurate as you might first have thought, or  just some more bias in the news.

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