There Is No Such Thing As Unbiased Reporting
Breaking the echo chamber
When I was younger, I thought wanted to be a journalist. Growing up in downtown DC, you tend to either become obsessed with politics or totally disenchanted with it. I fell into the latter camp, but felt that what made it so polarizing could be fixed. These were the beginnings of the Trump era, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that a root of political divide was biased reporting. There were always two sides to any story and Fox and CNN would take things as far as they could in either direction.
To fix this, I dreamed of creating a totally unbiased media outlet. There would be no sly spins on stories, no hidden motives, no special interests, just straight-shooting journalism. As I’ve gotten older and reflected on the problem, I’ve realized the completely obvious: it’s not just a problem of bias. There’s quite literally so much going on at any one time that it isn’t so much of a decision of how to report on things as it is what to report in the first place.
The US gives China a lot of criticism for its state-run media (and rightfully so), but the silver lining here is that most Chinese mainlanders understand to some degree that they’re being fed propaganda. I can’t imagine it’s that hard to recognize when speaking up against it publicly lands you in jail. I think many Americans, on the other hand, have yet to recognize that they’re giving themselves the same treatment. Although you won’t be jailed from speaking out against Fox, if it's the only outlet you get your information from, you’re just cheating yourself. The same goes if you’re on the other side of the aisle. If all you do is read the Huffington Post and your belief system can be neatly packaged into one category or party, you should probably be doing some self-reflection.Â
So how to fix it? For starters, we aren’t changing ‘em. Misaligned incentives quite literally compel media outlets to pit people against each other in the same way politicians might. Telling their audience their problems come from immigrants, rich people, the minority or the majority isn’t done in the interest of being evil, but just to make an extra buck. Instead, we need to break the echo chamber.
Although I still believe the root of American political divide is contributed to by biased reporting, I don’t think fixing it is the solution because I don’t think it can be fixed. Instead, it’s a matter of creating an environment where people are compelled to consider more perspectives. Breaking echo chambers is unbelievably hard, but it’s something I think we should really be working to do.
Until tomorrow,
Alex