Sunday, August 06, 2023

Bias and credibility in media sources

By the way, you should know that I often consult the Media Bias/Fact Check website for data on the political bias, reliability and credibility of the various sources I use for this blog. It's a great resource, and fun to play around with.

For example, it tells me that CNN is "mostly factual" and has a "left-wing" bias. Britain's The Guardian is categorized as "Left-Center", but surprisingly it's credibility is only "medium" or "mixed", mainly because of its tendency to use emotive headlines and to reference some less-than-reliable sources. Axios, on the other hand, has a "Left-Center" political bias, but a "High" credibility rating

On the other side of the aisle, Fox News is classified "Extreme Right" as expected, but has a surprisingly good "Mixed" factual reporting rating, as does the Toronto Sun. You have to sink to the level of Rush Limbaugh to find an "Extreme Right" and "Very Low" credibility combination.

The New York Times is centre-left and highly factual, while the New York Post is centre-right and only "Mixed" in the factuality of its reporting, so you have to be careful.

Among my major sources of news (other than the Guardian) are the Globe and Mail (very slightly right of centre and high credibility), CBC (centre-left and high credibility), BBC (centre-left and high credibility), The Atlantic (centre-left and high credibility), The Economist ("Least Biased" politically and high credibility), and CTV News (least biased and high credibility).

All of which makes me feel rather good.

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