The truth is not all journalists are biased

By: Kyle Hansen

Posted: 5/2/07

I am not afraid to admit it - I am addicted to news.

I have always enjoyed following current events, mostly because I am extremely curious. Actually, I am more than curious, I am your full-fledged nosy-neighbor busybody. I have to know what is going on around me, so much so that I am addicted.

It would not be too bad if I lived in the 1800s, but today's technology has made everything worse.

I love technology, but it is now so easy to get news and information that I can easily find myself doing it all the time.

Plus, one has to be careful in the age of customizable news.

It is way too easy to only get the news you want to hear.

I just moved to a new area and am getting to know my neighbors. I told one of them that I am a journalism major at San Jose State University. The response he gave was typical.

He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "So tell me, when are we going to get some unbiased news?"

I am used to the question. Some form of it comes almost every time I tell people what my major is.

First, I told him, that the news he is getting is probably a lot less biased than he thinks it is.

I didn't elaborate to him, but the truth is that the news is a lot less prejudiced than it seems, it just does not fit your bias. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks that the media are unbiased, and the truth is that they are not.

I find it hilarious that when I talk to someone that is liberal, they complain that the news is conservative; and when I talk to a conservative person, they complain that the news is liberal. So, which one is it? It can't be both.

Everyone has some bias, even we journalists, but we try really hard to report only the news that really matters and to cover all aspects as thoroughly as possible. For the most part, we do a good job. We just do not match your bias, whatever it may be.

This brings me to the second thing I told my neighbor: be careful where you get your news.

Every media outlet has a slight bias, whether they admit it or not. And that is OK. It is just good to know ahead of time what that bias is and counter it with a news source with a different bias.

Enter technology again.

While the Internet may allow for an information overload, it also allows one to easily get news from multiple sources. Doing so will only feed your own bias and can potentially skew your perception of the world.

I use an RSS reader to keep on top of what is happening. Right now, I subscribe to 73 different feeds. Some of those come from the same sources, but there are at least 10 large news sources like the San Jose Mercury News, the L.A. Times and the New York Times, plus many different blogs. In the last 30 days I have read more than 10,500 items.

As I admitted, I am a little over the top, but reading these feeds only takes a few seconds to look at the headlines and then read only the items that seem interesting.

Getting news from a variety of sources means that I am not just listening to people that agree with me. Sometimes the news in the San Francisco Chronicle seems a little slanted to me. But I can read about the same story from the Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune.

The only problem is that all the news can get overwhelming. Every once in a while I just have to click "Mark all as read," and move on.

But the variety is good. It helps me to be more rounded as a person and more educated as a citizen.

So the next time you are tempted to complain about the media being biased and evil, consider your own news gathering process. The unavoidable natural bias in the news is not a problem if you are utilizing the resources around you.

Kyle Hansen is a Spartan Daily staff writer. Guest columns appear every Tuesday and Wednesday.