There is a canyon between a leaning — aka bias — and lying. Lies purport to be facts but are provably false. A cynical form of lying is a statement like “we need to tighten voting laws because of all the allegations of fraud.” As the allegations were found baseless 60 times, they cannot be the basis for any action other than “stop making false allegations.”
By contrast, bias does not inject falsehoods (”If Fox News wants to be a political tool, it should be treated as such and not given access meant for journalists,” March 9). Bias shows itself in expressed implications of facts or phrasing of interview questions. Watching PBS News Hour, I regularly wish an interviewer would have asked a question neutrally. The same thing happens on Fox News. But alone among mainstream outlets, Fox occasionally manufactures or propagates falsehoods.
There’s a bright line there. We should hold news outlets to a 100% factual standard including if they run opinion shows. Fox and consistent fact-checking? Not even close.
Kevin Avery, Arnold
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