Let's talk a bit about the ways media bias creeps into our discourse. /1

I'm going to point to two articles, both of which are based on the same Associated Press piece. /2

Article links for reference: /3

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/08/19/news/docs-suggest-public-servants-recommended-we-charity-student-program

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/08/19/newly-released-documents-suggest-bureaucrats-were-nudged-to-look-to-we-charity-for-student-program.html

I'm not going to say either headline is entirely accurate - that isn't the point of this discussion.

Instead, this is about the use of wording to lead the reader to particular conclusions. /4

National Observer's headline would lead the casual reader to conclude that the LPC story is largely accurate, and that primes the reader to understand the article in that light. /5

The Star's headline, however, implies something more nefarious was going on, and similarly guides the reader to particular conclusions.

The Star version of the article also contains a few paragraphs about yesterday's prorogation, further slanting the interpretation. /6

Why is this important? Because it's part of a larger disinformation campaign that Canadians are being subjected to. Lurid headlines which play up negative aspects of a story draw eyeballs. /7

That puts all of the readers in a much more difficult place. We have to understand that just like the rest of us, the people writing headlines have their own biases, as well as the organizational direction driving them. /8

As consumers of this information, we have to pay attention now to the intentions of writers, editors, and publishers in putting a particular story forward. /9

It's not good enough to simply assume partisan bias when we read things, but rather we have to read and then recognize what conclusions the author(s) are trying to lead readers to. /10

This is why critical thinking skills are so very important now.

We can no longer trust that the news media is going to be entirely objective, and that editorial opinion columns will necessarily provide the reasoned analysis that we used to expect from them. /11

Just about everyone in this game has objectives and biases, and it falls to us, the readers, to ferret them out and discard the chaff that is intended to lead in specific directions. /12 ~fin~