FAKE NEWS

HOW TO TELL IT?

Tomorrow, Vivian and I will take the dangerous trek to and across the Shreveport traffic to the LSU specialty clinic to see an audiologist in hopes of keeping Vivian's hearing from getting worse.

Actually, we aren't. That's fake news. Furthermore it's poorly written, and for those who know me well, it should be obvious it's fake. Let's rewrite it:

Tomorrow morning, Vivian and I will cruise down the interstate, enjoying what promises to be a beautiful day, to see her audiologist for a tune-up on her hearing device. After the tweak to make it better, we plan to find a place to enjoy a meal.

Still fake news. At this writing, we have no appointment at all. But pretend we wanted to write a “straight news” sentence. What would it look like? Try this:

Tomorrow, Vivian and I will go to Shreveport to see her audiologist for a checkup.

If she did have an appointment, that would be a “straight news” way of writing it. What is “straight” news? Most journalism classes teach that straight news is “just the facts, ma'am.” There are few, if any, adjectives or adverbs. It's written with nouns and verbs. And even those nouns and verbs are chosen to be neutral and accurate. For example, “trek” and “traffic” are nouns, but they add to the pessimistic slant of that first sentence. I just wrote “go” in the neutral sentence.

The motive of keeping her hearing from getting worse makes it appear extremely serious, which it's not. Actually, if we felt she was in danger of getting worse, we'd be seeing a doctor, not an audiologist.

Back to the class. In beginning journalism I was taught that basic news was to be neutral. In those days, news stories did not even have the writer's name or by-line on it. By-lines were reserved for the Opinion Page. Some flexibility was allowed in the Features section and the Sports section. So if you read an article on the internet, pay attention to whether it is slanted by the modifiers or choice of words.

Notice how often headlines are used to get you to read the story, and that info is given way down in the story. It's seldom as radical as the headline promises. But that same memory of the headline may bias your reading all the way through. Some bias is just the news media trying to get its share of attention. That's why the headline is usually much more exciting than the story.

Other bias can be striving to slant or spin the news in someone's favor. To spot that, learn to identify the source of the news. Despite Mr Trump's insistence that it is all fake news, the mainstream news media do less of it – IN THEIR STRAIGHT NEWS STORIES – than others. I will publish later an analysis of the media's reports of the Trump-Putin meeting.

I've found The Guardian and the Christian Science Monitor do the best jobs of telling the facts straight. They're not perfect, but much better. Another good source is Quartz, which at times leans left, but usually gives good info.

When news breaks, and you want to get a grasp of reality, start with the Guardian, which is Free. Then check the Drudge Report, which will be conservative and The Huffington Post and Slate, which are liberal. Sometimes you can hardly believe Drudge and Slate are reporting on the same event.

By the way, it is standard practice for journalists to report something as fact only with at least two sources. They also like to name the sources and tell why they are commenting. What the Secretary of Defense says about N Korea should be more important than a rap singer. It's also standard practice to report both sides of an issue or analysis. If you see only one side, check the sources very carefully and be skeptical.