It's not fake, but biased

The term “FAKE NEWS” has become ubiquitous in the virtual and real world that we thrive today. Because of how much we have bastardized the use of this term, it has somehow lost its essential meaning.

The not-so-trustworthy Wikipedia.org has the following definition:

 “Fake news, also known as junk news, pseudo-news, alternative facts or hoax news, is a form of news consisting of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional news media or online social media...”

But far from this, we see people branding news critical to a political faction or to an ideology they align with as fake news. This is obviously skewed from the above definition. News doesn't need to agree or disagree with your opinion. Moreover, news needs not to align itself with any political faction or ideology. Its mere purpose is presenting facts – nothing more, nothing less.

But a problem arises from this way of confining what news should be as all media and everyone around you are biased.  This may sound like a bold claim, but I see it this way. No matter how a supposedly neutral media entity tries and focuses on presenting facts, the people behind it and the media organization itself have biases. The truth is they protect certain interests. And mind you, this biased nature extends not just with traditional media, even social media and common people like you and me have our own biases. As much as we try to stay, act, and believe that we are neutral, we all are biased.

Now, this creates a dilemma. If the news in its purest form presents facts and facts alone, then a biased entity can't create news. This is the truth and its bad for all of us. However, there is nothing we can do about it. As such, I believe we must redefine how we see the news. News, for me, is an objective view of narrating facts based on the information one has gathered. Consequently, since our objective view is limited to whatever information we have gathered and one can't gather every information may it be subtly or largely influential to a news piece, we will be creating and consuming biased news.  

And it is with this dogma that I find it imperative that we do not stop evaluating our facts and do not confine ourselves to the narrative that we believe in. We must open our minds to every side especially when we are presented with new “facts.” And when we do this, we need not showcase hostility. There is nothing wrong with having arguments. An argument only becomes obnoxious when people twist facts and resort to logical fallacies to support them.

Lastly, in line with the allusion that news is always biased, we must understand that when a piece of news lacks or has more information than another one, it is not necessarily fake news but merely a biased account of appreciating the facts. Again, It's not fake, but biased.

And along with this line of thought rises new points of inquiry – What separates news from fake news? Is there a gray area in between the two? How do we spot fake news? I’ll try to answer these questions and more on future posts. Till then, adios amigos!

Wait... Here's an irrelevant quote. "The truth behind the lie is far more dangerous than the lie itself."