3 ms·

The example they give is correctly stating what an acronym in the story stands for. The trouble starts if you have to answer questions like "Which Senators are

The example they give is correctly stating what an acronym in the story stands for. The trouble starts if you have to answer questions like "Which Senators are pro-life" or "Who threatened to exit the EU" which can be leading or misleading or have multiple correct answers depending on your world view.

yorwba 9y ago
Then turn the questions into factual "Which Senators are named as pro-life in this article?", "Which country's representative threatened to exit the EU?". Even when you disagree, you should be able to give an accurate account of the opinion you disagree with.
- protomyth 9y ago
  The problem is if you disagree you get another confirmation of the leanings of the organization. I agree with everdev, you really need to stick with indisputable facts. Your first question is problematic because you might dispute the characterization regardless of what the article says.
  - yorwba 9y ago
    What is the problem with confirming the leanings of the organization just before you are going to comment about completely disagreeing with the article's characterization? If the article mentions that "Senator X of the pro-life camp said ..." you answer the quiz question with "X" (because it's an indisputable fact that the article calls X pro-life) and then you are free to comment how "pro-life" is a biased term, or that X is a shill for Y who supported murdering babies in the past, or whatever. You don't have to agree with the article's stance to know how to answer the questions, you just have to know what the article's stance is.
- cl0rkster 9y ago
  According to the AP stylebook, "pro-life" would need to be replaced with "anti-abortion" because that is more neutral and carries fewer weighted connotations with it. I would suspect a large population would disagree with the AP conclusion, but it goes to show how difficult it is to avoid bias even in a simple fact-based question.
  - yorwba 9y ago
    If the article uses "pro-life" in the text, then the question asking you to confirm that you read that part doesn't add any new bias. If you didn't read the part but skimmed over it, you might be motivated to leave a comment to mention the AP stylebook's recommendation, to the benefit of other commenters.

yorwba 9y ago

Then turn the questions into factual "Which Senators are named as pro-life in this article?", "Which country's representative threatened to exit the EU?". Even when you disagree, you should be able to give an accurate account of the opinion you disagree with.

protomyth 9y ago
The problem is if you disagree you get another confirmation of the leanings of the organization. I agree with everdev, you really need to stick with indisputable facts. Your first question is problematic because you might dispute the characterization regardless of what the article says.
- yorwba 9y ago
  What is the problem with confirming the leanings of the organization just before you are going to comment about completely disagreeing with the article's characterization? If the article mentions that "Senator X of the pro-life camp said ..." you answer the quiz question with "X" (because it's an indisputable fact that the article calls X pro-life) and then you are free to comment how "pro-life" is a biased term, or that X is a shill for Y who supported murdering babies in the past, or whatever. You don't have to agree with the article's stance to know how to answer the questions, you just have to know what the article's stance is.
cl0rkster 9y ago
According to the AP stylebook, "pro-life" would need to be replaced with "anti-abortion" because that is more neutral and carries fewer weighted connotations with it. I would suspect a large population would disagree with the AP conclusion, but it goes to show how difficult it is to avoid bias even in a simple fact-based question.
- yorwba 9y ago
  If the article uses "pro-life" in the text, then the question asking you to confirm that you read that part doesn't add any new bias. If you didn't read the part but skimmed over it, you might be motivated to leave a comment to mention the AP stylebook's recommendation, to the benefit of other commenters.