3 ms·

The idea is to report all the facts that at least a substantial minority of the public believe to be relevant, regardless of which way they swing politically.

The idea is to report all the facts that at least a substantial minority of the public believe to be relevant, regardless of which way they swing politically. All of those facts qualify under this standard, and also the ones I suggested as well. If you leave out the part about Chicago being a Democratic stronghold city, half the American public are going to be yelling that fact at the article and concluding that the writer is biased. And if you leave out the comparison of American gun violence to other countries, you'll have the same accusations of bias coming from other readers. If you want to preempt those accusations of bias, then you need to cover your bases and present all the facts that the public may believe to be relevant. Even those facts which you personally believe to be irrelevant distractions from the narrative you prefer.

kazinator 3y ago
What you're doing there is a form of populism: adjusting the biases hinted at your article to the anticipated biases held by the public, as to somehow pander to everyone at the same time. That's not the same as avoiding biases.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  The idea isn't to pander to the majority, but to include facts that at least a substantial minority believe are relevant even if most people think those facts aren't relevant. This would not make the majority feel pandered to, it would probably make most people believe the article isn't ideologically aligned with them which is the entire point. Democrats would say "why the hell is the article mentioning that Chicago is controlled by Democratic politicians? That's not relevant!" And Republicans would say "why the hell is the article mentioning that America's gun violence rate far exceeds that of other developed countries, that isn't relevant!" However in both cases they would have to concede that the article did include the facts they personally believe relevant (those facts which the other objects to) even though it also included irrelevant facts. This isn't pandering, this is impartially reporting the facts that some significant fraction of people might believe to be relevant while at the same time not conforming to their preferred narrative by omitting facts inconvenient to their narrative. You can't pander to both at the same time. What you can do, and typically is done, is pander to one or the other by conforming to one narrative or the other, choosing or omitting facts according to the needs of one narrative or the other. That is pandering.

kazinator 3y ago

What you're doing there is a form of populism: adjusting the biases hinted at your article to the anticipated biases held by the public, as to somehow pander to everyone at the same time. That's not the same as avoiding biases.

mcpackieh 3y ago
The idea isn't to pander to the majority, but to include facts that at least a substantial minority believe are relevant even if most people think those facts aren't relevant. This would not make the majority feel pandered to, it would probably make most people believe the article isn't ideologically aligned with them which is the entire point. Democrats would say "why the hell is the article mentioning that Chicago is controlled by Democratic politicians? That's not relevant!" And Republicans would say "why the hell is the article mentioning that America's gun violence rate far exceeds that of other developed countries, that isn't relevant!" However in both cases they would have to concede that the article did include the facts they personally believe relevant (those facts which the other objects to) even though it also included irrelevant facts. This isn't pandering, this is impartially reporting the facts that some significant fraction of people might believe to be relevant while at the same time not conforming to their preferred narrative by omitting facts inconvenient to their narrative. You can't pander to both at the same time. What you can do, and typically is done, is pander to one or the other by conforming to one narrative or the other, choosing or omitting facts according to the needs of one narrative or the other. That is pandering.