Thread by @BroStreetJoy

1/ IDENTIFYING BIAS

Bias is everywhere in today’s so-called Journalism

We instinctively know when a story is biased, but not everyone knows what to point to

I want to show Bias in the wild, so you can ID it like a poisonous plant.

For this I’ll travel into a War Zone: CNN

2/ First off:

LOL

3/ First, here’s an easy one:

“Two days before”

This is such a non-story & desperate attempt at “whataboutism”

The 2nd pic is the whole story:

A guy called another guy.

4/ There’s no connection to Milley, & the article repeatedly uses terms like “undercut” & “yet... Miller acknowledged”

as there’s any connection between what Milley did & this phone call

5/ It takes them hundreds of words to get to Milley

Before that they call it “now-controversial”, implying no one cared in the past

ANY story is “now controversial” if we didn’t know about it before

Obvious when called out, *but this is how they subconsciously shift the tone*

6/ Let’s look at this red part:

They start it with a direct quote

Then transition mid-sentence into a concrete assertion that THEY make

Using these words:

“Some”= not many

“Critics”= biased people

“have read” = it’s their interpretation, as in ‘they’re reading into things’

7/ Then they include Miley’s words as late as they can, creating as much distance between the SecDef’s deputy’s routing call and Milley’s

Look at what they say:

It’s “not an offer by Milley to "tip off" the Chinese of an impending attack”

Milley:

8/ An CNN is implying that “some critics” are “reading into” that phrase

All of these tactics are meant to shift the tone & either deweaponize any threat to their side

or confirm the feelings of the people who already feel in line with their side

9/ So they:

-Buried the problematic evidence

-Use judgmental language of “critics”

-made their own assertions

-mixed said assertions with quotes

-used anonymous sources

-conflated completely unconnected events (routine convo with treasonous-sounding wording)

I could go on

10/ I wanted to read more examples

But this alone is sooooo painful

& of course Fox does the same

Allow me to show how this story should’ve read (honestly, not being snarky) if this story were being handled honestly:

11/ “A deputy to Secretary of Defense Miller called his Chinese counterpart to arrange the transition to the new administration.”

12/ The whole point of this was clearly to try and point out that “what Milley did wasn’t so bad!”

“& even if it was, someone under that mean Miller guy did the EXACT same thing, making him a HYPOCRITE!”

Which is about as subtle as this kid:

13/ It’s good practice to take time to look into bad journalistic work & identify exactly:

- what words are chosen

- what the aim of the propaganda is

- if there’s any value in the piece at all

- helps you disarm enemy talking points

/END