Skeptical about these Mediaite-reported bias/accuracy ratings for cable news shows [View all]

[Silent3]

I want to resist being a knee-jerk supporter for "my team" in matters like this, and accept the possibility that some news sources I like possibly aren't being as accurate or honest as I'd hope.

But this still seems way off to me:

https://www.mediaite.com/news/cable-news-shows-and-networks-ranked-for-bias-and-accuracy/



I don't disagree that a lot of MSNBC content comes from an unabashedly liberal perspective.

But I don't agree at all with this rating of the accuracy of various MSNBC shows along side anything from Fox. Even what you might call "opinion" from someone like Rachel Maddow is solid, thoughtful, fact-based opinion. On the other hand, we have clear court records detailing Fox knowingly lying to their viewers.

Ad Fontes founder Vanessa Otero explained her methodology in a recent op-ed, writing, “all our articles and episodes have been rated by three-person (left-right-center) panels of Ad Fontes-trained analysts. We currently have over 60 analysts on staff who have collectively manually rated over 60,000 pieces of news and informational content.” Otero acknowledged that both she and her analysts have an inherent bias and that they actively work to “mitigate” those by “using repeatable standards and metrics and allowing accountability by having others observe” their process.

I really don't trust, regardless of any supposed training methods applied, you can have a right-wing panel member fairly judge the accuracy and reliability of fact-based news reporting. Retaining one's status these days as a representative of the American right practically requires outright rejection of reality, on issues ranging from climate change to who won the 2020 presidential election.

I frankly don't much trust the ratings dispensed by anyone who calls themselves "independent" these days either. Trying to straddle some imagined middle ground between Democrats, for all of their flaws, and a conspiracy-addled Republican party proudly marching into fascist authoritarianism, doesn't strike me as great credentials for dispensing fair-minded assessments of accuracy either.