One Question All Journalists Should Ask About Their Biases

Journalists are biased, and there's no use trying to change that. With that in mind, the question shifts from "How do I become unbiased?" to "Which biases should I have since bias is unavoidable?"

The answer is deceptively simple.

I can't go through every good and bad bias in a single post, but the one question all journalists should ask about their biases will inevitably point you in the right direction, even if you're not a journalist and just consume news. The question we should all ask is this:

Is my bias ultimately a bias toward the truth?

Easy question to answer, right?

I could easily shift this post's topic from journalism to the big questions about the nature of truth and reality. Journalists should be concerned about those questions, but if you are actively practicing journalism, you need to have the answers to those questions nailed down. If you don't, you're setting yourself up for personal uncertainty.

Ironically, there are two more questions you need to answer before jumping into whether your biases are bent toward the truth. I believe there are right and wrong answers to these questions, but it would be beneficial for you to ask them of yourself.

"What is my ultimate standard of truth?"

In other words, when all else fails, what do you know to be true above everything else? Is it your senses? Your reason? A set of principles or ideas? A religion? An ideology?

"What do I consider important or good?"

Do you have a set of morals? Do you have principles of justice you adhere to? What political, ideological, or religious commitments do you have?

If you don't have values and principles (think "mission," "purpose," or "goal"), you don't have standards or direction.

These two questions will serve as starting points for even more questions you'll want answered to up your journalism and news-consuming game. Even more, it will make you a more thoughtful, more inquisitive person.

Being inquisitive and thoughtful are fundamental attitudes journalists need to cultivate to be effective, but such attitudes are often stifled in newsrooms. More on that later.

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Matthew Giffin is an independent journalist based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Follow him on X and send him story tips at matthewgiffin2002@gmail.com.

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