Your Political Leanings Probably Impacts Which News You Trust

This Business Insider article (https://www.businessinsider.com/most-biased-news-outlets-in-america-cnn-fox-nytimes-2018-8) discusses the most and least biased news sources in the U.S. according to Americans. Yes, Americans weighed in on American news sources in this 2018 study. I found the article helpful because I analyzed how extreme or lenient the ratings were given to each news station, and by which political party.

Yes, political party matters when watching the news.

This article reminded me that humans like to put ourselves in groups.

There's nothing wrong with groups except for this bad psychological phenomenon called group think.

If you stay only within your group, you can start having more extreme ideas that make sense within your group only because no outside opinion different from yours has come to ring alarm bells and say "okay, hold it, take it back a notch, not all of these ideas are great." OR, even worse, because of someone's fear of being rejected by the group, they keep their dissenting opinion silent to gain favor from other group members.

See how I said that "not all of these ideas are great" instead of "all of these ideas are horrible"? Most of the times, there are good things each political party (or group of people in America) are trying to accomplish, and not all of their ideas are bad. Staying away from Group Think is vital to rebuilding a more bipartisan America, but also vital for building an American landscape where people can argue and debate civilly, with love and respect.

Therefore, I suggest you read this article, understand where your political bias makes you lean when you look at the news, and then diversify your news sources a bit.

Avoid Group Think by having at least one source of news that challenges your views.

One more thing.

Keep in mind, this article was written in 2018. It's important to know what date the article was written because it could be slightly outdated information, by now. Since it's within 5 years, I think this information probably hasn't changed much.

Top 4 Unbiased World News Sources? Sounds cool

This article was updated this March (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-world-news-websites-guaranteed-free-censorship/), and it's another fact-based article about 4 world news sources that have consistently been analyzed AND HAILED to be reliable and unbiased sources for news.

The article is great because it explains what unbiased reporting looks like, provides links for you to look at their resources, and gives you detailed information about each news source they are saying are unbiased.

They also mention that it's totally okay to try to gain a more unbiased approach to American news by watching both CNN and Fox, as long as you understand the bias each of them has. That's great advice, because most people I know only watch one of these two sources when I feel like a good balance is needed, instead.

Here are the 4 news sources they suggested:

~The Associated Press

~Wall Street Journal

~Reuters

~BBC

Go to the Primary Source if All Else Fails

Primary sources are documents, a first-hand account, or another source (i.e. a video) that constitutes direct evidence of an object of study. Primary sources are also known as original sources.

If you are ever thinking to yourself "Hmmm, this news source sounds a bit too biased, and maybe their opinions are screwing with the facts," then go to the primary/original source. Go to the statistics they are sharing. Go to the article/book they are referencing. Do your due research. Care to find the truth, because it's there, I promise.

A lot of people my age sometimes despair that there are no trustworthy news sources out there. Don't trust the news people if they haven't earned your trust yet, but I'm glad I live in an age when I can look up most scientific journals, live interviews and/or recorded interviews, and other things that help me find the truth.

Yes, I'm a bit lazy, and would probably only do this on my own about an issue I was passionate about, but it is an option. It is a very real option to do the work yourself.

The truth is out there. You can find it with hard work, luck, and God's help.