If this image is too big for your Fediverse client, my apologies, you can read the comic at https://thebad.website/comic/neutral_news
[a newscaster sits at their desk, has a gigantic grin on his face, barely looks human]
Good evening, welcome to NEUTRAL NEWS
Your favorite mainstream program that always brings you a balanced perspective
Tonight’s top story: Some say a genocide is happening, others say it’s a complicated situation
[destroyed buildings, smoke, a crashed car, things look real bleak]
LIVE FROM THE CITY OF GENOCIDEBURG
[split screen, the newscaster continues talking]
A government spokesperson from Genocideland contacted us to clarify that the images you are seeing now might be, I quote, “faked by antigenociders who want us dead”
[in the rubble of a destroyed city, a character looks absolutely desperate, shaking, is screaming]
THEY KILLED MY ENTIRE FAMILY
[split screen, the newscaster smiles smugly]
Thank you for your perspective
[a character in a suit talks, looking very smug]
We reject the premise that there was any killing or destruction
[split screen, the newscaster still smiles smugly]
A bold alternative narrative, worthy of consideration!
[the newscaster is back to the full face inhuman smile, standing next to a chart that shows a BALANCE between TRUTH and FEELINGS]
As always, we at NEUTRAL NEWS aim to meet in the middle
[three identical stern technocrat looking characters in suits are standing at a desk, behind a chart that goes up]
We need to wait for more data before reacting
Let us not get carried away by the emotional responses
It’s a very complex topic
[two banners occupy the bottom part of the screen, below the experts]
DEATH COUNT: VERY HIGH AND GOING UP
Our expert panel says: this could mean anything
[in a destroyed city, in front of an explosion, a character wearing a PRESS helmet talks into a mic]
IT’S COMPLETE CHAOS OUT HERE, I HEARD EXPLOSIONS
[below the war reporter, the bottom half of the screen is occupied by two banners]
UNVERIFIED CLAIMS
We remind you that our experts in the studio say this is still a developing, nuanced situation
[split screen, the newscaster is mildly smiling at the war reporter]
Remember to take everything you see with a grain of salt!
[back to the newscaster at their desk, once again with the creepy full smile]
This was NEUTRAL NEWS presented to you by our sponsor Neutral Milk
Tired of extremes? Try Neutral Milk! Now with 50% less nutrients!
The point of news should has always been and should always be to report things as they are to the public. Their legitimacy should stem from them being accurate, neutral, and nuanced. Their ultimate goal should be to provide to provide all the relative facts and perspectives and let the audience decide for themselves. That’s the ideal standard every news agency worth it’s salt should strive for.
What this meme is criticizing sounds good on the surface, but in reality what’s being advocated for will always evolve to turn into what the US news landscape is now, and that’s something that should be avoided at all costs.
The comic is more what happened with brexit as well. 2 options, so we should have one person from each side represent them in discussions, right? Except this misrepresented the balance of expert opinions which was very heavily skewed towards remain, instead implying it’s about even.
It’s a hard topic to solve, but much like compromise doesn’t mean “just take the middle of the most extreme opinions”, fair news coverage doesn’t mean “present every extreme viewpoint as equally valid when the actual sentiment is clearly biased to one side”. In this case maybe limit it to “the israeli government denied it being a genocide” once or sth.
This meme isn’t anywhere close to neutral though, its criticizing policies such as the fairness doctrine where 1 random nutjob who barely made it through high school is given equal weight to decades of research or whole international regulatory bodies.
But that’s a matter of quality standards rather than the delivery. News agencies should have standards that require all perspectives shown to be from people with some sort of relevant qualification. That way you get rando lunatics, while still adhering to the fairness principle.
Relevant?
Fairness does not imply false balance, which this comic is criticizing. However, I think the criticism is a bit late, since the false balance was far worse in previous decades, and journalists nowadays are comfortable calling out obvious falsehoods by presenting conclusive evidence when it exists and they understand it. PBS follows a fairness standard that attempts to avoid false balance:
A caveat is that journalists often don’t understand conclusive evidence, because they’re not competent enough on the matter they’re reporting to identify relevant facts, so in a rush to report while attempting to avoid bias, they’ll end up with false balance that equally reports all sides & misses relevant, conclusive information.
Are there “accurate, neutral, and nuanced” news organizations that “report things as they are”?
In a pure sense? No. However, there are some that are closer to this ideal standard than others. For example, AP and Reuters are infinitely better than Fox News or Aljazeera.