The Copy Editor

Nieman Lab remixes Fox News headlines, New York Times style, as an experiment on how people perceive media bias. 

Jonathan Stray asks:

Does this mean that we judge “bias” by brand, not content?

Stray’s takeaways:

The first defense against accusations of bias is to report fairly. But the hostile media effect pretty much guarantees that some stories are going to be hated by just about everyone, no matter how they’re written. I suppose this is no surprise for any journalist who reads the comments section, but it has implications for how news organizations might respond to such accusations.

This research also suggests that the longstanding practice of journalists hiding their personal affiliations might actually be effective at reducing perceived bias. But only up to a point: To avoid charges of bias, the audience needs to be able to see the journalist as fundamentally one of them. This might require getting closer to the audience, not hiding from them.