Bias: Know the difference between straight news and opinionated editorials

It is impossible for a journalist to cover every angle, every viewpoint for any story.

I advise the newspaper staff at a school of nearly 2,700 students. For any story we write, we could encounter 2,700 different opinions if we were to interview every single student in our building.

Clearly we can't conduct that many interviews for each story we write, and we definitely don't have the space to publish every single opinion for even one story.

Because of that fact, we can never completely eliminate bias from our stories.

Every story you read, in any publication, is filtered through one or more journalists. Those journalists choose which sources to interview; the reporters generate their own questions and gather information from multiple sources. Even though journalists report others' words, each journalist must make choices about which questions to ask, which quotes to include in a story.

No two journalists report the same topic exactly the same way - each covers the story in his or her individual style, which could, conceivably, be viewed as bias.

That being said, ethical journalists do their best, once gathering information, to present multiple sides in stories without favoring one group over another. They give fair play to opposing views without interjecting their own opinions in a piece. The exception is editorialized writing.

We should see a distinct difference between straight news stories and opinionated editorials and columns. One of the assignments I give my journalism students at the beginning of the year is to write two stories on the same topic - one as a straight news story with multiple sources and the other an editorial based entirely on the writer's opinion. While the stories focus on the same topic, they end up completely different - as they should.

I want to ensure my students can see that difference.

Editorials and columns contain blatant bias and should be read differently than straight news stories.

While journalists make choices in reporting news stories, they still are reporting others' words, not blatantly promoting their own points of view. News stories present others' arguments, while editorials showcase the writers' arguments.

Understanding that difference is critical for all informed readers.