By Rayan Jawahar

Edited by Brady Winkler

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News is a wonderful thing – it informs people about what is going on in the world, what to prepare for, or everyday things like stocks and gas prices. However, with all these great parts of news, there is a catch – bias. Bias is the act of supporting one side, one claim, or one specific perspective, while ignoring or insulting the other side. This can, unfortunately, be seen in the news. Things like political issues, crime, judicial cases, and war can be topics that specific news channels take a side on. It is important to look out for them, as they are often not factually accurate, and could possibly try to persuade you to share their opinion. 

Here are some things to look out for when you want to find accurate information and not biased claims:

• Look on their website. Most big news companies have a website where all their articles are posted. When you look on their site, try and see if the majority of articles are leaning towards one side, or if the articles subtly discourage another claim. For example, a news site with an article heading like, “_____’s new plan for America is bound to cause severe economical damage to our country”, is probably more biased than a site with an article heading that is called, “______’s proposal to increase export prices to lead America in a different economical path than before.”

• Listen to the amount of times that a specific subject comes on the news, and what they say about it. When a specific subject keeps on repeating on the news, that means that they want you to think about it, and subtly convince you to share their opinion. 

• Listen to how they describe current events. Biased news companies often discourage the side that they don’t follow, and give negative summaries or headlines that make the other side look humiliating or bad. This frequently happens with political cases, judicial cases, or occasionally wars.

And finally, here are two articles from two different sites about the same topic that have different sides. One of them is MSNBC, which often leans left (Democrat), and oppose the right side (Republicans). The other article is from FOX News, which leans towards the right/Republican side opposing the left side. Know that the articles are about President Donald J. Trump, who is a Republican leader.

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         MSNBC – a news company that is leaning left:

The lingering mystery surrounding Trump’s MRI takes a weird turn.

Almost two months later, the president said he’ll release the test results, though he still doesn’t know what part of his body was scanned.

A week after the medical exam, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt conceded that she didn’t know why this specific test was ordered. A week after that, the president himself acknowledged during a brief Q&A with reporters that he’d undergone magnetic resonance imaging, but he declined to say why his doctors had ordered the scan.

The president has long struggled to understand the purpose of cognitive exams, which are used to identify evidence of dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases. It’s entirely possible for a patient to do well on such a test and still need a head MRI.

There may be nothing to this story, but given Trump’s unfortunate record, he hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt on questions of medical transparency. What’s more, Dr. Vin Gupta, a medical analyst for MS NOW, explained online, “Even if you are leader of the free world, you don’t just get an MRI without a clear reason to do so. There’s no such thing as a ‘screening’ MRI.”

That Trump still has “no idea” what the MRI was for doesn’t exactly resolve the underlying questions about what happened or why. Watch this space.

FOX news – a news channel that is leaning right:

Trump MRI results drop as White House confronts mounting questions over president’s health

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt reads cardiovascular and abdominal imaging findings during Monday briefing

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt released details on President Donald Trump’s MRI scan that was conducted in October, reading the results of the examination during Monday’s press briefing that showed he was in good health. 

Trump’s health has fallen under increasing scrutiny from the media in recent months, including when it was revealed that Trump underwent a second routine physical for the year in October, which included an MRI scan. Leavitt reported the medical imaging procedure found Trump as healthy. 

“As part of President Trump’s comprehensive executive physical advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health,” Leavitt read from the report Monday. 

In conclusion, we have figured out how to differentiate bias from factual news, and figured out which sites support which claim. So next time when you’re watching the news, remember this article, and you will know much more than you used to.