Slant…
from a journalistic perspective, it’s colorizing a news report to fit the opinion of the reporter. It’s the polar opposite of hard news reporting, and is more akin to OpEd, or even News Feature writing.
More than likely, only the erudite would be aware of the differences. The average Joe is clueless about it, and only knows “where the gas and keys go,” which is another way of saying “if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.”
A one word description for that is “gullible.”
And face it, not everyone is a brainiac… and that’s okay.
What it boils down to is integrity, and truth-telling, which is precisely why journalistic integrity is of paramount importance in a free society like ours. Lack of it is what got “Lyin’ Brian Williams” canned from being the anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It wasn’t “colorful” reporting, it was blatant fabrication of a material fact. In plain language, he lied – and not just once, but several times – about events he reported, including Hurricane Katrina and being under enemy fire while flying in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Such phenomenon is not just limited to teevee news, but journalistic integrity also covers the written word. And there have been Read the rest of this entry »