Dear Editors of The Gavel,
Let me start off by saying, I do love each issue of our school newspaper. I commend you all for clearly exemplifying the creativity, maturity, and personal stories of our own Holmes and Business Careers students!
The latest issue, The Truth Issue caught my eye the most because political topics and conspiracy theories are very interesting to read about. However, I was very taken back when I analyzed the article “Fake News: Media Bias Chart Can Help Decide What Sources To Trust Or Trash.” I understand that this article was based on the responses and chart created by Vanessa Otero. This chart though, is very much fake news and extremely biased in every way possible.
To those who are familiar with political agendas, trends and various news networks, they should recognize that this chart centers CNN (which has lately been under fire for fake news), ABC (fired Brian Ross over dishonest report on Russia) and other liberal networks as “opinion, fair persuasion” and “Selective or incomplete story, unfair persuasion” and higher. With this statement, I am not saying liberal news networks cannot give real news, I am saying the chart shows that those are the only ones that are capable of reporting “real news”.
If you bring your focus down to the bottom right of the chart you can see some of the conservative networks: FOX, The American Conservative, The Blaze, etc. The conservative news networks barely reach the 2nd box: “Fair Interpretations of the News” (with The American Conservative barely surfacing). I am not being biased in saying that conservative networks are the only ones that care capable portraying “real news”. I am saying, the Editors of the Gavel, regardless of political standpoint should serve as the middleman concerning controversial topics such as these–especially if the article is not labeled as “opinion based”.
These facts are being distributed all through the school and those who are not familiar with current events will be influenced to believe this chart and write off networks that are very accurate and wish to educate the American people. No doubt, Ms.Otero is very educated, but her chart is very biased and liberal instead of being honest and unbiased. Also, the titles “Liberal Utter Garbage/Conspiracy Theories” and “Conservative Utter Garbage/Conspiracy Theories” are not appropriate for the educated argument she was trying to make, and are very disrespectful to people and their political positions.
Thank you very much for your time,
Alexandria Garcia
Editor’s Note: The Gavel is run by the journalism department at Holmes/Business Careers High School as a laboratory project for students in advanced newspaper class. Its purpose is to provide leadership in news and editorial content, and to create a forum for student and staff opinion. Letters to the editor are encouraged, and may be submitted via e-mail to matthew.singleton@nisd.net, or presented in person in F101. The staff reserves the right to edit all letters for length and/or appropriate language or libelous content. All letters must be signed.