Control Language

I remember sitting in class, learning to spot bias in reporting. It’s all in the language, word choice, and it’s obvious if you understand that. Reporting is supposed to be objective and facts. Articles should be written with the most critical information in the beginnings and get less pertinent as you read. “News” articles no longer follow this at all. They are mostly written as persuasive arguments with the language of bias. It’s not the government, and it’s not some conspiracy, but the written word has great power, and people with agendas take to heart that when you control the language, you control thought.

I started to read an article recently, I had to stop because the bias was so strong that I felt I was reading propaganda. This was on a major news site. I’ve seen this in alarming increase, primary news sources basically wrapping op-eds in a news story. It forces me to stay away from news and to not trust the source.

The unfortunate is that as this language, morphing is not evident to all. It obfuscates the truth and blurs lines. It makes it increasingly difficult to find any value in what you hear or read. It’s scary to see us shift from objective reporting to subjective reporting, because who’s deciding on what side of an issue is right? It’s not necessarily the reader anymore, it’s the reporter.

I know yellow journalism has been with us forever, but it’s been the exception, not the rule. It is now the rule. I hope that people are wise enough to make up their own minds. But it’s in the back of my mind always, control the language, control thought.