Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER Factual Reporting: MIXED Country: Qatar MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: LIMITED FREEDOM Media Type: TV Station Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY
Everyone is throwing propaganda at each other in these times, there is a lot of false information floating around. This website tries to structure the chaos a bit. It won’t be always right and can’t deliver truth, but it does a very important job - assessing the credibility of media sources.
You might not be satisfied with their assessment, and that’s okay. A look into your profile let it seem you might be subject to your own bias too. Maybe you could consider consuming some news sources additionally to Al Jazeera, just to get a more complete picture of reality - and no, it doesn’t have to be the times of israel.
I’d never seen the page before. The few sources I checked seemed to match up with my expectation (except one or two I would have seen as more left were marked centre left). They have a page that explains how they calculate left vs right. That page seems to concentrate on American issues a lot more than international, which is a problem considering they are rating international sources too and might explain why I (not coming from the US) saw some sources as differently positioned.
I could not immediately see their method for ranking factuality. They have notes on each source with information on why they chose the score they did, though.
All in all, it doesn’t seem to me like they’re trying to push a certain message with their ratings. I saw plenty of left and right based media sources with mixed factuality scores.
I could not immediately see their method for ranking factuality.
They claim on their website that they don’t do most of their own fact checking:
“Media Bias/Fact Check rarely conducts original fact checks as many other sources are faster and do a better job. We primarily rely on fact-checkers affiliated with the International Fact-Checking Network ( IFCN).”
According to Media Bias/Fact Check’s Wikipedia page, writers at the Poynter Institute, developer of the IFCN, have made the following statement: “Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific.”
It is interesting that one of Media Bias/Fact Check’s criteria is biased wording and then they made the following assessment about Times of Israel: “The Times of Israel covers Israeli and regional news with minimally loaded language…” Meanwhile, the caption for the top headline on the Times of Israel at this time is: “PM’s office says families of those slated to be freed have been notified * G7 foreign ministers urge further extension of ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-ruling terror group” Terror group does not sound like minimally loaded language. Now if the people who created the criteria to measure biased language are not concious of the fact that terror or terrorist in place of militant or rebel is biased language, then that will skew results through algorithmic bias.
Have you? Seems to be founded by a
guy called Dave Van Zandt. There is a pretty extensive wikipedia article about the site. It does not seem to be the mighty tool for everything, but there are even scientific studies using that tool.
What credentials does this “Dave Van Zandt” have. What evidence is there that support his credibility?
Scientific studies use it because it’s a dataset. Do you want me to point you to the hundreds of shitty datasets that people have used in the past for machine learning work?
Everything about the author is what’s posted on the website. There’s no evidence to back it up: no record of graduation, no evidence of a degree. Dude could say anything and there would be no way to validate it.
That’s not true for institutions or news agencies, where the journalists have very public records.
aljazeera.com - Bias and Credibility
Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: Qatar
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: LIMITED FREEDOM
Media Type: TV Station
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY
Source: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/al-jazeera/
Ah yes, there is nothing more credible than mediabiasfactcheck.com, the be-all end-all judge of what is and isn’t trustworthy.
Times of Israel - Bias and Credibility
Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: HIGH
Country: Israel
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MODERATE FREEDOM
Media Type: Website
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY
You’re kidding, right?
I am not kidding. Answering to your comment a bit lower as well:
There is no need to explain the methodology as it is very well explained on their website https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/methodology/
Everyone is throwing propaganda at each other in these times, there is a lot of false information floating around. This website tries to structure the chaos a bit. It won’t be always right and can’t deliver truth, but it does a very important job - assessing the credibility of media sources.
You might not be satisfied with their assessment, and that’s okay. A look into your profile let it seem you might be subject to your own bias too. Maybe you could consider consuming some news sources additionally to Al Jazeera, just to get a more complete picture of reality - and no, it doesn’t have to be the times of israel.
In this case I think they’re not wrong. Israel does fucked up things wrt arrests and Palestinians.
Exhibit A: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ahed-tamimi-latest-palestinian-girl-14-years-prison-kicking-spitting-israeli-soldiers-protest-family-a8149411.html
I did not want to say they are wrong, just give an objective estimate about bias and origin of Al Jazeera.
Objective to whom? How is it objective? Can you explain me their methodology or are you just putting in your blind faith?
I’d never seen the page before. The few sources I checked seemed to match up with my expectation (except one or two I would have seen as more left were marked centre left). They have a page that explains how they calculate left vs right. That page seems to concentrate on American issues a lot more than international, which is a problem considering they are rating international sources too and might explain why I (not coming from the US) saw some sources as differently positioned.
I could not immediately see their method for ranking factuality. They have notes on each source with information on why they chose the score they did, though.
All in all, it doesn’t seem to me like they’re trying to push a certain message with their ratings. I saw plenty of left and right based media sources with mixed factuality scores.
They claim on their website that they don’t do most of their own fact checking:
“Media Bias/Fact Check rarely conducts original fact checks as many other sources are faster and do a better job. We primarily rely on fact-checkers affiliated with the International Fact-Checking Network ( IFCN).”
According to Media Bias/Fact Check’s Wikipedia page, writers at the Poynter Institute, developer of the IFCN, have made the following statement: “Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific.”
It is interesting that one of Media Bias/Fact Check’s criteria is biased wording and then they made the following assessment about Times of Israel: “The Times of Israel covers Israeli and regional news with minimally loaded language…” Meanwhile, the caption for the top headline on the Times of Israel at this time is: “PM’s office says families of those slated to be freed have been notified * G7 foreign ministers urge further extension of ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-ruling terror group” Terror group does not sound like minimally loaded language. Now if the people who created the criteria to measure biased language are not concious of the fact that terror or terrorist in place of militant or rebel is biased language, then that will skew results through algorithmic bias.
feddit de having a normal one.
Media Bias Fact Check is less reputable than pretty much every site they report on.
They have no credentials to establish their credibility. Seriously, try to find any anything about the people running the site.
Have you? Seems to be founded by a guy called Dave Van Zandt. There is a pretty extensive wikipedia article about the site. It does not seem to be the mighty tool for everything, but there are even scientific studies using that tool.
I mean seriously, why are you doing this?
What credentials does this “Dave Van Zandt” have. What evidence is there that support his credibility?
Scientific studies use it because it’s a dataset. Do you want me to point you to the hundreds of shitty datasets that people have used in the past for machine learning work?
You claimed that you can’t find anything about the person behind that website, I obviously proved you wrong.
If you want an honest debate I’d suggest to add something constructive instead of only asking questions.
You can ask the same for any other person, institution or news agency.
Everything about the author is what’s posted on the website. There’s no evidence to back it up: no record of graduation, no evidence of a degree. Dude could say anything and there would be no way to validate it.
That’s not true for institutions or news agencies, where the journalists have very public records.