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when people write, they often try to get as close to the truth as they can.

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however their best efforts are usually thwarted by a little something called [hands use typewriter]

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bias. especially if they write for a website called something like all

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Republicans suck.com or liberal commies need to go.net. anyway bias is a

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prejudice toward or against something. in other words it's a kind of opinion. and

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when that prejudice comes from an author we call it surprise surprise

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authors bias. luckily for us there are a bunch of telltale signs of authors bias. [man types sitting on the beach]

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loaded words stereotypes vague language and one-sided arguments. well loaded

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words inspire some kind of emotion in the reader. helping to convince the

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reader of the writer's perspective without the writer actually having to

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make a good argument. sweet. less work for the writer good thing too [young man sleeps]

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because writing is exhausting. you know, an example of loaded words

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would be referring to an expert not as a doctor or a professor but as an elite. it

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makes the person seem like less of a reliable authority and more like well a

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snooty jerk. by using a term like elite the writer might not even directly argue [man in suit types on laptop]

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that the professor's opinion is wrong, but instead let the emotional energy of

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the word elite convince his readers that the guy ought to be chased out of town

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with pitchforks. stereotypes on the other hand give an oversimplified view of an

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entire group treating them as if while they're all the same.

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unfortunately these oversimplified views are rarely positive. so if a writer [woman types sitting on couch]

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includes a line about you know, say those lazy firemen, well they're using a

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stereotype. and a stereotype that very few firemen would agree with. not a group

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of people you want to tick off. yeah all right well vague language involves

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words or phrases that aren't very specific, leaving a reader's imagination

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to fill in the blanks. usually using your imagination is a good thing but the

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writer should be doing most of the work here. for instance a film review might [monkey plays violin]

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mention that a movie has no good characters, but the reviewer might never

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actually say what a good character actually is. character that's interesting?

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moral? capable juggler? without some additional, less vague

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information, well, their bias has left us in the dark. and finally we have

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one-sided arguments when the author only brings us one side of the story. which is

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most likely their side of the story. right? so if you read an entire article

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that rails against bicycle riding in cities without even one mention of why [ bicycle race]

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it might be a good idea the author's probably knee-deep in bias and not wild

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about bikes. maybe they never got out of training wheels or they're jealous of

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everyone who's mastered the skill of riding.

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who knows? so keep an eye out for these indicators of authors bias and you won't [eyes shown]

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end up well stepping in it. we don't know if you've ever had to wash bias off

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your sneakers, but oh it's no fun. [poop in the street]

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