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A few weeks ago, the Daily Bee devoted effectively an entire page to an idea (visually represented by a bell-shaped curve) by Vanessa Otero purportedly ranking the myriad of news-providing entities in the U.S .in order to reveal the biases in those organizations. The conclusions were sure to raise doubts.

Shortly before Ms. Otero’s ranking was provided to Sandpoint, the Covington High School students’ incident occurred in Washington, D.C. ABC News labelled the incident as a confrontation. At first, the AP reported that the Indian had served in Vietnam (He hadn’t). The New York Times reported the incident as an “explosive convergence of race, religion and ideological beliefs.” A Washington Post opinion piece by Tristan Ahtone condemned the students and journalists who had attempted to absolve the students. Worst of all, ABC’s Savannah Guthrie attempted to place a guilt-trip on Nick Sandman, the student most prominently identified. The AP, ABC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post were placed in the most reliable, least biased group at the top of her system.

Shortly after Ms Otero’s ranking, the Jussie Smollet debacle occurred in Chicago. The rush to judgement was unworthy of respectable journalism. The previously cited new sources were at the front of the bias parade, reaching a peak with ABC New’s Robin Roberts sighing about how “beautiful” was Jussie’s account of the alleged assault.

Ms Otero’s system is itself biased — and false. Another attempt to mislead the public.

JEREMY CONLIN

Cocolalla