bi·as /ˈbaɪəs/
noun, adjective, adverb, verb, bi·ased, bi·as·ing or (especially British) bi·assed, bi·as·sing.
–noun
1. an oblique or diagonal line of direction, especially across a woven fabric.
2. a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.
3. Statistics . a systematic as opposed to a random distortion of a statistic as a result of sampling procedure
When I studied journalism, our reports would be marked-down for even the slightest hint of bias.
"Biased reporting" was regarded as a contradiction in terms.
Bias was limited to the editorial page.
That was almost 50 years ago.
Nowadays, "biased reporting" has been transformed from an oxymoron to a redundancy.
How is the word improbable, preventing unprejudiced consideration?
What would you say instead, if you thought something from history was improbable? Would you say it happened, or didn’t happen? Or would you qualify your statement somehow?
Agreed. We need wholesale replacements in journalism as well as lawmaking.