One of the things that upset me the most about this most recent presidential election was the prevalence of Facebook warriors who armed themselves with "facts" from less than reputable sources. Even worse were the voters who based their decisions on the ideas they found within incredibly biased news sources. Today, I am here to discuss a couple things in regards to the media. All media sources are biased, there I said it. This source is biased, The New York Times is biased, Fox is biased, CNN is biased, etc. However, there are different levels of biases. Those sources who are most reputable are the ones who are least biased. Before I dive into my article I would like you to know a little bit about me so that you know where my potential bias is coming from. I am white male whose a sophomore political science major at a small liberal arts college. In the last election I voted democrat. With that in mind, I will do my best to be fair and as unbiased as I can.

ALL NEWS SOURCES ARE BIASED. As I mentioned before, there is no such thing as a completely impartial news source. Each story a news source provides is written by a person, edited by a person, approved by a person, overseen by a person and so on. Now because news is produced by humans it is produced with some bias. The only way for the media to remain totally neutral is to have the information supplied by robots and delivered to us by robots. Humans innately feel certain ways about certain issues. Our opinions are what make us human. However, no matter how hard we try to suppress opinions they always find a way to shine through. Of course, there are varying degrees of bias but at the end of the day, everything is slanted one way or another. Humans aren't robots and in everything we produce our opinions are seen.

Now I alluded to this earlier but, some sources are clearly less slanted than others. The Young Turks, The Blaze, Occupy Democrats, and Milo Yiannopoulos are extremely slanted sources of news. This is not to stay that they do not provide information because they do. However, the information they provide is one sided and should not be taken as fact. When looking at news sources it is imperative that you ask yourself if both sides are be represented. I found those "news" sources above with a quick scroll through Facebook. While all of their information is catchy and clearly supports one side of an issue, they all utterly fail at being unbiased. Lets not kid ourselves, if you use these news sources as actual facts and take all they information they spew at you to heart then you have done yourself a great injustice. They might be apart of the media but they only profess one sided ideologies. Major news sources are guilty of this as well. Fox is without a doubt a republican news source and CNN is without a doubt a news source for democrats. While both of these sources are less biased by a long shot, they are by no means perfect. Understand when you consume media you do it at your own risk. No sources is without its stances and biases. I would suggest you watch or read new sources who support both ideologies. This way you can make an informed decision and not one based on media bias.

Lastly, at this point you might be thinking "why do I care if my source is biased?" Well the answer to that is simple. If your news sources is biased then you are being manipulated and deceived without you even knowing. By subjecting yourself to only one ideology you are effectively letting media brainwash you. I know that sounds crazy and harsh but that's simply reality. By listening to one sides argument and only that sides argument you are excluding the possibility that the other side may be right. For example, if two of my friends are arguing I don't only listen to one of them. I listen to both their stories and then figure out who I agree with. I need to hear both sides because without it I don't really have the full picture. The same goes for media. You need to listen to both sides. Please don't let yourself be brainwashed and deceived.

I hope you found this helpful and informative. If you are ever questioning the legitimacy of your source of media ask yourself if both sides of a debate are present, if the story seems neutral, and whether or not the producer of the story is known for being biased. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE PURELY TAKE THE WORD OF ANY SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS SOURCE. THEY ARE BIASED.