ABSTRACT
All newspapers and broadcast outlets have to make regular decisions about what to publish or broadcast. Earlier chapters have looked in detail at what makes news and therefore what influences editors in their decisions on what to publish. Newsworthiness, the space available and a balance of stories all play their part in deciding what finally finds its way into a newspaper or broadcast, but the suppression or exaggeration of stories (either in the way they are written or by the way they are used) can be determined by the personal views or political stance of the editor or publisher. This is particularly true in newspapers and magazines where there is no legal obligation to remain impartial. It is not unusual for a newspaper or magazine to follow a particular political or cultural line in its coverage. If it is to continue to hold the trust of its readers then it must attempt to be truthful and accurate, but there is little evidence that strict impartiality has any bearing on people’s trust rating. Indeed, it may well be that they are more likely to trust a paper with similar cultural biases to their own, provided that the stories it does cover are accurate and that the bias is only obvious in the choice of sources and presentation and context of the material.
