Skip to main content

Point/Counterpoint

 


Straight News vs. Commentary - - discuss.

Examples of straight news:

Baseball team wins contest 8-3

County investigates future school sites

Neighborhood leaders meet to discuss recycling initiative 

Ice cream taste test brings out over five hundred participants 

Commentary:

The meaning of fashion trend may be more sinister than it looks

Advocates for new landscaping mean to destroy natural habitats 

Is Candidate Mr. X thinking about taking your extra car?

Easy ways to improve your life with electricity (by BGE Exec)

I found the meaning of life and it’s not equality 

Can you see the difference? Please tell me that you can.

I am tearing my hair out almost daily over newspapers/media outlets who blur the lines between the two and therefore mislead their readers. Here’s a recent example from the Baltimore Banner:


Image from Baltimore Banner social media 


Moore seeks to upstage Trump, other Democrats with holiday patriotism speech, Pamela Wood

First off: Pamela Wood is a respected local journalist who covers Maryland politics. She did not write the headline.

The headline tells us that this piece is an op ed piece. It’s commentary. How do I know that? 

Moore seeks to upstage Trump, other Democrats

In a straight news article I should be able to say, “Oh, yeah? Prove it!” Upon reading the article I would find all the factual evidence to prove this thesis. 

This thesis is not provable. Nor does the article actually follow that line of thought.

Someone at the Banner must know this because they promoted the piece on Bluesky like this:


Screenshot from Banner post on Bluesky


Gov. Wes Moore plans to speak about patriotism in an address from the State House on Independence Day.

That’s straight news. It’s provable, quantifiable. 

Who: Governor Moore

What: speech

When: Independence Day 

Where: State House

Why: to address the theme of patriotism 

We are living in a time when we are bombarded with so much information, much of which is junk designed for clicks or thinly veiled promotional content. We need the folks who say they care about truth in journalism to be clear and consistent about what is factual news and what is opinion.

Unless Ms. Wood has a direct quote from the Governor saying, “I’m seeking to upstage Trump and other Democrats” then that title is, by necessity, commentary.

It’s an interpretation of something. It’s an injection of opinion.

Slapping those words on a straight news article does Ms. Wood a disservice and undermines the responsibility that the Banner has to the public.

It’s crucial that we use critical thinking skills when processing information. We also need to make sure that our children are learning those same skills. 

But, for heaven’s sake, can someone tell newspapers that they need to hold up their end of the bargain?


Village Green/Town² Comments 

Comments

  1. Julia A. McCreadyJuly 7, 2026 at 6:07 AM

    Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more