How to separate news from opinion

In our current environment it is a real challenge for Americans to separate actual news from what often is passed as news but is really opinion or, in some cases, a mixture of opinion and news.

A good example was the 'news reporting” during our last election. At least one major TV network advertised that they would bring coverage of the election results and report the results. On election night this network was reporting the vote counts but in the broadcast also projecting winners - not based on factual reporting of results but on their opinions.

A prime example was their declaration that Sen. Chuck Grassley had won re-election, only minutes after the polls had closed! The actual votes had not yet even been started to be counted. On this same station, they kept saying (reporting?) in a tone that made it seem factual that Hillary Clinton was winning, when there were few facts to back up these comments.

As we now know, many of the ‘opinions' reported were wrong.

This blurring of fact and opinion is more prevalent on TV, but is also seen in some newspapers and many magazines. Some radio programming is also in this mess. How is one able to determine what is news and what is the news reporter's opinion?

The Gazette has both news and opinion - like a good newspaper should. In my over 30 years of reading George Ford's articles, he has reported business news - telling us the who, what, when, where, and - if it was factual - the why of business news. I and my fellow business people have used the information Ford presents in his excellent reporting to make business decisions and investments. This is NEWS!

The Gazette's editorial page has a panel giving their opinion which has been though out, researched, and discussed. Readers know this is an opinion formed by a well-informed group - but it's still just an opinion - not fact or news of the who, what, when, etc. Other writers have their own single opinion, like Todd Dorman. His individual opinion isn't always the same as The Gazette's Editorial Board but it doesn't have to be as it's just one man's opinion! This is OPINION!

The only place in the news and information media of any form where news and opinion should be commingled is in weather forecasting. Weather facts and observations are reported and then opinions are given - and as we all know, these opinions are often wrong!

The real challenge for us is to have some way of discerning what is factual news and what is opinion so that we can be informed and make good decisions for ourselves, our families and our businesses.

Maybe all that appears to be news in the media should be labeled: N for factual news, O for opinion, and NO for that terrible mixture of news and opinion that is being peddled as news!

' Jim Williams, of Cedar Rapids, was active in international business as a chair of the old International Trade Bureau at the Chamber of Commerce and then as a board member of the International Traders of Iowa. He now owns the consulting firm SARULING, LLC.