How to Identify a Lack of Nuance in News Media

Eight questions to ask when consuming news media to get closer to the truth.

Joe Rogan took horse dewormer, we hear leftwing media say.

Joe Biden wants men on women's sports teams, we hear right-wing media say.

And what’s missing from headlines such as these? Nuance.

Yes, Joe Rogan did take Ivermectin, a product that has been used as a horse dewormer — but it has also been safely administered to human beings millions of times. In fact, it was the 420th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States in 2018, with more than one hundred thousand prescriptions.

Yes, Joe Biden has supported trans athletes who now identify as female competing in women’s sports teams, but that is under the proviso that they have undergone hormone therapy and met a number of conditions first.

Don’t worry.

This is not an article for or against the use of Ivermectin, or the place of trans-athletes.

This is an article on the importance of nuance, and how to identify a lack of nuance in news media.

When something lacks nuance, it usually points to simplistic black and white thinking, a distortion of the truth, and the…