Fact: News stories are supposed to be free of reporters’ opinions. The only opinions expressed in them normally come from the sources who are interviewed and named in the story. For example, in an Associated Press story on U.S. climate disasters, there’s a clear message that there’s worse weather to come. But the reporter isn’t saying it. It’s the people who were interviewed by the reporter:

“It’s going to get a lot worse,” Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb said Wednesday.

Separating News and Opinion

Some people avoid reading stories from The New York Times, for example, because they’ve heard from friends and relatives that The Times is a biased, untrustworthy news source. Those people sometimes argue New York Times stories are no different than “fake news.”

Here’s an example: The same month Donald Trump was elected president, The New York Times published a piece with a very provocative headline:

Steve ‘Turn on the Hate’ Bannon in the White House

Posted on social media, this headline alone prompted comments that railed about the story’s liberal bias and, in turn, The Times’ lack of credibility as a news source.

Those commenters didn’t seem to notice what was written above and below the headline.

Appearing just above the headline was the label head “The Opinion Pages.” Placed just below was a subheadline categorizing the piece as an “Editorial” and a byline that read, “By the Editorial Board.”

Audience members may not realize the opinion section and the newsgathering arm of traditional news organizations function separately. The purposes and approaches are different, and understanding the difference between news and opinion is key to understanding what is being read. Readers can disagree with the opinion but still trust the news.

It also helps to know the terminology. One definition of “editorial” is that it’s an adjective “relating to the commissioning or preparing of material for publication.” As a noun, editorial refers to “a newspaper article written by or on behalf of an editor that gives an opinion on a topical issue.”

Traditional American newspapers and their websites have opinion sections that include commentary from conservative, liberal and middle-of-the-road creators. These include columns, cartoons and other forms of information. Readers can gather quite a range of thought from these opinions to help them develop their own conclusions about issues. Fact-based stories in the news sections can also be starting places for readers to learn and decide how they feel about issues or occurrences.

For example, in the aforementioned AP story about climate change, the reader can make an evaluation of the source and what she said by asking:

• Is the source someone who would be knowledgeable about the subject she’s speaking about?
• Are her thoughts, observations and conclusions, as reported in the story, logical?
• Do they connect with what the reader has read elsewhere or personally experienced?

In regard to the editorial or opinion piece about Steve Bannon, yes, the social media commenters were right. The piece was biased—and clearly labeled as such. When reading opinion, the questions can also be applied.

Separating Fact from Opinion

Here’s how writers and editors can think about stories to make sure they don’t cross the line between news and opinion.

Facts

• Facts can be proven to be true or false.
  • Today is Friday.
• Facts can apply to all people and places.
  • All people must drink water to live.
• Facts can be duplicated over and over with the same result
  • Yellow and blue make green.
• Facts can be observed or historical.
  • The United States entered World War II on Dec. 7, 1941.

Opinions

• Opinions are a person’s own thoughts, feelings, beliefs or speculations.
• Opinions cannot be proven and are not 100 percent true or false.
  • The temperature outside is perfect.
  • Green beans are the best-tasting vegetable.
  • The “Harry Potter” series is the best literature of all time.

Where to Find Facts

• Textbooks.
• Encyclopedias.
• Nonfiction books.
• Parts of newspapers and magazines.
• Dictionaries.
• Almanacs.
• Primary sources (firsthand information from the past—a photograph, letter, speech, treaty, journal).
• Experts on a certain subject.

Where to Find Opinions

• Political speech.
• Editorials.
• Advertisements.
• Autobiographies.
• Self-help books.
• From experts on a certain subject.

Editorials and Op-Eds

Traditional print news organizations also have staff members who analyze the news and offer opinions on it. These are editorial and opinion writers. That’s where The New York Times staff editorial on Steve Bannon originated.

Editorials are

• The opinion of the publication as an institution.
• Designed to start a discussion.
• Meant to act as community conscience.
• Hammered out in the editorial board meeting.

For publications large enough to have them, editorial board members are typically:

• The publisher of the news organization.
• The editor.
• The editorial page editor.
• Editorial page writers.
• Other staff or community members who offer perspectives on specific topics.
• Print news organizations also often have another kind of opinion, commonly called op-eds.

The term “op-ed” originally referred to anything published “opposite the editorial page” by writers typically not employed by the publication. The op-ed tradition continues in digital news, usually referring to guest writers who have some knowledge or experience that allows them to offer perspective on a news event or issue.

Op-ed writers can be

• Experts on a specific subject (for example, faculty members).
• Citizens involved in an issue.
• Students.
• Politicians (sometimes, although rarely).

Editorials and op-eds are usually written for at least one of the following reasons:

• As an official response.
• As a public change of attitude.
• As an explanation.
• To entertain.
• To offer new arguments, contexts or dimensions.

Pulitzer Prize winner John McCormick says it’s one thing to have an opinion. It’s something altogether different to sell it. McCormick won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing while with the Chicago Tribune. He told the Poynter Institute that writing persuasively in an editorial is to offer readers an organized debate that is rich with context and considers the likelihood that the reader needs to be brought up to speed on an issue. He said:

“Are we, by our imagination, our open-mindedness and our conviction, adding something to the public discussion? Will our mastery of those attributes today draw readers back to our editorial page tomorrow? Or, by our predictability, our self-satisfaction and our arrogance, are we short-changing our best arguments and driving our readers away?”