Opinion and Editorials

As an aware reader, it is important to be able to identify credible sources of information. It's also important to understand the nature of the information these sources provide.

A credible news source ( such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal) provide reporting that is well researched, vetted, and fact checked. There are layers of oversight and review in order to guarantee accuracy. These publications generally avoid sensationalist stories and "click-bait" headlines. And, when they make errors, they print corrections or retractions.

However, just because these sources strive for accuracy does not mean  that everything they publish is necessarily of equal validity. Take advertisements, for example. Advertisements are published in the newspaper but don't necessarily have the same requirements for accuracy as news reports.

The same is true for opinion pieces published by news outlets. Opinion pieces are just that...opinion. And, like all opinions, they take a stance which may or may not be valid. There are three primary types of opinion pieces that news outlets publish: editorials, letters to the editor, and op-eds:

• An editorial, leading article (US) or leader (UK), is an article written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often classify editorials under the heading "opinion". Editorials are typically published on a dedicated page, called the editorial page, which often features letters to the editor from members of the public; the page opposite this page is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces (hence the name think pieces) by writers not directly affiliated with the publication. However, a newspaper may choose to publish an editorial on the front page. In the English-language press, this occurs rarely and only on topics considered especially important; it is more common, however, in some European countries such as Denmark, Spain, Italy, and France. Many newspapers publish their editorials without the name of the leader writer. An editorial reflects the position of a newspaper and the head of the newspaper, the editor, is known by name. Whilst the editor will often not write the editorial themselves, they maintain oversight and retain responsibility.
• A letter to the editor (sometimes abbreviated LTTE or LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. 
• An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece typically published by a newspaper or magazine which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. Op-eds are different from both editorials (opinion pieces submitted by editorial board members) and letters to the editor (opinion pieces submitted by readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed Links to an external site.)

Quite often, there is a substantive distinction in quality between editorial/op-ed/opinions pages and the journalism of a news source. As an example, this tension came to a head at the Wall Street Journal in July 2020 when 280 Journal journalists and Dow Jones staff members wrote a letter Links to an external site. to new publisher Almar Latour to criticize the opinion pages: "As journalists and believers in the First Amendment, we know the value of an opinion page for the airing of views. However, Opinion's lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers' trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources...Opinion articles often make assertions that are contradicted by WSJ reporting." To read about the controversy, see this Washington Post article Links to an external site.. 

Misrepresenting Credible Sources

Authors will often cite a credible news source in order to provide facts to support their argument. On occasion however, a disingenuous author will cite a credible news source to mislead their readers. Citing a reputable outlet, such as The New York Times, lends authority to their argument--the logic being that if the NYT is reputable, then the author's argument is reputable. There are at least two major ways that authors attempt to manipulate their audiences:

1. They cherry pick Links to an external site. articles for information that support their arguments, more-often-than-not taking facts out of context.
2. They cite Op-Eds or Letters to the Editor as if they were facts and not opinions. Considering the example of what journalists at The Wall Street Journal have to say about the accuracy of the Opinions section, how might citing the Opinions section allow an author to misrepresent facts?

Pay attention to these tricks. Follow citations and footnotes to verify claims. 

And, if you want to read the full letter from the WSJ journalists, here you go...