{"id":10435,"date":"2013-10-08T08:25:17","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T21:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=10435"},"modified":"2019-04-14T00:01:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T14:01:48","slug":"fact-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/fact-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact or opinion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/p>\n

Yes, there is a difference between fact and opinion – and a credible CJ must be able to identify that difference.<\/p>\n

Facts are claims that you can verify by asking yourself a simple question: ‘says who?’<\/p>\n

Opinions are thoughts that you or the person you are interviewing express about an issue, event or topic of interest.<\/p>\n

Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facts are claims that can be verified.<\/p>\n

All facts must be attributed – to someone or something (such as a report). If you haven’t read the report that is being quoted yourself, then claims made about the report must be attributed to someone<\/em> – a person.<\/p>\n

If your interviewee expresses ‘facts’ – you must check them.<\/p>\n

Most facts can be disputed. For your story to be credible, you must request an interview with people who may hold alternative opinions.<\/p>\n

In MSM (mainstream media) this is called getting ‘the other side of the story’. At No Fibs we recognise there are many prisms through which to view a story, not just two. However the principle is the same – it’s vital to healthy media to report myriad views.<\/p>\n

Opinions<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s okay for your interviewee to express opinions in your story.<\/p>\n

All such opinions must be either contained within quote marks or attributed to your interviewee with ‘s\/he said’.<\/p>\n

Beware reporting what your interviewee claims someone else said – unless you have asked the person yourself, such information is for you to tuck away for another day.<\/p>\n

Do not report what someone says someone else says unless you have checked with the source yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no place in a news story for your opinions.<\/p>\n

There is however a place on No Fibs for an opinion piece, if you’d like to write what you think about a particular issue.<\/p>\n

Such pieces will be clearly labelled ‘Opinion’. All claims you make in your opinion piece must be verifiable and attributed to a particular source.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, there is a difference between fact and opinion – and a credible CJ must be able to identify that difference. Facts are claims that you can verify by asking yourself a simple question: ‘says who?’ Opinions are thoughts that you or the person you are interviewing express about an issue, event or topic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,585,1441,1440],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-2Ij","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}