i went to the media bias fact check page for radio free asia, pushed control-f and typed “cia”. there were three hits, as part of the words “politicians”, “appreciate” and “social”.
radio free asia was literally founded by the cia as an anticommunist us propaganda mouthpiece.
well, maybe they don’t exactly use those words but they might basically say the same thing… what does mbfc’s rfa history section look like?
Founded in 1951, Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit international broadcasting agency of the United States government that broadcasts and publishes online news, information, and commentary to listeners in East Asia while “advancing the goals of U.S. foreign policy.” RFA distributes content in nine Asian languages for audiences in six countries. In the past, RFA served as an anti-communist propaganda operation. Today they continue to promote USA interests with a less direct propaganda approach.
well, that’s glossing over and avoiding some important points, but at least they’re admitting it’s promoting “USA interests with a less direct propaganda approach”. lets see how they score a source they described as literal government propaganda mouthpiece:
Overall, we rate Radio Free Asia as Left-Center Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that slightly favor the left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record. (11/28/2016) (Updated D. Van Zandt 09/03/2023)
oh, the US government propaganda outfit serving “content in nine Asian languages for audiences in six countries” is left-center and highly factual! Who would have known!
the thing that makes media bias fact check a bad source is that it relies on a one dimensional left-right bias continuum and another one dimensional veracity continuum.
anyone with their head screwed on straight, no matter their personal politics or country of origin can tell without a shadow of a doubt that rfa isn’t a good source because it’s a propaganda arm of the us government. when evaluated on the metrics of leftness or rightness under the rubric of mbfc though, it shows up as “left-center” and when put to the test of authenticity by mbfc it is determined to be highly factual.
media bias fact check is a bad source. it cannot, by design, communicate the reality of a source’s bias because the way it evaluates bias is constrained by and i’d say warped into only what fits it’s highschool-in-1999-ass rubric of bias and accuracy!