Is there truly such a thing as an unbiased account?

Journalists certainly strive to create such a thing, but generally, no.

Agree with RedMosquitoMM. The line between reporting and commentating has gotten razor thin.

To some extent.

A researcher can present observable facts without offering an opinion of them, which makes it unbiased. However, what the researcher chooses to study is biased, as the influence of social/cultural background makes him more oriented towards one particular area of research than another. For example, the person raised in a lower-class neighborhood is probably more likely to study other lower-class neighborhoods, which automatically limits his span of knowledge, thus making it biased. Of course, not everyone can know everything. Weber spoke about this.

This same scenario can apply to newspaper reports as well. Reporters are limited by the amount of knowledge that they have or what information they are more prone to study, which makes them more (probably unconsciously) biased.

Everything, everything, is colored by our experiences. There is no “truth,” there is only a telling as per a person’s perspective. :)

provided you don’t add descriptors of any sort, perhaps. if I make a statement such as “I am typing this on a laptop.” that’s about as straight forward as you can get. You can veer off into the philosophical discussion of “I” etc or the definition of “laptop” but taken as a commonly defined and accepted statement it’s unbiased. Once you get into even the most generalized descriptors say a “grey laptop” it becomes subjective and therefore biased, even if unintentionally, because grey often changes from person to person.

No such thing as unbiased, even in science. Our perceptions are fed by our beliefs and opinions.

Sure. But our goal in science is to minimize that inherent bias so that it’s so tiny it doesn’t affect our results in an observable way.

Unbiased is a pipedream. “Straight facts” can be manipulated without altering their basic veracity while still altering the conclusion of the observer.

@nikipedia I do not agree. Statistics are used by all sides of an argument, regularly. The scientific studies are interpreted by biased people. I observe this often.

@nikipedia Even with that attempt, it doesn’t always work.

@avvooooooo, I never implied otherwise.

@tinyfaery: Bias in science is (1) unwelcome and (2) unavoidable. Statistics are imperfect but they are the very best means we have for drawing conclusions about hypotheses.

But it is observable bias. You said there is no observable bias.

I said that is our goal.

Oh. Maybe I should learn to read.

Or I should be less defensive! <3

:)