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The most common area to look for subtle bias is in attributive verbs. Any time the journalist quotes someone and uses a word other than said, went on, continued, or added bias can slip in. By choosing a different attributive verb the journalist can shade the quote with doubt or show agreement.


1. If the journalist uses 'pointed out' or 'noted' it means the journalist feels this is a fact or is the correct view

2. When a journalist uses 'warned or warns' it can mean the journalist agrees with what the person quoted is saying.


3. 'Admit' implies a person is reluctantly confessing to something bad.

4.' Only' implies the journalist doesn't think the number is large.

5. 'As much as' implies the journalist thinks the number is large.



Here is an interesting set of examples of stories from different news sources and how each uses bias word choice depending upon its viewership: http://www.umich.edu/~newsbias/wordchoice.html