As I get older I realize how much I prefer opinionated news over the detached method that keeps writers out of the stories. I don’t want to have journalists creating the news but I also want to see or read them reacting to it. I don’t want them to only share the information they’ve gathered but rather to share their reasoning and conclusions. The idea of removing one’s bias from reporting seems impossible to me, so far better to admit it, in my opinion.
Here’s the kind of difference that grates on me:
Fact Checker — The Washington Post
In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims
The Fact Checker’s database of the false or misleading claims made by President Trump while in office.
I appreciate that The Washington Post took this time to build this database — but do you know what would make me even happier? Just say Trump lied. Back in 2021, plenty of news agencies seemed unwilling to admit this truth and seemed to depend on various opinion posts to do the majority of the work for them. With the second term now underway, more mainstream news organizations seem open to finally just say what is obvious to so many common people: Donald Trump is a liar.
Daniel Dale — CNN
Analysis: Donald Trump’s top 25 lies of 2025
Just like his first presidency, President Donald Trump’s first calendar year back in the White House was an unceasing parade of lies. In 2025, though, the variety of Trump’s false claims shrunk even as he maintained his trademark staggering frequency.
Isn’t that far more refreshing? No pretense.
That boldness and brashness is what I prefer in other areas of commentary, such as movie reviews. This is why the review I read about Avatar: Fire and Ash was one of the most impressive reviews I’ve read in a while.
Walter Chaw — Film Freak Central
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
When I first got all up in my feelings reviewing Avatar sixteen years ago, much of the hate mail accused me of imagining that Cameron was retelling the Native American genocide with Lakota Sioux who “fought harder.” Then he confirmed it.
…
Whenever we Americans recognize a horrible truth about ourselves, we say it’s not like us, and I have to say: I agree, it’s not like us. It is us. Not the fact of Avatar, but that Avatar rakes in a billion dollars every time a new one comes out. Imagine an unbelievably paternalistic rollercoaster that makes you feel less racist for a few hours. If you build it, they will come.
I feel the same thing about people in history. There’s something about my brain that doesn’t find it worthwhile to offer greater respect to people in positions of power or to find those positions as inherently more valuable than others. The output of that position might make it more useful and the person might be individually more moral than others, but the position itself doesn’t lend that person any additional credibility. In fact, I often find myself far more critical and skeptical of those in power and I think it’s a better position to take over credulity and trust.
I don’t just point this view towards things that I don’t care about: while Avatar means little to me, Star Trek shaped my childhood in a variety of ways, yet it too has become obviously dated and hard for me to recommend even within my own lifetime. It’s sad because of how much the show meant to me, but it’s encouraging because the basic idea of Star Trek is alive in us if we’re constantly progressing in our cultural standards and find old series in the franchise falling behind.
Jessie Gender
Why Tech Fascists Keep Reading Star Trek Wrong
What happens when Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman watch Star Trek and somehow think it’s about them?
Once we can get over our hero worship we can start properly looking at the world. We can’t ever expect to get better if we prevent change. I am shocked when people bristle at criticism of generations past or the history of the United States, as if we should in our understanding of older cultures ignore the obvious flaws in their ideals or their regressive views as compared to today. It’s integral to any conversation to keep these flaws in constant view so as to not repeat their mistakes. To begin to see them as anything but intensely flawed people is to ignore history and to endanger our future. I deeply hope that each successive generation after mine sees me as a little less progressive than them — a little less refined a person than the younger generations. If I seem the same — or worse, even better — then our society is in trouble.
In other words, just say Donald Trump is a liar.