Balanced, sure, as long as you dig deep.
This is when the opposing viewpoint is included, but it doesn’t show up until the reader is 1,200 words into the article. Most people won’t make it 1,200 words into the article, and the writer knows this. For an article to be balanced, it must be balanced from beginning to end.
What about this article? “Voter Registration Bill Will Go to Senate Floor for Vote”—the first three-quarters of the article covers the proposed changes in the bill and all of the reasons one party is largely in favor of it. It’s not until a page and a half in that we even hear of any opposition and why the other party is opposed. While the article technically included information on both sides of the issue, it was not presented in an ethical manner.
Balance dumping [ba-len(t)s dəm-piŋ]—when the opposing viewpoint is included, but only far enough into the article that most people are no longer reading.
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