According to the AllSides community, they rate NPR as “reasonably balanced, giving it a bias rating of center”. Worth noting: these ratings are based on the news section of the web site — not the opinion pages or other mediums, like radio. Editorialized content and actual news are two distinct domains.

This view was also the perspective of economist and press critic, Dean Baker, who in 2011 wrote, “I haven’t found any trends of actual political bias one way or the other in NPR stories.” Although that deduction was drawn several years ago, our analysis points in the same direction.

Overall, I am unable to uncover a large scale and incontrovertible instance of conclusive non-editorial, journalistic bias. Certainly, the “Eureka!” moment proving the presence of systematic state sponsored newsroom bias, is lacking. The italicized word is key because it’s unreasonable to expect that absolute zero bias would not permeate non-scripted expression to one degree or another. As long as humans remain opinionated and free-thinking, some degree of editorial bias will remain.

BBC

My research regarding the BBC reveals similar insight. While the BBC has been accused of “deep liberal bias” regarding certain issues, it’s difficult to find evidence of systematic bias in the newsroom.. What bias is present — as documented in such sources as Wikipedia’s BBC Controversies — mostly resides in the realm of left-right paradigm political discourse. That is, controversial statements related to globalization, anti-Israeli (Jewish) condemnation, and other such issues generally valued by the left-of-center. These views are mostly disseminated on panel debates, documentaries, and BBC radio.

It isn’t to say inadvertent fake news hasn’t happened on state platforms.

For example, the BBC was forced to apologize after claiming that Bangalore-based suppliers of Primark used child labor in manufacturing processes in 2008. A subsequent investigation revealed that footage of three child laborers tolling away, was in fact, not accurate.

Another example, going all the way back to 2010, saw the BBC apologize after reporting that the Ethiopian government used Band Aid money raised for the famine to pay for weapons. After initially standing by its story — claiming it had evidence to back up the claims — the BBC recanted. The broadcaster later revealed that a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report — which pre-dated Live Aid — could not have applied to Band Aid cash,

Whether instances of BBC misreporting are within the margin of acceptable error is in the eye of the beholder. Consumers must be cognizant that untruthful news — inadvertent or not — will sometimes slip by. Should these occurrences become commonplace, consumers have every right to question the source. However, I have found scant evidence that the BBC is a serial offender.

NHK

Regarding state broadcaster NHK (Japan) — yes — the findings are similar.

The most noteworthy story we found was the case of mistakenly sending alert warnings about a bogus North Korean missile launch — and urging the public to seek shelter. Amazingly, this action came only two days after Hawaii’s emergency management agency conducted a similar maneuver, triggering a state panic.

Exemplifying how much the Japanese trust their news sources, a recent survey showed that 70 percent of people believed information in newspapers to be trustworthy, and 66 percent rated television trustworthy.

Yet, only 34 percent viewed the Internet as a credible source of information.

Mediacorp

Mediacorp, is a group of commercial media companies in Singapore, with interests in television, radio broadcasting, interactive media, print publishing and filmmaking. Its subsidiaries include seven television channels and 11 radio channels, making it the largest media company in Singapore.

Mediacorp is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, a company with the Singapore Minister for Finance as its sole shareholder. Temasek engages in various for-profit investments, and maintains holdings in real estate, government bonds, stock/derivative funds holdings and more. This makes Mediacorp more of a quasi-government institution than the other broadcasters, who are directly funded by taxpayers.

While evidence of “fake news” entanglements with Mediacorp-controlled assets is scant, the overall problem is big enough that government has decided to act.

The Singapore government’s, Final Select Committee concluded hearings on fake news after eight sessions. Over several days within a three week period, 65 entities from diverse backgrounds appeared before a 10-member parliamentary committee to present their viewpoints. The participants came from all walks of life: media companies, technology firms, students, members of civil society groups, and more. The hearings were intended to help the Singapore government decide whether more regulations to combat “fake news” were required.

Keep in mind, Singapore’s media apparatus is already tightly controlled. For example, journalists can be investigated and issued warnings just for doing their jobs.

It will be interesting to see if new laws to fight “fake news”, or whether certain tweaks, are instituted. The Singapore government’s decision — along with the Irish parliament’s proposed “fake news” laws — will likely be watched closely by western governments as they seek to establish their own “fake news” boundaries.

Conclusion

Based on the information above, here’s some food-for-thought.

“Fake news” exists — especially in the editorial ranks, documentaries, and programs where panelists give opinions. Inadvertent “fake news” also gets occasionally disseminated, where facts get conflated and inevitably retracted. Although more in-depth research might reveal another conclusion, I found no evidence of widespread, overt promulgation of fake news with the intent to distort facts on a systematic level by state run news companies — certainly nothing robust enough to defend with any voracity.

Of course, none of this claims that “spin,” omission of facts, emphasis on non-core elements of news stories, etc., doesn’t happen. As long as news desks are run by humans, incidents like that will always be the case.