An artificial intelligence-powered "bias meter" on the news articles to provide readers with "both sides" of a story is an idea the Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has come up with lately.
According to Soon-Shiong, the "bias meter" will be integrated into articles so that "somebody could understand, as they read it, that the source of the article has some level of bias."
The comments have promptly sparked a backlash from the union representing many of the LA Times newsroom staffers.
“The newspaper’s owner has publicly suggested his staff harbors bias, without offering evidence or examples,” the statement reads.
It adds: “Our members – and all Times staffers – abide by a strict set of ethics guidelines, which call for fairness, precision, transparency, vigilance against bias, and an earnest search to understand all sides of an issue. Those longstanding principles will continue guiding our work.”
Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, made the comments on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is soon joining the LA Times editorial board., The Guardian reported.
Patrick Soon-Shiong also wants to include more conservative voices in the paper’s opinion section, the report added.