Its very difficult not to sound biased. I wrote an article recently on not throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it came to having a spiritual life and I used Christianity as an example. Not because I think Christianity is right or more valid than other religions but just because that is the religion I am most familiar with. Some of my commenters felt I was being a bit preachy but it wasnt my intention.

Food for thought..

Allen

The bias you talk about created the unique perspective in our expression. Even the act of not being biased is an act of being biased, because you are trying to stick with something and use that concept in everything.

I could see if benfitting you though, especially if biased about politics or religion or something. You have those reading that agree with you, and then you have all those reading that disagree and are visiting just for an argument.

Also, be careful of bias against individuals, companies, etc. It’s not always wrong, but it’s easy to go overboard. As with Bush bashing, Microsoft bashing or Wal-Mart bashing, the personality based bias can easily put blinders on you as a writer when the object of hatred does something right.

After 9-11, our entire country (US) was largely biased toward going to war with Iraq, to such an extent that opposing voices (e.g. Dixie Chicks) took a lot of flak for voicing their anti-war views. Even Hillary Clinton voted to go to war, saying:

“Now, I believe the facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt…Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has tortured and killed his own people…”

And more interestingly,

“Some people favor attacking Saddam Hussein now…This view has appeal to some, because it would assure disarmament…and because it would give the Iraqi people a chance to build a future in freedom.”

When no WMD was discovered, and ties between Suddam and Al qaeda left uncofirmed, that bias transformed into a huge disconnect, disintegration of George Bush’s credibility, and loss of his reputation as an “honest man.”

We’re all biased, no doubt. But write with biases that are in sync with reality, else you’ll create a community of irrational readers and a blog that can never be taken seriously.

I have a photography blog, and every time I talk about photo editing I use Photoshop as the example. I’m biased toward Photoshop because I use it and because I believe it’s the best tool for the job. I’m not going to write every post with every piece of photo editing software out there.

It might turn some readers off, but for the readers with the same bias, it just makes their connection to me that much stronger. They’re more likely to keep coming back if they see that we hold the same views or use the same photo editing software.

Bias is a good thing.

If you have no opinion or bias, why blog?