Tendentious

By Deane Barker

Definition: partisan; having a point of view

This is often applied to journalism, particularly the coverage of politics or issues that have a political aspect.

Why I Looked It Up

From Making Sense of Science: Separating Substance from Spin, the author discusses media coverage of science news:

Reporters eager to avoid tendentiousness or editorializing – that is, eager to give both sides – can wind up in a kind of analytical passivity that leaves them with he-said-she-said stories that simply shift the burden of interpretation to the readers, who are even less equipped for the job than they are.

Postscript

Added on

In The Swerve: How the World Became Modern:

Much of what Petrarch and his followers claimed for the novelty of their approached was tendentious, self-congratulatory exaggeration.

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