O for Opinion

When I was in third grade, we did an exercise to learn about Fact vs. Opinion. We went down a list of sentences, marking them as F (Fact) or O (Opinion). e.g.

F -- The USA has 50 states.
O -- California is the best of the 50.

"Newspapers report fact," said Ms. Little, my rotund 3rd grade teacher. "Not opinion."

In the past few months, I repeatedly find myself staring wide-mouthed at the screen at the latest opinion-based article. Just to take a random sample of articles I read in the past 10 minutes: NY Times:

The stolen data do not include any health records or financial information, the agency said.

But it was immediately clear from the sheer numbers involved, as well as the tone of the announcement and the steps taken in the aftermath of the theft, that the breach was deeply embarrassing to the agency.

InformationWeek:

Along with the bogus browser, the worm makes the PC blare out screeching music thick with bad guitar licks and drum solos. The headache-inducing noise plays every time the computer boots or Safety Browser launches.