This was an interesting looks at what constitutes fact based vs opinion journalism:
What are facts?
There are many interpretations. Some of them say that facts are fluid and open to interpretation. Others say that only knowledge that is iron clad can be called a fact. The answet, to some, may lay in the middle. I dispute that interpretation. A fact is an incontrovertible truth. Everything else is opinion.
Journalism today has a lot of opinions masquerading as fact. We see headlines like, “Trump Keeps Proving He’s Dumb” or “Hillary Was Even More Crooked Than We Thought”. These types of headlines are from opinion factories masquerading as journalistic outlets. Info Wars, as an example, presents a lot of opinion and unproven conspiracy theories as if they were fact. They have poorly sourced articles claiming great malfeasance on the part of government with a minimum of support. Yet people still read that site and consider the content produced by it as if it were hard fact.
The decline in thinking ability in this country is partially to blame. We have people who think that because they can Google something, they are suddenly on par with the experts in fields. People think that they know more than scholars who have devoted their whole lives to the study of a field. Sites like Info Wars encourage this kind of thinking because it serves their purposes. People who doubt facts can be duped into believing anything.