Sample Biased Essay - Identity Thief

Here is another example of a review gone wrong. Can you spot the biased language in this review of the film Identity Thief? This was originally published in the New York Observer (even good magazine can sometimes go bad).

Declined: In Identity Thief, Bateman’s Bankable Billing Can’t Lift This Flick out of the Red

How many ways can a grown person waste valuable time and lose vital I.Q. points at the same time? If you’re a movie critic, the possibilities are unlimited. And they all come together in a new chunk of junk called Identity Thief.

In the trashy, stupefying screenplay by Craig Mazin, Jason Bateman is a Denver accountant named Sandy Patterson—another in a long line of victims of the increasingly dangerous world of cyber-crime—whose credit card has been hacked and copied by a felonious thief in Miami (cacophonous, tractor-sized Melissa McCarthy). Now there are two Sandy Pattersons—an innocent fraud victim on one side of the country facing bankruptcy and a screeching, humongous creep on a marathon shopping spree on the other side of the country who is running up thousands of dollars in charges and wrecking her victim’s credit rating in the process. The police do nothing, the male Sandy loses his job and faces jail time, and the only solution is to devise a plan to apprehend the fake, female Sandy and drag her from Florida back to Colorado to turn herself in and clear his good name. In order to stretch a five-minute idea into 107 minutes of contrived drivel some people may mistake for plot, the plan backfires. She beats him up, steals his wallet, wrecks his rental car and leaves him stranded on the highway in a pair of pants stolen from a dead hobo. With no identification or money, he gets arrested for assaulting an officer, drug dealing and illegal gun possession. And still, against all odds, they hit the road to Colorado pursued by killers, bounty hunters and “skip tracers,” who track down crooks who owe money to gangsters, jump parole and get involved in other intrigues invented by hack Hollywood screenwriters. The snafus in the worst road movie since The Guilt Trip plunge Mr. Bateman and his female hippo into a motel with only a double bed, a grotesque sex scene with a pickled reprobate she picks up in a bar who demands a threesome, a violent bar fight that bloodies his nose, a kidnapping, a multi-car collision going the wrong way on the freeway … but why go on? They seem to be making it up as they go along, in a movie that threatens never to end.

By the time they got lost in the woods and fall into a den of hissing snakes, Elvis has long since left the building. Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) is a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success. Poor Jason Bateman. How did an actor so charming, talented, attractive and versatile get stuck in so much dreck? Identity theft is a real plague that is happening so often that people tremble every time they approach an ATM. It’s a deserving subject that should be explored in a more viable film, but Identity Thief is so bad it’s hard to believe it wasn’t directed by Judd Apatow or the Farrelly Brothers.

rreed@observer.com

Sample Biased Essay - The Barbie Cafe

The following review was originally published by The Shanghaiist. Reviews are usually a great example of showing opinion without bias. They are usually only one person's experience, but they usually include pictures and are highly descriptive. They are opinionated and critical, but usually fair. While reviews should be fair and unbiased, this article clearly is not. How do we know? Read the article and then try to identify the biased language.

Lunch with Barbie in Taipei: No wonder she is so thin!

By Beth Main

Think PINK and then add a tonne of glitter and a few diamond trimmings and you have the world's first Barbie Cafe, newly opened in Taipei and fully licensed by Barbie brand owner, Mattel. Our visit on a Friday lunchtime, a mere two days since the grand opening on Wednesday, found the cafe surprisingly quiet with just a few mothers and daughters, a gaggle of girlfriends and a man with a large zoom lens being out-paparazzi-ed by the other customers camera phones.

It certainly lives up to your expectations. The decor and overall experience are everything Barbie: pink, plastic and placating. There is just so much to take in with Barbie photos, Barbie dolls on display, the waitresses' tiaras and tutu's, mirrors galore - there isn't a place in the bathroom where you can't see yourself!

The playlist, which suited the setting perfectly (Aqua's Barbie Girl, Madonna's Material Girl, and Gwen Stefani'sRich Girl to name a few) managed to loop a distressing three times during our meal.

The menu is impressive. It resembles a glossy ladies magazine and reads like an inventory of sin: salad - 280kcal, strawberry mousse - 300kcal and prices to match. We did speculate that Barbie Cafe prices every calorie at NT$1, but that would be madness... surely?

Unfortunately like Barbie's intellect, the food left something to be desired. The salmon salad was a hefty portion of tasteless cabbage, tasteless taro and tasteless okra with a bland sesame dressing. Three rolls of smoked salmon with a few capers provided the only flavour.

Surely we would be safe with dessert, how hard could that be? Unfortunately, the small cakes were over-sugared and waxy. Besides, with Barbie's implausible figure everywhere, you can't really enjoy your sweet treat.

As for that 10% service charge, they should use it to retrain their staff. The poor waitresses were lost, only able to carry one plate at a time, and unsure whether to bring the dessert before clearing away the main or to look at the till with distrust and trepidation.

Many suspect that the cafe's target clientele are actually men who come to ogle at the doll-like waitresses, (as the well stocked bar in the centre of the children's-toy-themed cafe suggests). I'm afraid they will be disappointed as the best they can hope to get are the Barbie dolls at the entrance - nothing comes between her and her frosting!

The most satisfied customers were three little girls in pink party dresses climbing on the pink sofas, completely oblivious to their pink milkshakes and cupcakes. If the cafe is to survive it will need to exploit the niche market for little girls' birthday parties.

Themes are big in Taiwan, just take the Toilet restaurant or Hello Kitty airplanes as evidence.

Our verdict? It looks good but has no substance, rather like its namesake, and it's unlikely it will last as long as the iconic doll.

But if you're looking for some sparkle in your life you'll find it at Barbie Cafe. Heck, you'll find it lingering halfway down the street!

Sample Essay - Shawty Lo and the Exploitation of Children in the Name of the American Dream

I recently had a student working on the topic of child exploitation in television. At the same time my friend Balancing Jane wrote an article called "Shawty Lo and the Exploitation of Children in the Name of the American Dream" which I have linked. This is a great sample essay that shows how to take an opinion and turn it into an argument with facts, reason, and examples. Please take a minute to click the link and read the article in full. It will be worth your time!