People tend to group things into categories, the main two for writing being “fiction” and “non-fiction”. The difference between these two seems clear on a brief glance, one is writing about the real, while the other is about the false, it looks like a decently solid dividing line. If this were true we couldn't have tall tales or historical fiction, both of these genres are an inbetween of the two main writing categories. It could be proposed that instead of an absolute “this or that” like previously mentioned, it’s more of a range of truthfulness. To what extent does perception play into this?
If someone writes what they believe to be true about a given subject it would still be considered non-fiction even if it later turns out to be incorrect. Bias always plays a role in literature, whether that be how you word something, or how you perceive the work you're reading, there’s no absolute way to separate the fact from the bias of the communicator and receiver. This mirrors reality to an extent, if you perceive something in a specific way, whose to say that how you experience something is any less valid than how they do, to say such is purely vain. The way we see the world is built and carefully shaped by our upbringing, and there is no way to claim that one view is more correct than another. We can’t write pure truth, so the closest we’ll come is in our active living of it.
While some sources may create a great approximation of truth, it will still fall short in some regard. This isn't to downplay the achievements of non-fiction writers, it is simply to point out the hypocrisy of trying to form an absolute truth. Creatively writing non fiction is in essence a contradiction, because in trying to bring a unique tone to a truth you add your own filter to obscure accuracy. We can never say anything truly without bias, but tools like science can help us clear away the haze of misinformation. Even if it can’t perfectly accomplish that, it’s the best we have.
This didn't really have much of a point that I set out to reach, it was mostly just me trying to voice some of my thoughts around how we consider truth in media. If you made it this far, thanks for reading