Conservapedia:Attribution

There's a difference between stating flatly that "the earth is 6,000 years old" and reporting that "Young Earth creationists say that the earth is 6,000 years old." Likewise, there's a difference between saying "All living species of animals evolved from earlier species" and saying "Most biologists believe that all living species of animals evolved from earlier species".

English teachers call that attribution.

Here's another example:

• It was raining on Tuesday. (unattributed)
• John said it was raining on Tuesday. (attributed)

Newspaper report on a murder trial:

• Smith killed Jones.
• Judge Robinson found Smith guilty of killing Jones.

Simply by attributing a statement to the person who said it, we can turn bias into fact. That is, we convert a statement about something from a biased assertion into an attribution. We don't say "X". We say that "A said X."