Social Panic

I removed most of this original post as I discovered confusing irregularities in the reporting that made it impossible to figure out what they were saying. Instead, I’ll leave just the original part here. The Oregonian newspaper: KGW8 TV: If the average renter cannot afford to rent even a one-bedroom apartment, then how are they living in a rental unit? This logical conflict was invented by the headline writers as the actual underlying report says something different. But the headline…

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In 2016, USA Today published an embarrassingly incorrect map, as well as misspelling “marjijuana”: The original USA Today article was corrected – 4 days later – and notes a prior version of the story used an incorrect map. This type of error passed through a graphic artist, at least one reporter, copy editors and an editor, which is not inspiring confidence in their journalistic integrity. Meanwhile, two years later, numerous people are sharing the original map on social media (June…

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Anchoring is the method of implanting a suggested value in the reader or viewer’s mind. Can you spot the “anchor” in this passage? Why immigration? It’s not the central concern of most voters. A Gallup survey in May found that 10 percent of Americans listed it as the most important problem facing the country. Source: E.J. Dionne: Call out the lies and the hatred | OregonLive.com When I read that, and likely when you read that, you internalized that as…

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The propaganda machine is at it again: The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The World Happiness Report 2018, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants. Source: World Happiness Report 2018 | World Happiness Report This report, as described in extreme detail by us in the past, is a myth. Numerous organizations create “world’s happiest” metrics and they all mostly disagree with one another….

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