Betteridge’s Law: Amid a new COVID-19 surge, should we all be wearing masks again? Experts weigh in
Nope. This uses the technique of asking a rhetorical question, whose answer is No, to make an implication.
Media: “Negativity drives online news consumption – PubMed (nih.gov)”
“Negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates).
Media myth: The “world’s happiest country” myth is now the basis for follow on stories
The “world’s happiest country” myth lives on year after year after year. Finland now pretends it knows why it was identified as “the world’s happiest country”. In fact, the metrics used to determine “happiest” have nothing to do with happiest. The “happiest” title was promoted as sounding better than a metric that measured “well-being” based on things having nothing to do with happiness!
Media Public Health: “White Lung Syndrome”
Media caught making up new scary disease “White lung syndrome” to describe well known “walking pneumonia”.
Media: Typical American cannot buy a home in 99% of nation
Once again, the media confuses average and median, leaves out that half of homebuyers are dual incomes, not a single income, and that people can and do buy homes less than the median price. Bad reporting.
Media: Exaggerate much? Solar storm to end civilization?
The sole purpose of today’s media is to frighten you and present you with negativity. This article should win an award for mindlessly frightening people about something that is very unlikely and, in fact, there are protections in place.
Reporter David Axe publishes literally the same headline, every month for a year – and all of them have been wrong – updated
Source: Reporter David Axe publishes literally the same headline, every month for a year – and all of them have been wrong – Social Panic At this point, it’s hilarious. The reporter David Axe has a BA in history and an MA in fiction writing (really).
Books: Amazon flooded by fake, AI written travel books
Amazon is selling AI written fake travel books, and other fake books.
Media: Remember July’s reports on smoke from fires in Canada?
In July, the national news reported about smoke from Canada wild fires impacting east coast cities. Why the AQI was over 100! Oh my! In the past few days, the AQI at my town has exceeded 500. It’s not even worth a news story in my state, outside the County.
Media myth busted: Suicides do not increase at holidays
Half of recent news reports about holiday suicides spread disinformation that suicides go up over the holidays: Summary: Despite media claims that suicide rates increase dramatically over the holiday period, researchers report the average daily suicide rate during the holidays remain among the lowest rate of any period of the year. Source: University of Pennsylvania The holiday-suicide myth, the false claim that the suicide rate rises during the year-end holiday season, persisted in some news coverage through the 2021-22 holidays, according to…