Attribution studies attempt to connect individual weather events to climate change. But the ability to do that is so limited that the results are not meaningful. Repeated exaggeration and misreporting leads to skepticism – and serves no useful purpose.
American suburban life seems to regress to a mean of segregation. A 2011 analysis using Census Bureau data found that a “typical white” American lives in a neighborhood that’s 75 percent white. Source: A Tale Of Two Suburbs | FiveThirtyEight A real shocker – the “typical white American lives in a neighborhood that’s 75 percent white”. This is then interpreted by writer Clare Malone to mean that most white Americans live in segregated neighborhoods – in a country that is…
Numerous media reports, all sourced to social media posts, say Florida has food shortages due to Gov. Desantis’ policies. But they are showing photos and videos of empty store shelves that occurred in the past after hurricanes, or one video showed empty refrigerated goods section at Walmart. That actually happened – but it was due to a malfunctioning refrigeration system so food was temporarily removed while the unit was undergoing repairs. “Professional” media sourcing to anonymous items on social media tends to end badly.
From Wikipedia: “A weasel word, or anonymous authority, is an informal term for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated.” Media commonly uses weasel words in headlines to create scary scenarios out of relatively low confidence predictions.
Some one posts a TikTok video claiming “Baby boomers” never had to deal with inflation and had it easy finding jobs. She is factually and logically wrong, but the media turns this into a viral story, without noting the Tiktoker was wrong. The TikToker demonstrated she knows nothing of history without saying she knows nothing of history. It’s not a good look!
Most journalism in the U.S. today is “yellow journalism” that focuses on scandal, celebrity, “crisis”, the oppressed and fear and the prophets of doom – via scary headlines, and sample bias to cover stories that fit the yellow journalism narratives. Today, the most over used word in media is “crisis” – as you’ll see in this post, today, everything is a “crisis”.
More “Science and Health” reporters with no training in either science or health. One positions herself as an “AI expert”.
Hilariously stupid headline says earth to face SCARY TERROR on March 21st. Well, I’ve updated this on March 26th and we’ve survived!
Newspapers view themselves as heroes holding government accountable and being the voice of the unseen victims of the world. Except, in reality, they are missing most of the stories – including big ones like the SVB bank collapse which was hiding in plain sight.
The inventors of “public relations” (the name given to the field after “propaganda” grew out of favor) argued for rule by technocratic elite, thinking that important decisions should be left to “experts” and not democracies.