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The Times ended up following up on the controversy this generated: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/reader-center/thomas-monson-obituary.html https://www.nyt

The Times ended up following up on the controversy this generated: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/reader-center/thomas-monson-obituary.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/reader-center/thomas-mons... It’s clear that this author and others were really peeved by the way the times covered this, but “don’t trust journalists” is a wrongheaded message imo. You’re able to dialogue with an individual outlet as shown here. And you’re able to overlay different news sources on given issues to get a wider picture if that’s what you want to do. Overall “trust but verify” works exceedingly well, but there seems like a bit of a degree of grief in this writing.

criddell 7y ago
Are there journalists you trust?
- specialist 7y ago
  I trust citing sources. I trust multiple sourcing. I trust verified data and leg work. I trust intellectual honesty (eg updates, errata, retractions). -- I was an activist for a while. Election integrity and voter privacy (secret ballot). I blogged about my efforts. I shared all my work, so people could factcheck too. I revised my views as I learned more. I tried very hard to present the alternate views (conclusions) of the people I disagreed with. It's no different than investigative journalism. The real trick, the hard part, is figuring out how to fund the work.
  - criddell 7y ago
    And if I read your blog I probably wouldn't trust your work either. I have no way of knowing if you are citing everything or only the sources that support the story you want to write. If your point is you should only trust yourself, then that's hard to argue with.
    - specialist 7y ago
      Sure. But then how do you make decisions? I've resolved this dilemma by settling for True Enough. I used to be a Popperian. While I still think that's the ideal, in practice it seems impractical. Now I'm a prediction engine. Learn enough to feel comfortable making a decision. If results don't match expectations, go back and update my ruleset, try again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- pyuser583 7y ago
  I trust most journalists. I don’t trust any newspapers. Most news is too complex for the modern news format. And they have to cover too much information There are tons of really good journalism books. For example, Ronan Farrows articles are pretty crappy. But his books, including Catch and Kill, are excellent.
adolph 7y ago
Thanks for the NYT POV. To bad you didn’t notice that the OP addresses the NYT response and judges it lacking.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't be a jerk on HN. It's possible to provide information without that; please do that instead. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

criddell 7y ago

Are there journalists you trust?

specialist 7y ago
I trust citing sources. I trust multiple sourcing. I trust verified data and leg work. I trust intellectual honesty (eg updates, errata, retractions). -- I was an activist for a while. Election integrity and voter privacy (secret ballot). I blogged about my efforts. I shared all my work, so people could factcheck too. I revised my views as I learned more. I tried very hard to present the alternate views (conclusions) of the people I disagreed with. It's no different than investigative journalism. The real trick, the hard part, is figuring out how to fund the work.
- criddell 7y ago
  And if I read your blog I probably wouldn't trust your work either. I have no way of knowing if you are citing everything or only the sources that support the story you want to write. If your point is you should only trust yourself, then that's hard to argue with.
  - specialist 7y ago
    Sure. But then how do you make decisions? I've resolved this dilemma by settling for True Enough. I used to be a Popperian. While I still think that's the ideal, in practice it seems impractical. Now I'm a prediction engine. Learn enough to feel comfortable making a decision. If results don't match expectations, go back and update my ruleset, try again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
pyuser583 7y ago
I trust most journalists. I don’t trust any newspapers. Most news is too complex for the modern news format. And they have to cover too much information There are tons of really good journalism books. For example, Ronan Farrows articles are pretty crappy. But his books, including Catch and Kill, are excellent.

adolph 7y ago

Thanks for the NYT POV. To bad you didn’t notice that the OP addresses the NYT response and judges it lacking.

dang 7y ago
Please don't be a jerk on HN. It's possible to provide information without that; please do that instead. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]