4 ms·

> blatant culture of denial I would say it is denial to not admit the fundamental problems with the media these days. So many organizations are desperate for c

by jjcon 6y ago

> blatant culture of denial I would say it is denial to not admit the fundamental problems with the media these days. So many organizations are desperate for clicks they are pushing whatever sensationalist items they can to the front page. I mean early on the news was pushing reports that 2 million Americans would die. When it became clear that wasn’t the case how are people supposed to react? Trust them less or trust them more? I would argue that the problem science faces is due to the poor state of journalism. If the media try and use ‘science says’ and do a poor or sensationalist job, it harms faith in science even it wasn’t any scientists fault.

briantakita 6y ago
Another issue is that the Gates & his foundation has stock ownership & influence over the corporate media; thus influencing the public interpretation of the Science. The Corbett Report has some independent journalism re: Gates. Whether we agree with one perspective or another, we should understand the different perspectives & not paint with broad, sensationalist, brushstrokes. People often have good reasons for believing what they believe or being skeptical of others' beliefs... https://www.corbettreport.com/gates/ https://www.corbettreport.com/gates/
IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
That number was the upper bound of at least one epidemiological model. According to https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/coronavirus-death-toll-trump-white-house-memo-february-peter-navarro-a9452761.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic..., the possibility was included in White House briefings. Should the media not report that fact? I'm also fairly certain all such report noted the large uncertainty of such models, especially at the beginning when almost no data was available. And I should point out that extrapolating current death rates in New York City (2%) to the entire US comes out to 600,000 deaths. If we further include that total excess deaths in NY are about twice the number of confirmed COVID deaths, and we're above 1,000,000 deaths. I don't believe we will see such numbers: NY's density and International connections are probably contributing factors that just don't apply to Idaho. But as a worst-case scenario, those 2 million are not quite as ridiculous as you seem to think.
alphabettsy 6y ago
I think many of our problems with the media could be solved by people reading the story and not just the headlines. The media didn’t make up the 2 million Americans dying statistic, they merely reported it. I saw many people calling this fear mongering, but what are they supposed to do just not share information coming from the government or institutions?
- jjcon 6y ago
  > The media didn’t make up the 2 million Americans dying statistic, they merely reported it. Absolutely but the point I am making is -how- the media chooses to communicate science facts or studies leads to people just thinking they were blatantly wrong. Good scientists optimize for truth, the media optimizes for impact. Both are wrong from time to time but scientists are far more careful at how they quantify certainty (which is so often lost in translation when reported).
lostmsu 6y ago
> When it became clear that wasn’t the case how are people supposed to react? When did this become clear? The epidemic is still growing at superlinear speed AFAIK. Total cases are 4x since the last month.

by jjcon 6y ago

briantakita 6y ago

Another issue is that the Gates & his foundation has stock ownership & influence over the corporate media; thus influencing the public interpretation of the Science. The Corbett Report has some independent journalism re: Gates. Whether we agree with one perspective or another, we should understand the different perspectives & not paint with broad, sensationalist, brushstrokes. People often have good reasons for believing what they believe or being skeptical of others' beliefs... https://www.corbettreport.com/gates/ https://www.corbettreport.com/gates/

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago

That number was the upper bound of at least one epidemiological model. According to https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/coronavirus-death-toll-trump-white-house-memo-february-peter-navarro-a9452761.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic..., the possibility was included in White House briefings. Should the media not report that fact? I'm also fairly certain all such report noted the large uncertainty of such models, especially at the beginning when almost no data was available. And I should point out that extrapolating current death rates in New York City (2%) to the entire US comes out to 600,000 deaths. If we further include that total excess deaths in NY are about twice the number of confirmed COVID deaths, and we're above 1,000,000 deaths. I don't believe we will see such numbers: NY's density and International connections are probably contributing factors that just don't apply to Idaho. But as a worst-case scenario, those 2 million are not quite as ridiculous as you seem to think.

alphabettsy 6y ago

I think many of our problems with the media could be solved by people reading the story and not just the headlines. The media didn’t make up the 2 million Americans dying statistic, they merely reported it. I saw many people calling this fear mongering, but what are they supposed to do just not share information coming from the government or institutions?

jjcon 6y ago
> The media didn’t make up the 2 million Americans dying statistic, they merely reported it. Absolutely but the point I am making is -how- the media chooses to communicate science facts or studies leads to people just thinking they were blatantly wrong. Good scientists optimize for truth, the media optimizes for impact. Both are wrong from time to time but scientists are far more careful at how they quantify certainty (which is so often lost in translation when reported).

lostmsu 6y ago

> When it became clear that wasn’t the case how are people supposed to react? When did this become clear? The epidemic is still growing at superlinear speed AFAIK. Total cases are 4x since the last month.