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I'm not usually very distrustful of mainstream news (at least, by internet standards) but I am very distrustful of the news' capacity to vet very technical issu

by simias 6y ago

I'm not usually very distrustful of mainstream news (at least, by internet standards) but I am very distrustful of the news' capacity to vet very technical issues correctly. Remember that Bloomberg "the Chinese put spy microchips on our motherboards" story? I'm not accusing the WaPo of being distrustful here, I just think that in these cases the potential for manipulation, half-truths and technical mistakes from their sources is very high, and without either knowing who these sources are or what are the concrete element they're using to make their conclusions I find it very hard to blindly trust these sources.

hangonhn 6y ago
I have the exact same attitude. Reading WaPo, Bloomberg, and even NYT (though I think NYT has a slight edge here) report on technical issues make me cringe. You can tell they're trying to hardest to understand and to explain it in a comprehensible way but it's just so bad. Then I think to myself, if that's the way it is for computing, what about other technical/STEM/specialized fields? I trust them for their reporting on those but what if they have missing the important nuances there too?