5 ms·

I agree it’s gone downhill, I’m finding it really bizarre and somewhat sad to watch. It seems to me the pillars of legacy media like the NYT realized in the pas

by md2020 6y ago

I agree it’s gone downhill, I’m finding it really bizarre and somewhat sad to watch. It seems to me the pillars of legacy media like the NYT realized in the past decade they’re going to be outdone by newer internet-native ways of obtaining information (Substack, Twitter, etc. which do have their own issues), and their recent wave of SV tech industry bashing reeks of desperation. I’m not sure what’s going to rise to replace the idea of a “Paper of record”. Balaji is big on the idea of a “ledger of record” on some blockchain, but implementation difficulties aside, I’m skeptical that such a system would really solve the problem here.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Does there need to be a replacement? It's my understanding that it's always been this way in for example the UK; they have well-regarded newspapers pushing out strong reporting (as the NYT continues to do), but there's no expectation that the papers won't be biased. In many ways, it could be healthier for a society to not have outlets that everyone uncritically trusts.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  In some ways that is certainly true, I don't unconditionally trust any newspaper published here. However we also have the problem that is the "Daily Mail" which is a truly vile publication - which I read because it keeps me informed on what a significant chunk of the population of my country thinks. We don't really have any truly decent news sources left or right wing, they've all moved to click bait nonsense and "reaction pieces" to something someone said on Twitter - I suspect because it's cheap. The best of the bunch in terms of what I consider classical journalism is probably The Guardian (which is biased) and as long as you avoid it's opinion section (bleh) is a reasonably decent paper. Honestly the best you can do to remain an informed citizen is read a bunch of them and look at what is not been said by each.
- pjc50 6y ago
  > well-regarded newspapers pushing out strong reporting The FT is the only one left. All the others are weird poisoned wells where the factual reporting is mixed with opinion slurry, and beholden to the prejudices of the owners. Here's Peter Oborne resigning from the Telegraph over their standards: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31510152 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31510152 Here's the Guardian US published in the Guardian complaining about the UK Guardian falling for the transphobia that has recently infected UK public life: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardi... The landscape is not diverse: https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-uk-media https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-...
  - mikevm 6y ago
    I'm sorry but just because someone disagrees with your views on whether trans women are equal to biological women does not make him transphobic. You can tolerate someone/something without having to agree with it.
AngrySkillzz 6y ago
ha-ha, "smart contracts via crypto make this super doable" We do not need a BLOCKCHAIN to figure out what is newsworthy... this is a human problem, not a decentralized-immutable-trustless-system problem

by md2020 6y ago

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

Does there need to be a replacement? It's my understanding that it's always been this way in for example the UK; they have well-regarded newspapers pushing out strong reporting (as the NYT continues to do), but there's no expectation that the papers won't be biased. In many ways, it could be healthier for a society to not have outlets that everyone uncritically trusts.

noir_lord 6y ago
In some ways that is certainly true, I don't unconditionally trust any newspaper published here. However we also have the problem that is the "Daily Mail" which is a truly vile publication - which I read because it keeps me informed on what a significant chunk of the population of my country thinks. We don't really have any truly decent news sources left or right wing, they've all moved to click bait nonsense and "reaction pieces" to something someone said on Twitter - I suspect because it's cheap. The best of the bunch in terms of what I consider classical journalism is probably The Guardian (which is biased) and as long as you avoid it's opinion section (bleh) is a reasonably decent paper. Honestly the best you can do to remain an informed citizen is read a bunch of them and look at what is not been said by each.
pjc50 6y ago
> well-regarded newspapers pushing out strong reporting The FT is the only one left. All the others are weird poisoned wells where the factual reporting is mixed with opinion slurry, and beholden to the prejudices of the owners. Here's Peter Oborne resigning from the Telegraph over their standards: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31510152 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31510152 Here's the Guardian US published in the Guardian complaining about the UK Guardian falling for the transphobia that has recently infected UK public life: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardi... The landscape is not diverse: https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-uk-media https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-...
- mikevm 6y ago
  I'm sorry but just because someone disagrees with your views on whether trans women are equal to biological women does not make him transphobic. You can tolerate someone/something without having to agree with it.

AngrySkillzz 6y ago

ha-ha, "smart contracts via crypto make this super doable" We do not need a BLOCKCHAIN to figure out what is newsworthy... this is a human problem, not a decentralized-immutable-trustless-system problem