5 ms·

Can I suggest an alternative? The pieces of the NYT that you think are “some of the best journalistic context out there” might be in area that you are less wel

Can I suggest an alternative? The pieces of the NYT that you think are “some of the best journalistic context out there” might be in area that you are less well read than you believe yourself to be. I know this has been true for me many times. Try reading what someone who disagree with the NYT would consider a high quality alternative.

Tenoke 6y ago
I'm aware of Gell-Mann Amnesia and read from a variety of sources. This was really a comment on how most journalism is even worse. The NYT does occasionally have pieces where I know about the topic and their representation goes into details that others aren't likely to. Those are, however, not a large percentage of their output.
- outlace 6y ago
  thanks for referencing Gell-Mann Amnesia. Never heard of it before but after looking it up it is quite compelling.
  - Noumenon72 6y ago
    I've known about Gell-Mann amnesia for years but never experienced the feeling of 'this coverage of a thing I know is terrible', even in this piece. Maybe I don't know much about anything, or maybe I'm a conflict theorist, not a mistake theorist, so when I see them get things wrong like this, I assume it was on purpose.
tensor 6y ago
It's pretty hard to find high quality alternatives. There is the wall street journal, maybe a few others, but not many. I personally read a few high quality news sources and science journals. Inexplicably many here seem to think that random blog posts are somehow remotely equivalent. I value opinion at zero, and trust a random person to do quality research at about zero too. Trust is earned. When random internet opinion becomes "news" I suppose we really are in a post truth world.
- mrgordon 6y ago
  The WSJ has much worse editors than the NYTimes. They really allow a lot of bias.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    So does the NYT. The bias of the times just happens to be really well aligned with mainstream liberals in the US so it’s much harder to notice if you’re in that camp.
- jcranmer 6y ago
  Washington Post? It's long been essentially the biggest rival to the NYT in terms of national political coverage, and my opinion is that as of late, it's been higher quality than the NYT.
- qPM9l3XJrF 6y ago
  I've come to respect The Economist and The Financial Times. Their articles don't go viral as much--I suspect because they aren't as optimized for virality ;-)
- afiori 6y ago
  Ironically Scott Alexander has a couple of good posts about this topic a discussion on how big institutions that are telling you the truth are competing both to keep their position and tell you the truth with a focus on medicine https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/webmd-and-the-tragedy-of-legible https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/webmd-and-the-tragedy-... A more poetic version discussing the concept in general. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

Tenoke 6y ago

I'm aware of Gell-Mann Amnesia and read from a variety of sources. This was really a comment on how most journalism is even worse. The NYT does occasionally have pieces where I know about the topic and their representation goes into details that others aren't likely to. Those are, however, not a large percentage of their output.

outlace 6y ago
thanks for referencing Gell-Mann Amnesia. Never heard of it before but after looking it up it is quite compelling.
- Noumenon72 6y ago
  I've known about Gell-Mann amnesia for years but never experienced the feeling of 'this coverage of a thing I know is terrible', even in this piece. Maybe I don't know much about anything, or maybe I'm a conflict theorist, not a mistake theorist, so when I see them get things wrong like this, I assume it was on purpose.

tensor 6y ago

It's pretty hard to find high quality alternatives. There is the wall street journal, maybe a few others, but not many. I personally read a few high quality news sources and science journals. Inexplicably many here seem to think that random blog posts are somehow remotely equivalent. I value opinion at zero, and trust a random person to do quality research at about zero too. Trust is earned. When random internet opinion becomes "news" I suppose we really are in a post truth world.

mrgordon 6y ago
The WSJ has much worse editors than the NYTimes. They really allow a lot of bias.
- kortilla 6y ago
  So does the NYT. The bias of the times just happens to be really well aligned with mainstream liberals in the US so it’s much harder to notice if you’re in that camp.
jcranmer 6y ago
Washington Post? It's long been essentially the biggest rival to the NYT in terms of national political coverage, and my opinion is that as of late, it's been higher quality than the NYT.
qPM9l3XJrF 6y ago
I've come to respect The Economist and The Financial Times. Their articles don't go viral as much--I suspect because they aren't as optimized for virality ;-)
afiori 6y ago
Ironically Scott Alexander has a couple of good posts about this topic a discussion on how big institutions that are telling you the truth are competing both to keep their position and tell you the truth with a focus on medicine https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/webmd-and-the-tragedy-of-legible https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/webmd-and-the-tragedy-... A more poetic version discussing the concept in general. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/