4 ms·

This is a technical mis-reporting which I can understand, but it worries me a lot more that in the wider press this level of mis-reporting occurs over other iss

This is a technical mis-reporting which I can understand, but it worries me a lot more that in the wider press this level of mis-reporting occurs over other issues (finance, healthcare, politics, social change, foreign events etc.) and I don't understand enough about them to notice the mis-reporting.

blowski 12y ago
Agreed, but on a more positive note, it's nice that we have easy access to the correct version. The author didn't have to contact all the media that got it wrong in the first place and request that they publish a correction. If anyone can publish anything, then there will be a lot more garbage along with the gold. It is scant consolation, but you can't really have one without the other.
macspoofing 12y ago
Most reporters are lazy or pressed for time or both and don't fact-check. This has been a problem for some time. Many articles are also generated by software or thrown together by minimum wage workers to generate clicks. This has also been a problem for some time. As a consumer of news, you always have to keep that in the back of your mind when you read news.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  It would also help to be willing to pay for actual real news reportage, of course. The reason why the online news business is increasingly minimum wage workers driven to generate clicks is because that's the only way anybody's found to make money in the online news business.
  - macspoofing 12y ago
    Would you really? Do you right now, pay for any news, like a New York Time subscription?
ue_ 12y ago
I found a quote at cat-v.org which describes the phenomenon you seem to describe: “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.“ — Michael Crichton
maaku 12y ago
I used to love reading The Economist. It was the only printed newpaper/magazine I bothered to read. I always thought they were so insightful about topics I wanted to learn about but knew very little. Then they ran two articles on topics I did know something about: space tech and bitcoin. And it became plainly obvious that the authors and the editors had absolutely no clue about the subject matter and were merely repeating already debunked pseudo-intellectual arguments from the popular press. I canceled my subscription, and have basically stopped reading news, except the headlines here. If sometime really peaks my interest I'll take the time to research it myself thank you.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  A shallow response. It's unrealistic to expect news suorces to be right all the time, especially about abtruse technical topics (it's the Economist not the Scientist). But you can easily rate how good their coverage is overall over time, by comparing the quality of information received with subsequent historical developments and seeing whether the one would have helped you you predict the other. Also, interest is piqued, occasionally in fits.
  - R_Edward 12y ago
    Although, if one's interest level were continuously poked into a particular memory location every time it changed, you might find that if you peeked when it piqued you would find that it also peaked. On an unrelated note, I was writing an article for a travel magazine, and found a very well-conceived online database of recommended places to visit. Sadly, I couldn't use it in my article, because I couldn't figure out how to cite the sight site.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- haberman 12y ago
  What were the inaccuracies in the articles about space tech and bitcoin?
- asveikau 12y ago

blowski 12y ago

Agreed, but on a more positive note, it's nice that we have easy access to the correct version. The author didn't have to contact all the media that got it wrong in the first place and request that they publish a correction. If anyone can publish anything, then there will be a lot more garbage along with the gold. It is scant consolation, but you can't really have one without the other.

macspoofing 12y ago

Most reporters are lazy or pressed for time or both and don't fact-check. This has been a problem for some time. Many articles are also generated by software or thrown together by minimum wage workers to generate clicks. This has also been a problem for some time. As a consumer of news, you always have to keep that in the back of your mind when you read news.

smacktoward 12y ago
It would also help to be willing to pay for actual real news reportage, of course. The reason why the online news business is increasingly minimum wage workers driven to generate clicks is because that's the only way anybody's found to make money in the online news business.
- macspoofing 12y ago
  Would you really? Do you right now, pay for any news, like a New York Time subscription?

ue_ 12y ago

I found a quote at cat-v.org which describes the phenomenon you seem to describe: “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.“ — Michael Crichton

maaku 12y ago

I used to love reading The Economist. It was the only printed newpaper/magazine I bothered to read. I always thought they were so insightful about topics I wanted to learn about but knew very little. Then they ran two articles on topics I did know something about: space tech and bitcoin. And it became plainly obvious that the authors and the editors had absolutely no clue about the subject matter and were merely repeating already debunked pseudo-intellectual arguments from the popular press. I canceled my subscription, and have basically stopped reading news, except the headlines here. If sometime really peaks my interest I'll take the time to research it myself thank you.

anigbrowl 12y ago
A shallow response. It's unrealistic to expect news suorces to be right all the time, especially about abtruse technical topics (it's the Economist not the Scientist). But you can easily rate how good their coverage is overall over time, by comparing the quality of information received with subsequent historical developments and seeing whether the one would have helped you you predict the other. Also, interest is piqued, occasionally in fits.
- R_Edward 12y ago
  Although, if one's interest level were continuously poked into a particular memory location every time it changed, you might find that if you peeked when it piqued you would find that it also peaked. On an unrelated note, I was writing an article for a travel magazine, and found a very well-conceived online database of recommended places to visit. Sadly, I couldn't use it in my article, because I couldn't figure out how to cite the sight site.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
haberman 12y ago
What were the inaccuracies in the articles about space tech and bitcoin?
asveikau 12y ago