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Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

motherboard.vice.com

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Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#81

Post by joemi »

c3534l wrote: post #21

What does it say about the world we live in where blogs do more basic journalism than CNN? All that one would have had to do is read the report actually provided. I don't think I'm being too extreme when I say that, apart from maybe PBS, there is no reputable source of news in America. If you don't believe me, pick a random story, watch it as it gets rewritten a million times through Reuters, then check back on the f…

As I understand it, the sloppiness of "old media" sources is due (at least in part) to the need to compete with "new media" sources. When people started turning to blogs and twitter and such sources because they were quicker to break stories and/or more entertaining, the "old media" sources had to try to break stories quicker than their processes currently did in order to catch up, which in general means less verification and proofreading and such than they used to do.

So now you get things like this where Vice corrects a CNN story. This is exactly the type of correction that the old media places would do to the new media stories, and then new media (and those who looked to them for news) would just call them sore losers.

Please don't mistake this one instance (or even the few instances that are probably already jumping to mind) as being indicative that CNN and its ilk are less reliable than Vice and its ilk. I'd be willing to wager that on average, the old media places are still quite a bit more reliable than the new media places. Things may indeed be changing, but I don't think we're there yet.

Edit: I just wanted to say: All that said, I still don't think CNN is necessarily a good source of news. It was a lower rung even before any changes due to new media's rise.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#82

Post by lukeschlather »

wildmusings wrote: post #43
e40 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wall Street Journal is getting less so. Being a Murdock owned publication it was/is bound to happen. After the purchase, the political coverage has taken a decided more conservative leaning. I wouldn't be surprised if it's also infected the financial reporting.

People make the mistake of equating editorials with political news. They are not the same thing. The opinion section, the pages that have OPINION in big bold text at the top, are forthrightly conservative/libertarian, even though they have at least one regular liberal opinion columnist (William Galston) and constantly have guest articles written by politicians and business leaders of all stripes. The news sections ar…

The news sections are always biased, if only by what they cover. For example, the New York Times, until the past month or so, was constantly running news stories about Hillary Clinton's chances in the general election against various Republicans. However, they obviously betray a bias since they considered all of the Republicans running, and only one of the Democrats. (Curiously, they started running more serious articles about Sanders only after it became clear he wasn't going to win the nomination.)

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#83

Post by agumonkey »

c3534l wrote: post #21

What does it say about the world we live in where blogs do more basic journalism than CNN? All that one would have had to do is read the report actually provided. I don't think I'm being too extreme when I say that, apart from maybe PBS, there is no reputable source of news in America. If you don't believe me, pick a random story, watch it as it gets rewritten a million times through Reuters, then check back on the f…

I had this reflex to stop reading anything but Mailing Lists or 'close to the work' sources only. Way too much noise and fluff floating around.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#84

Post by I_HALF_CATS »

c3534l wrote: post #21

What does it say about the world we live in where blogs do more basic journalism than CNN? All that one would have had to do is read the report actually provided. I don't think I'm being too extreme when I say that, apart from maybe PBS, there is no reputable source of news in America. If you don't believe me, pick a random story, watch it as it gets rewritten a million times through Reuters, then check back on the f…

Just to be clear: most the media outlets that misreported this story typically issue corrections more frequently than Vice/Motherboard.

The credit of this article goes the the writer and not Vice. Vice has a long history of history of making up stories for content.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#85

Post by danieltillett »

malchow wrote: post #34
c3534l wrote: post #21

What does it say about the world we live in where blogs do more basic journalism than CNN? All that one would have had to do is read the report actually provided. I don't think I'm being too extreme when I say that, apart from maybe PBS, there is no reputable source of news in America. If you don't believe me, pick a random story, watch it as it gets rewritten a million times through Reuters, then check back on the f…

WSJ has floors of smart, trained, inquisitive journalists who assemble real original data and break real original stories, and who try hard–through single, double, and triple verification–to ensure the accuracy of every single figure and fact they report. Which is why it's sometimes annoying to see people treat paywalls as though they were moral disgraces. Source: I help invest for the chairman of the company.

You work for Rupert?

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#86

Post by techonup »

wolf550e wrote: post #55
malchow wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ has floors of smart, trained, inquisitive journalists who assemble real original data and break real original stories, and who try hard–through single, double, and triple verification–to ensure the accuracy of every single figure and fact they report. Which is why it's sometimes annoying to see people treat paywalls as though they were moral disgraces. Source: I help invest for the chairman of the company.

WSJ also has a political agenda, which requires a second source for any story in there, from the other point of view.

This line of argument really needs to be toned down. While it's obviously true that papers like the WSJ, NYT, WashPo, etc. have influential partisan editorial boards, their newsrooms are filled with reporters and editors of various political leanings. More importantly, these reporters are among the best in the country and do their very best to find and report the truth in an unbiased fashion. That's what makes these papers good sources of information in the US.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#87

Post by happyslobro »

c3534l wrote: post #21

What does it say about the world we live in where blogs do more basic journalism than CNN? All that one would have had to do is read the report actually provided. I don't think I'm being too extreme when I say that, apart from maybe PBS, there is no reputable source of news in America. If you don't believe me, pick a random story, watch it as it gets rewritten a million times through Reuters, then check back on the f…

CBC is pretty good, especially Peter Mansbridge. He hosts a good roast, when the powers that be bring the pork.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#88

Post by morcheeba »

techonup wrote: post #86
wolf550e wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ also has a political agenda, which requires a second source for any story in there, from the other point of view.

This line of argument really needs to be toned down. While it's obviously true that papers like the WSJ, NYT, WashPo, etc. have influential partisan editorial boards, their newsrooms are filled with reporters and editors of various political leanings. More importantly, these reporters are among the best in the country and do their very best to find and report the truth in an unbiased fashion. That's what makes these…

This article turned me off the WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/articles/price-tag-of-bernie-sanders-prop...

18 Trillion -- yikes! It's not until the 5th paragraph that we find out that this includes health insurance and that me and my employer wouldn't have to shell out for that anymore. Does it save me money overall? A question not asked. But they do make a big deal about that number and how alarmed they are at it, even if it it's designed to save money.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#89

Post by LeifCarrotson »

nradov wrote: post #71
chm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it as a moral disgrace at all, but it really is an inconvenience. I have no way of creating this myself, but why doesn't the "Netflix" of journalism exist? Or why can't I just pay X$ more to my ISP, who has deals with publications such as the WSJ, to offer me access to their articles? I'd rather just browse and read, not manage subscriptions. EDIT: Apparently I'm replying too fast. Note that I quoted Netf…

ISPs probably wouldn't get enough customer adoption of such a service to make it worth their while. Someone needs to resurrect micropayments and figure out a way to make them work. There are a lot of people who don't necessarily want to subscribe to a news site but would be willing to pay a few pennies to read individual articles.

"Resurrect"? I don't recall any time period in which micropayments were successful.

Re: Almost Nothing About the ‘Apple Harvests Gold from iPhones’ Story Is True

#90

Post by alexkavon »

This reminds of a great article from Blake Ross that demonstrates the laziness in journalism today. It also goes into detail about a few simple ways a journalist can investigate a topic: https://medium.com/@blakeross/don-t-outsource-your-thinking-...
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