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The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

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Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#41

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The Border Is Broken. And There's No Plan To Fix it." Yawn. This has been in heavy rotation for weeks. Also, poor grammar. That's a long form article about a variety of issues with the immigration system, from immigration courts to how migrants are detained. It's very informative. I read a lot on the subject and I found more than a few facts in here that I wasn't aware of. > "William Barr Testimony Highlights: Att…

> That quote is literally from his testimony earlier today. So if he repeats the same claim every day, NYT should displace something else to report on every instance? No.

I wasn't aware that William Barr made this claim prior to the testimony, so it's news to me?

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#43

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

Be careful about what kind of news you ignore. The punishment to who ignore politics, per example, is being governed by who cares.

In 2019, Be careful about what kind of news you uncritically believe. The punishment to those who ignore due skepticism, is being governed by those who will manipulate.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That quote is literally from his testimony earlier today. So if he repeats the same claim every day, NYT should displace something else to report on every instance? No.

William Barr has never made that claim. And he went on to say, right after that quote, that the Justice Department is conducting an investigation into this. That's very big news! Trump tweeting about how Obama spied on him is very different than the Justice Department dedicating resources to investigating the FBI, Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

[deleted]

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#46

Actually, what we need first is: 1) A common and agreed upon standard definition of news. Facts alone are not news. News also has importance and relevance. It's not news simply because a (major) "news" outlet publishes it. I ate eggs for breakfast. That's truth / fact. It's not news. 2) A common and agreed upon standard definition of journalism / journalist. Again, working for a "news" outlet does not make you a jour…

I'll take a stab:

1) News is an account (story) of an event. The degree with which it is "true" is the degree with which it holds the events to account, and the degree with which the news organization/publisher holds itself accountable for that account/story. Good news is accountable and provides accounts of events. "Truth" is the wrong focus; "fact" is far too malleable (hence the status-quo legitimacy of "alternative facts"); accountability is the goal.

2) A journalist is someone who writes accounts/stories for a news organization/publisher and, in turn, is held accountable (either professionally or legally) for their story. Anyone can be a journalist, but few are willing to hold themselves to the standards of accountability good journalism demands.

3) The division between news and op-ed is marked by the degree and nature of accountability. News organizations are accountable for the news. News organizations call for op-eds and those op-eds have a different standard of accountability. That's why we call them op-eds. If a news organization will not hold itself accountable for a story then it is an op-ed.

We are far too focused on "truth" "fact" and "objective vs subjective". Instead we should focus on what the use of journalism and the news is. The use is accountability. And the special nature of news and journalism, what differentiates it from fiction and bullshit, is that it is also held to standards of accountability.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#47
The Lindy effect is a concept that Taleb talks a lot about. Basically the best estimate of how long anything perishable will remain useful is how long its been around already. ie the stuff that will remain useful in 10-50 years are the ideas/texts/plays/ideas that have been around a long time already. Recent news is likely worthless in an equally short time.

So best to learn from centuries or millennia old books, rather than looking at twitter feed - or breaking news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#48
post #30

I remember when Jon Stewart said years ago that the 24-hour news cycle is really designed for 9/11; for anything less than a catastrophic event like that, they have to manufacture problems. I think the worst offenders of this are Fox News, but it's not like CNN or MSNBC are blameless. Spending days talking about the latest typo on in the president's tweet ends up with a bizarre view of reality; even if you're not wat…

I think the worst offenders of this are Fox News, but it's not like CNN or MSNBC are blameless. I remember being disgusted at Fox News, especially during the WMD debacle. I was right there with Jon Stewart when he criticized it as "Faux News." Certainly, "it's not like CNN or MSNBC are blameless." In recent years, they've become every bit as bad. there's this bizarre, us-against-them, almost-conspiratorial vibe to a…

I still don't think CNN or MSNBC are as bad as Fox News yet. Sean Hannity is basically Alex Jones-lite, and Tucker Carlson is pretty much completely disingenuous (and if you want to talk about us-versus-them, I recommend counting the number of times he says "elites" during his show). Plus, Fox and Friends is pretty much just an elaborate propaganda program for the president at this point.

Even if you agree with Trump's policies (I don't), I cannot see how anyone could not see the blatent and purposeful right-wing propaganda of Fox.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#50

https://quillette.com/

Quillette has proven to be of consistent poor quality, IMO. (and further, I've found it dishonest)

Please note that it's founding and leadership team includes alumni of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rebel_Media.

That latter outfit is not known for it's...veracity.

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