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Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#201

Post by biophysboy »

crazygringo wrote: post #162

I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it's declined in quality. And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don't see it at all. It's the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it's always been. Sometimes I think the way it characteriz…

I think the reflexive mistrust in all "establishment" papers, magazines, journals, etc is mostly due to the chatter about them on social media. People have fawning praise or ruthless scorn for an article, usually based on some combination of the headline and what everyone else is posting about it. Sometimes this bleeds into the traditional journalism itself, leading to media chasing meme/clickbait topics, but I think "we the people" are not as innocent as we like to feel we are.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#202

Post by wiredearp »

williamcotton wrote: post #8

What narrative manipulation have you seen from The Economist? I haven’t noticed it so perhaps I am being manipulated! I’d love to hear your insight!

This guy over on https://indica.medium.com/how-the-economist-is-just-propagan... comes up with a healthy analysis of exactly that.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#203

Post by pdntspa »

slowhand09 wrote: post #191
crazygringo wrote: post #162

I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it's declined in quality. And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don't see it at all. It's the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it's always been. Sometimes I think the way it characteriz…

I think its perspective. Drawing a parallel to Elon Musk. He says his political leanings haven't changed. Draw a line marked Far Left, Left, Sort of Left, Middle, Sort of Right, Right, Far Right. He says he was Left or Sort of Left, but somebody dragged the line way to the left. He is where he always was, but the line has moved.

I don't know, has he always been a cheerleader for Trump? There are some things he is doing now that I don't remember him doing before that suggest his political stance has changed.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#204

Post by noodlesUK »

I think the thing that will suit you most is probably the FT. It's a similar grown-up feeling paper with a strong financial lean but still covers general interest news in a clear way. It's one of the few newspapers that I read that still has some longer form content.

I see that you're UK based -- If you still have an active UK university email, you can usually get a subscription for free. See this page for details: https://enterprise.ft.com/ft-education-resources/licence-fin...

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#205

Post by disposition2 »

Just a PSA for anyone in the US, typically your public library will have access to digital products like Libby or Flipster. These products typically include access magazines (such as the Economist), newspapers and websites for free.

As to OPs question, I typically try to use an array of sources for news and try to support publications that I cannot access freely / through other means or feel strongly about supporting (such as local news and publications like Harpers).

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#206

Post by mechanical_bear »

crazygringo wrote: post #162

I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it's declined in quality. And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don't see it at all. It's the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it's always been. Sometimes I think the way it characteriz…

I tend to agree with OP. Quality declined, I cancelled my subscription.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#207

Post by _trackno5 »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #108
jakozaur wrote: post #22

I am long-time fun of Economist, but unfortunately the quality decreases. E.g. last issue EU is frozen and claim so many people will die in Europe due to high energy prices. First, I find they did not explain their model well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Second, the correlation does not imply causation or whether extrapolations are solid. It looks like there might be mistakes on that front an…

> First, I find they did not explain their model well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It's not an extraordinary claim tho. Literally, every year old people die because of cold weather and not being able to afford the proper heating. This is basically old news. The cost of living "crisis" means that the price of energy is not becoming a matter for the average working person. This isn't really ext…

> Literally, every year old people die because of cold weather and not being able to afford the proper heating.

Yes, but the problem is not explaining that people aren't dying because of the cold itself. The way you wrote this and the way the media portrays the problem makes it sound like people will die from freezing to death, which is just not true.

Pretty much all reporting forgets to add the nuance that deaths in colder months increase because:

1. If it is colder, people are more likely to stay indoors and that increases viral infections

2. Cold makes our immune systems not work as well, which increases the chances of serious complications from infections

3. Cold environments keep viruses around for longer.

4. Cold weather also causes blood to thicken, which can lead to an increased chance of things like strokes (which then lead to higher death rates).

This is the nuance that reporting feels to present.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#208

Post by biophysboy »

scythe wrote: post #179
crazygringo wrote: post #162

I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it's declined in quality. And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don't see it at all. It's the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it's always been. Sometimes I think the way it characteriz…

One thing I noticed about The Economist is that every so often they'll bring up some interesting criticism of a widely held view. Then a few days later they'll publish an article vigorously supporting the Current Thing. A particularly obvious example was when they had a column about Ukraine from John Mearshimer, and the various follow-ups. They also ran that takedown of Mohammed bin Salman but periodically tout the u…

This is an interesting perspective. Is it harder to maintain these relationships now than before? If so, why?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#209

Post by specialist »

specialist wrote: post #47

I'm fine with The Economist's Classical Liberal POV (per Adam Smith et al). I unsubscribed become of their support for the Iraq War. (Which admittedly they regretted some years later. But I won't forgive them.) Fortunately, Western media (at least) is flush with Classical Liberal POV. So it's not like I suffered from the omission. As for challenging and interesting and immediately relevant, I keep returning to David…

Oops.

*They're smart

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#210

Post by canucklady »

slowhand09 wrote: post #191
crazygringo wrote: post #162

I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it's declined in quality. And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don't see it at all. It's the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it's always been. Sometimes I think the way it characteriz…

I think its perspective. Drawing a parallel to Elon Musk. He says his political leanings haven't changed. Draw a line marked Far Left, Left, Sort of Left, Middle, Sort of Right, Right, Far Right. He says he was Left or Sort of Left, but somebody dragged the line way to the left. He is where he always was, but the line has moved.

It's worth pointing out Elon is being disingenuous. He was pro-Democrat (not Left) when they were kowtowing to the tech industry and handing out green technology subsidies. Now that there's scepticism of Big Tech oligarchs and easy money has dried up he's pivoted to extreme right-libertarian to try and dismantle any regulation and dodge as many taxes as possible. He's also realized there's a marketing opportunity to rebrand his electric cars as alt-right. All those dudes with "fuck your prius" stickers on their f150s can now buy a model y to virtue signal to their pals.
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