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Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#281

Post by davidhyde »

ChainOfFools wrote: post #242
davidhyde wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that The Economist has not been declining. I believe that what is really happening is that, at some point, a reader will eventually come across an article where they are particularly knowledgable about the subject matter. To their horror, they proceed to read an article that is “fraudulent by omission”. The cherry picked facts (which are correct) are chosen to fit a narrative. Every article read after this is…

the gell-mann effect

This effect is worth mentioning in this context even though, as another commenter noted, it wasn’t what I meant. Thanks for adding it though. https://loricism.fandom.com/wiki/Gell-Mann_Amnesia_Effect

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#282

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#283

Post by gxqoz »

I agree with others that I don't understand where you're coming from in some sort of decline or big change in The Economist. Maybe if you're overly obsessed with the editorials, which I've always skipped, something has changed. But the basic news reporting remains more or less the same as it has been for the 5+ years I've been subscribing.

I subscribed to Le Monde Diplomatique for a year and rarely found more than 1 or 2 articles a month that were interesting info I couldn't get elsewhere.

I subscribe to Foreign Affairs and find it to be 80% boring junk on the same set of topics about the rise of China, what to do about Russia, etc. The occasional article or book review on a less covered country makes it sort of worth the subscription price to me.

If you're just looking for something like "interesting book reviews," I'd take a look at the Literary Review. Or maybe the Times Literary Supplement. And New York Review of Books and London Review of Books offer much more in-depth reviews, but reading between the lines it seems like the op is saying The Economist is too liberal for them and is not going to like the tenor of most of what's in these.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#284

Post by gxqoz »

gxqoz wrote: post #283

I agree with others that I don't understand where you're coming from in some sort of decline or big change in The Economist. Maybe if you're overly obsessed with the editorials, which I've always skipped, something has changed. But the basic news reporting remains more or less the same as it has been for the 5+ years I've been subscribing. I subscribed to Le Monde Diplomatique for a year and rarely found more than 1…

Another option I guess is Bloomberg Businessweek which has at least some of the same news coverage as The Economist. But if you're not liking The Economist for having too much opinion you don't agree with, I'm guessing you won't like Businessweek. (You can usually find a print sub to Businessweek that's a lot less than a regular Bloomberg one).

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#285

Post by karp773 »

pydry wrote: post #156
yucky wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't necessarily mesh with what we see in reality though. The Economist doesn't use a byline and they're known as having very high quality content. Even if it's slipped a bit in recent years, it's slipped less than writing in general has. Writers who create their own brand tend to create echo chambers, because readers seek out those they trust (i.e. those who don't challenge the readers preconceived notions).…

>This doesn't necessarily mesh with what we see in reality though. The Economist doesn't use a byline and they're known as having very high quality content. A good way to see that it's not is to find out what investors or beltway policy elites would think and hunt for (entirely factual) things which might contradict their narrative. I cited an example below of an article about github copilot that was hot garbage - li…

The goal of Russia's bombardments is to flood Europe with refugees, provoke civil unrests there and then bring to power Russia's puppets like AfD in Germany and the like.

The end goal is to undermine international support for Ukraine.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#286

Post by yucky »

karp773 wrote: post #285
pydry wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This doesn't necessarily mesh with what we see in reality though. The Economist doesn't use a byline and they're known as having very high quality content. A good way to see that it's not is to find out what investors or beltway policy elites would think and hunt for (entirely factual) things which might contradict their narrative. I cited an example below of an article about github copilot that was hot garbage - li…

The goal of Russia's bombardments is to flood Europe with refugees, provoke civil unrests there and then bring to power Russia's puppets like AfD in Germany and the like. The end goal is to undermine international support for Ukraine.

Hasn't EU immigration policy already flooded the EU with refugees..?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#287

Post by zoenolan »

cybrexalpha wrote: post #131

I took out an Economist subscription for the first time this year, and I've found it really mixed. Lots of interesting articles, but I'll agree the analysis isn't as good as many other sources I've seen (in my view). What's the bigger blocker for me is the anti-LGBT+ lean. For example the most recent article on trans rights: November 19th - 25th 2022 issue, "Transgressions", page 29 in print. It's not even the insidi…

Same here. They published some bad article on trans rights, a few weeks before my subscription was up for renewal. It wasn't really something I could support. Cancelled after 15 years or so

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#288

Post by rchaud »

ROTMetro wrote: post #271
rchaud wrote: post #235

Wall Street Journal (except the op-ed pages, which are comically extreme). Financial Times is also very good, I prefer WSJ. They provide actual reporting and not just narrative; WSJ reporting broke the news of the Theranos fraud for example.

I used to subscribe but at some point as a free market believer I have to put my money where my mouth is and not fund ANY Murdoch enterprises.

If it heads in a Fox News or UK Sun type of direction, I'm gone. But for the time being, it really is one of the few sources of high-quality business coverage. That's partially why it's so inordinately expensive compared to other papers.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#289

Post by nirv »

Financial Times[1] is my primary source of high-quality European and international news. Politico Europe[2] and WSJ[3] come next.

I also recommend Spiegel International[4], Le Monde Diplomatique[5], and Nikkei Asia[6] for the German, French, and Japanese perspectives respectively.

[1] https://ft.com

[2] https://politico.eu

[3] https://wsj.com

[4] https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe

[5] https://mondediplo.com

[6] https://asia.nikkei.com

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#290

Post by slowhand09 »

canucklady wrote: post #210
slowhand09 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"? Seriously? I can see why there is such a division in society. I don't know anyone I'd consider alt-right, or alt-left for that matter. But you are able to channel his intentions. And you just branded pickup drivers as alt-right and characterized them as people who would buy electric cars for virtue signaling. I do know many pickup owners. Most do hard work, requiring pickups to transport tools, crews, equipment. Of those, the ones disparaging Priuses typically do so because they get stuck doing 10mph below the speed limit in the left lane while they are trying to get to a jobsite.
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