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Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#292
post #145
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media Bias Fact Check describes it as a very right-biased outlet with questionable factuality. They are also categorized as "right-biased" by Ground News, "right-leaning" by AllSides and "far-right" by Wikipedia. Maybe not the best source for neutral and factual news coverage?

It's a Falun Gong outlet. Its views are their views. IMHO it never makes sense to measure media's bias from right to left but it makes even less sense when the power center they represent is so obvious. It's like arguing whether RT is conservative because they like Trump or liberal because they are skeptical of Israel. RT is simply pro Russia above all and will turn on a dime on any issue if it serves their core mast…

Any hard evidence for the claim that Epoch is a Falun Gong outlet vs. the actual case that its one of the best objective news reporting currently available? For the latter claim, read the stories and compare to the "truth" that eventually comes out on things. They are always reporting factually as it happens, whether they like what happens or not.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#293

Could you give examples of how quality has declined? I'm scared if a rag like Jacobin is in the running. When people say that the quality of a publication has declined they often mean they disagree with things that are published. Many also say that they seek out blogs and other sources that I assume they agree with. I read these publications because I often disagree with their opinion pieces. It's a value add. Why wo…

I've discussed how I think the quality has decline elsewhere in the thread, but in short, they flip-flop so as to be on the "correct" side of the conversation too often instead of admitting fault, their UK/EU commentary has been of such a low quality I could find it in a tabloid newspaper if I wanted, and their general Anglo-centric view of the world is not valuable to me explicitly for the reason you describe; I'm B…

Jacobin’s editorial philosophy focuses on conversational writing to make the articles more accessible. This is intentionally different from the didactic style of The Economist or what I’d call the philosophical ramblings of the NYT or Atlantic.

It isn’t trying to be a publication that sounds smart or pretends to be unbiased, but that is the expectation most people have from economic and political writing. That plus the obvious political position makes it unpopular, but I’d argue the quality is just as good as any other major publication.

I’d say it’s important to keep it in your mix because you’re just not going to find views or analysis from that perspective otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#294
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When people say that the quality of a publication has declined they often mean they disagree with things that are published. > a rag like Jacobin

Jacobin isn't just biased, it's agenda-driven. They're cheering specific outcomes and jeering others. To the parent comments' point, Jacobin is just an echo chamber for Socialists who want to hear Socialist opinions from other Socialists. That's different from wanting to read factual news and rational analysis from sources who believe climate change is real.

Every publication is agenda-driven, and nothing is more echo chambery than believing only your favorites are presenting “factual news and rational analysis.”

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#295
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jacobin isn't just biased, it's agenda-driven. They're cheering specific outcomes and jeering others. To the parent comments' point, Jacobin is just an echo chamber for Socialists who want to hear Socialist opinions from other Socialists. That's different from wanting to read factual news and rational analysis from sources who believe climate change is real.

Every publication is agenda-driven, and nothing is more echo chambery than believing only your favorites are presenting “factual news and rational analysis.”

No they aren't. That's cynical. Jacobin puts it right on their About Us page that they're Socialist news. I've been around a few newsrooms and most of them would riot if they were ever directed to represent an agenda. Even when there was a predominant political leaning.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#297

You might add https://www.spiegel.de/international/ to your list. It is free and well written. The good thing about Financial Times: It is a UK publisher, not US-based, so the reporting on the US is more skeptical and nuanced. Less screechy. To be fair, I avoid almost all of the opinion pieces except for Martin Wolf, because he is basically writing an economics column. The rest is rather inflammatory (much lower edit…

I'd stay far away from the Spiegel. While it has the reputation of a liberal magazine it actually started off as the mouthpiece of the BND. For some weird reason it got that reputation when it attacked Adenauer's policies when he and de Gaulle were working on bringing Germany and France closer together. While it somehow has retained this intellectual status to a lot of people it is an outrageous publication, with muc…

I second this. It’s mind boggling how bad DER SPEGEL does basic research. I did not find it surprising at all, that the Relotius-scandal^1 happened at DER SPIEGEL.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claas_Relotius#Fabrication_of_...

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd stay far away from the Spiegel. While it has the reputation of a liberal magazine it actually started off as the mouthpiece of the BND. For some weird reason it got that reputation when it attacked Adenauer's policies when he and de Gaulle were working on bringing Germany and France closer together. While it somehow has retained this intellectual status to a lot of people it is an outrageous publication, with muc…

I second this. It’s mind boggling how bad DER SPEGEL does basic research. I did not find it surprising at all, that the Relotius-scandal^1 happened at DER SPIEGEL. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claas_Relotius#Fabrication_of_...

... and was caught by Der Spiegel! From Wikipedia: "On 19 December 2018, Der Spiegel made public that Relotius had admitted that he had "falsified his articles on a grand scale", inventing facts, persons and quotations in at least 14 of his stories in Der Spiegel, an event now being referred to as Spiegelgate. The magazine uncovered the fraud after a co-author of one of Relotius's articles about a pro-Trump vigilante group in Arizona conducting patrols along the Mexico–United States border, the Spanish-born Spiegel journalist Juan Moreno, became suspicious of the veracity of Relotius's contributions and gathered evidence against him."

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#300
post #250

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 feel this exact same way every time someone claims Google search results have declined in quality.

Although the decline in Google's search results is less subjective. Either you can find what you're looking for or you can't. Plenty of people (certainly not all) can't.
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