“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

― Michael Crichton

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed.

If you do, you're misinformed.

~Mark Twain

Bud-a-bing bud-a-boom! Says it all, right there.

I think years ago that some notable “journalists” were driven to ideals that their personal bias couldn’t be shown in their work. Advertising dollars and viewership followed these personalities and ideals.

Today, it’s expected to see the bias and I think that’s the difference we see.

I’d be interested to see where the money comes from for these networks because their viewership stinks and they don’t seem to care. Follow the money.

I’ve taken to reading Matt Taibi, Glenn Greenwood and Bari Weiss on Substack. Not perfect, but much better than the mainstream media.

About 15 years ago a local police officer was shot and killed during what should have been a routine traffic stop. The officer was married and was survived by a wife and three kids. About a month after the sad event a local newspaper reporter called and told me he was doing a follow up story on the family. He wanted to know how much the the family was receiving in social security survivors benefits. I explained the law regarding privacy, and told him I would not be giving him the information. He started giving me a bunch of shit about the people's right to know. When I made it clear a second time that I wouldn't be giving him the information, he kept pushing. I wound up hanging up on him. Probably should have called back and complained to his boss, but I let it go. Ever since then I haven't had much use for reporters. This was just a local reporter working for the local paper, but if he was typical of most reporters, there are a lot of ass holes in the profession. I'm sure there are good ones out there, but the profession as a whole is no better than any other, and worse than a lot of them.