I used to like newspapers. But I grew up in San Diego, and my Dad subscribed to four of them: the San Diego Union, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the San Diego Transcript. He disdained the few tabloids available. He'd be appalled by the state of the news at the moment, though the New York Times has always been in the tank for ( Read more... )

As we have known since the quantum revolution early last century, explaining the universe as "random collisions of atoms", an explanation first proposed by Lucretius, is not sufficient to understand what is going on. "Information and Energy" on the other hand, shows great promise, if we have time to think about it between the blasts from the ( Read more... )

Regime-speak
You're about to be lied to when they say-a hand up ( Read more... )

I've had it with the panicky headlines: those interested in data should check out this page on the computer.

Look at the numbers to the upper right. You can change the map coverage by zooming in or out.

Link broken: evidently transparency was too much.

In a way, this is impressive. Four bad stories in 54 seconds, while theoretically occupied with an interview. Could you lie with a straight face so effectively? If not, perhaps you aren't newscaster material. Notice I didn't say "journalist" -- that, as it turns out, is a word like "unicorn" -- a word with nothing real being described. This on what ( Read more... )

Journalists, well, ex-journalists are upset that they are being told to "learn to code" upon being laid off. It helps that it's usually young people with no memory of the previous decade who make these charges: they don't have any idea where the phrase came from. Here's an example of the ignorant resentment.Why display your ignorance so openly? Is ( Read more... )

Dan Rather still thinks he had a story with those fake letters about George Bush and the National Guard. And that CBS wanted to appease the White House. And, for all I know, that the tooth fairy was involved in smuggling illegal cash contributions.

So he's suing to bring the story back up again. ( I had fun covering this the first time )

Instapundit always helps out with context.

In discussing Jules Crittenden's critique of war reporting, he reminds me of stories the media like to tell -- whether or not the facts are there to allow them to tell those stories ( Read more... )

Casey At the Bat.... Redone by Pat Santy, referring to this article (free on the site, unlike all other articles in the "Diarist" section), that has been much refuted, despite some hilarious claims of "fact checking".

Tuesday, August 07, 2007 ( Read more... )

An overlooked demographic in the US is the one that dominates the Media.

The Times Echoes

You can hear them on the evening news. How overlooked can they be?