Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Sorry, I Still Think I Am Right About The Media Very Rarely Lying
03 Jan 2023
Answers to your proposed counterexamples https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/sorry-i-still-think-i-am-right-about Last week I wrote The Media Very Rarely Lies. I argued that, although the media is often deceptive and misleading, it very rarely makes up facts. Instead, it focuses on the (true) facts it wants you to think about, and ignores other true facts that contradict them or add context. This is true of establishment media like the New York Times, but also of fringe media like Infowars. All of the "misinformation" out there about COVID, voter fraud, conspiracies, whatever - is mostly people saying true facts in out-of-context misleading ways. Some commenters weren't on board with this thesis, and proposed many counterexamples - articles where they thought the media really was just making things up. I was surprised to see that all their counterexamples seemed, to me, like the media signal-boosting true facts in a misleading way without making anything up at all. Clearly there's some kind of disconnect here! I want to go over commenters' proposed counterexamples, explain why I find them more true-but-misleading than totally-made-up, and then go into more detail about implications.
No persons identified in this episode.
This episode hasn't been transcribed yet
Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.
Popular episodes get transcribed faster
Other episodes from Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Transcribed and ready to explore now
Your Review: Joan of Arc
07 Aug 2025
Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Book Review: Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids
03 Jun 2025
Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Links For February 2025
11 Mar 2025
Astral Codex Ten Podcast
The Emotional Support Animal Racket
28 May 2024
Astral Codex Ten Podcast
The Psychopolitics Of Trauma
27 Jan 2024
Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Book Review: A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis
27 Apr 2022
Astral Codex Ten Podcast