Dec 24, 2022
"With a title like that, obviously I will be making a nitpicky technical point."
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-media-very-rarely-lies
Related: Bounded Distrust, Moderation Is Different From Censorship
I.
With a title like that, obviously I will be making a nitpicky technical point. I’ll start by making the point, then explain why I think it matters.
The point is: the media rarely lies explicitly and directly. Reporters rarely say specific things they know to be false. When the media misinforms people, it does so by misinterpreting things, excluding context, or signal-boosting some events while ignoring others, not by participating in some bright-line category called “misinformation”.
Let me give a few examples from both the alternative and establishment medias.