Here's the headline.
Americans Were Primed To Believe The Current Onslaught Of Disinformation
"Americans". Heh.
And here's the first paragraph.
It started with a drizzle but quickly turned into a downpour: Disinformation about the election, and in particular unfounded claims of election fraud, has flooded the internet over the past week. And Americans were primed to believe it.
"Americans". There's that word again.
And yet, drop down another paragraph or two and you'll find that the author obviously knows damn well that it's not "Americans".
It's "Republicans".
But thanks of the same suffocating journalistic cowardice that has all but killed off the press, the author would rather gargle rat poison than say it right out, plain and clear.
Meanwhile, polls show a substantial percentage of the population, particularly Republicans, believe (without evidence) that voter fraud has occurred. According to a poll from YouGov and The Economist conducted Nov. 8-10 among registered voters, 82 percent of Republicans said they did not believe that Joe Biden had legitimately won the presidential election, even though he has. This followed a Nov. 7 YouGov poll among registered voters that found 79 percent of Republicans believed voter fraud had occurred and affected the outcome of the election. Similarly, in a Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted Nov. 6-9 among registered voters, 70 percent of Republicans said they didn’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair — double the 35 percent of Republicans who answered that way in a poll conducted before the election.
And of course, since 2016 is now the new Year Zero, all events prior to that are lost to the memory of man.
Trump set the stage
It goes on like that.
And it's never going to stop.
No Half Measures
4 comments:
The urge to appear "neutral" overrides the need to be accurate. Apparently neutrality is the prime directive in journalism. Truth and accuracy get trashed in the process.
The urge to appear "neutral" overrides the need to be accurate. Apparently neutrality is the prime directive in journalism. Truth and accuracy get trashed in the process.
I'll admit Mr. Silver & co. got a few clicks from me prior to the 2016 election, but only a few, and those with a healthy dose of skepticism. Since 2016, I'm proud to say, zero.
Here's why:
Imagine standing with Nate Silver at a craps table. "Hey Nate," you say, "what are the chances of me rolling a 7 on the first go here?" Nate excitedly runs a Monty Carlo sim, because he's all clever and sophisticated...argle bargle. "Good news. Best odds on the table. One in six." Great, you think, as you plunk your money down. You then roll a 4. Loser. As your money is being swept away you turn to Nate expecting an explanation and instead get, "See, I was right! (Moar clicks please!)"
Really, it's not Nate & co.'s fault. They *are* right. It's our fault for looking to their analysis for prediction when in fact it's not predictive at all. In other words, it's the wrong tool for the job. Sadly that leave us, the public, in a bit of a bind as there's really no proper predictive tool (at least not a math/statistic based one) so we're left trying to read tea leaves.
At any rate, 538 shouldn't be getting any clicks at all, at least not for peddling their current schtick. I'd sooner click on a David Brooks link (dig added just for you DG).
Hey what is the surprise ?
They been falling for Horse and Sparrow ever since they rebranded it to Trickle Down.
Horse and Sparrow ; You feed the horse all the food and it passes through the horse and when the horse is done with it. It comes out the back end and is placed on the ground for Sparrows to stumble across it and pick the seeds out . That were not digested by the horse.
Horse and Sparrow was the GOP's economic policy during Hoover and produced the great depression. Which every horse during that time lived very well. And the Sparrow survived picking through shit. All other creatures survived by cannibalism.
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