Oddbean new post about | logout
 nostr:npub1wyj84xdj2zxgxrcmaw8u7h2c3ws577737g7edt0d5vmsyenqdg9s2gmkhk  I guess we’ll have to disagree on this one.

Ok certainly nothing wrong with that… ill listen.  I agree with the general sentiment – a little bias can reinforce itself over time, until you have the highly polarized society that social media algorithms have helped create. So any bias should be examined critically.

Good, yes, agreed so far  However, I’m sure that you’ll have a very hard time finding a news story that is accurate, complete, and unbiased, no matter the source.

Yes absolutely. In fact one reason I am so vocal about it is because very very few news agencies or journalist exist who maintain journalistic integrity. The proper response isnt to accept it, its to call it out when we see it and reward it when we dont, as consumers. Moreover, we should find solutions or ideologies that help ensure journalistic integrity is maximized. Accepting it doesnt do that.

I will tell you what does.. two things really.

1) lack of explicit bias or bias as a feature (like we have here).

2) lack of a for-profit model.

For #1 we discussed this already alot so ill leave that to the rest of the discussion

#2 is important though// Anyone who knows me on here will tell you, im pretty damn capitalistic, I start companies for almost for a living, I very much lean center (left of center, but center) and economically at least I lean right (socially and welfare programs I lean left). So I am the last person anyone expects to be anti for-profit… but there are two places I am non-profit all the way, healthcare, and journalism. Because in both these fields maximizing profits is counter to their intended purpose of making healthcare affordable, or journalism faithful to journalistic integrity.  In short (j/k I talk a lot), I don’t accept the premise that good journalism is devoid of any kind of bias. It is reporting and story-telling by humans, and the intelligent consumer will weigh it appropriately.

This is again a misrepresentation of my stance.. you are disagreeing with somthing I never said.

My criteria is not “devoid of any kind of bias”.. the criteria is that bias is not baked in as a feature.. that a reasonable attempt is made to eliminate and reduce bias, NOT to intentionally add bias as a feature.

I hope you can see how these are two wildly different things.

nostr:npub1a3qw5h3e8df78wcl34jw9edps2exma0a3ysu6d6p5e5k4ejs6krs3md4yg