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2 posts found
Dec 22, 2022
acx
13 min 1,748 words 641 comments 517 likes podcast (12 min)
Scott Alexander argues that media rarely lies outright but often misleads through lack of context, making censorship of 'misinformation' problematic. Longer summary
Scott Alexander argues that media rarely lies explicitly, but instead misinforms through misinterpretation, lack of context, or selective reporting. He provides examples from both alternative (Infowars) and mainstream (New York Times) media to illustrate how technically true information can be presented in misleading ways. The post critiques the idea that censorship can easily distinguish between 'misinformation' and 'good information', arguing that determining necessary context is subjective and value-laden. Scott concludes that there isn't a clear line between misinformation and proper contextualization, making censorship inherently biased. Shorter summary
Feb 12, 2020
ssc
4 min 422 words 261 comments podcast (5 min)
Scott Alexander addresses Infowars readers about a misattributed survey analysis, providing caveats and emphasizing proper attribution and vaccine safety. Longer summary
Scott Alexander addresses new readers from Infowars, who linked to his blog regarding a survey analysis about mental illness and political affiliation. He clarifies that the analysis was not his own but done by a Twitter user using his survey data. Scott provides several important caveats about the interpretation of these results, including potential biases in diagnosis rates and the unrepresentative nature of his blog's audience. He also points out that a similar finding was reported using the more rigorous General Social Survey. Scott emphasizes the importance of proper attribution in media reporting and reiterates the safety of vaccines. Shorter summary