Topic: Media

How Bad is Our Social Dilemma?

– November 25, 2020

“What critics refer to when they say ‘This time is the same’ isn’t that television, newspapers, or cars revolutionized our societies in the exact same way that social media are doing, but that we found ways to deal with them. Live with them. Constrain them. Even if Harris doesn’t seem to think so, we can learn to live with these new technologies.” ~ Joakim Book

Crisis, Media, Science

A Contagion of Hatred and Hysteria

– November 1, 2020

“The simple truth is that Covid-19 will not just go away if we continue to impose enough meaningless restrictions on ourselves. And the longer we fail to recognise this, the worse will be the permanent economic damage — the brunt of which, again, will be borne by the disadvantaged and the young.” ~ Dr. Sunetra Gupta

Crisis, History, Media

Covid As a Source of Election Interference

– October 31, 2020

“There are so many other ways to interfere in an election than to tamper with voting machines – manipulating perceptions of Covid is just one of them.” ~ Micha Gartz

Crisis, Media, Policy, Science

The Inconsistent Messaging Behind Lockdowns

– October 22, 2020

“We would all be better off if an honest and principled conversation can take place. If lockdowns are found to be undesirable based on all the various considerations from the science to the economics, then we can move on to more productive conversations. There is no need to flip flop, censor, misconstrue, confuse, or otherwise argue as if this were some political debate where winning is more important than the truth.” ~ Ethan Yang

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Media, Public Choice and Public Policy

The Strange Advent of Lockdown Denialism

– October 20, 2020

“As the latest repackaging of this epidemiological bill of goods gains traction in our public discourse, the world has but one viable pathway out of the present social, economic, and medical hellscape. And that is to meet the lockdowners with a resounding no.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Healthcare, Media, Science

The Fake Signature Canard

– October 15, 2020

“As the data show, the lockdowners’ troll campaign accounted for almost half of the fake submissions – the very definition of an attempt to manufacture a news story. While they likely thought they scored an internet victory of some sort by cynically deflecting attention away from the disastrous public health effects of their own botched pandemic response, all they achieved was putting their own increasingly desperate tactics on full public display.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Economic Education, Media

The Obsession with Funders

– October 11, 2020

“Science can, and does, go wrong. It’s our job to spot its errors, point them out and fix them. Not yap on irrelevantly about where the money came from.” ~ Joakim Book

Crisis, Government, Media

A Primer for the Media on Viruses, Vaccines, and Covid-19

– September 25, 2020

“After retiring, I had hoped that I was ‘riding off into the sunset’ as far as my career was concerned. But,as a scientist, with expertise in infectious diseases, PPE, antiviral medicines, vaccines, etc., this year thrust me back into thinking mode, instinctively at first. But, I soon discovered that we were in trouble, not from the virus but from ourselves.” ~ Roger W. Koops

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Media

Do New York Times Headline Writers Believe Their Headlines?

– September 25, 2020

“The New York Times might think about this as it publishes alarmist headlines that obscure actual truths reported within the paper. It’s sad when we lose our grandparents and old people more broadly, but it’s tragic to read of people starving, and heart-wrenching to contemplate formerly productive workers sitting, waiting for customers; increasingly aware that what puts a roof over their heads will no longer. Proportion New York Times, proportion.” ~ John Tamny

Art and Culture, Free Markets, Media

News You Can’t Abuse

– September 22, 2020

“A news outlet that posted a bond with a third party that would be forfeited if it insisted on publishing anything factually wrong, or crossed the line between journalism and punditry, could create the sort of trust that people once had in the New York Times and other papers of record, all of which essentially posted informal bonds backed by their reputations and expected future profitability.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Crisis, Media, Regulation

In a War on Restaurants, Media Tout the Lockdown Narrative

– September 13, 2020

“Lockdowns have become a conclusion in a desperate search for evidence. This is precisely where we’ve been for six solid months now. The media has become the handmaiden of lockdown tyranny, blasting out simplistic versions of sketchy studies to keep the panic going as long as possible.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Free Markets, Media

What Good Comes from this Tragedy?

– July 6, 2020

“I suspect that many intelligent people have lost faith in the news, re-discovered frugality, and found a new way to commit themselves to the defense of liberty and human rights. In the coming days, we are going to need stronger and smarter minds to fight the battles of the future. These terrible months might have been the preparation we need to make sure that truth and freedom eventually prevail.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker