https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1015786049187049472.html
[Not just for journalists. For anyone who is trying make sense of the
world, trying to understand why so many now value personal belief over
evidence, or trying to educate others as to the perils which face us as
residents of planet Earth. We need to read articles, not just
headlines, and call out when disinformation is being pushed out as facts.]
2018-07-08
Kurt Eichenwald
1. Today I moved about a million pages of documents & notes. Just one
box contained over 100 yellow pads, scribbled on both sides with
interview notes. These are the documents I retained from my reporting -
maybe 1/6 of the total. And seeing them made me sad for this country...
2...reporting, when done right, is hard work. You have to review every
report, speak to every participant, check your own assumptions, argue
against your own conclusion to find the weaknesses. Reading, calling,
gathering. Finding the experts. Prying info out of participants....
3...there was a time when all of this work, done over weeks and months
and sometimes years, would be published and Americans would say "Oh, I
learned something." But too many people no longer have any concept of
what knowledge is. They know what they believe - and belief trumps..
3...information. I have spent a month reporting something, written it,
then heard people give their responses to the headline. We are an
achingly ignorant nation, and it is across the board. Doctors study for
many years, take exams, get credentialed, must have continuing....
4...medical education, but all of us have Google Medical School. I know
many doctors and they now spend enormous amounts of time trying to
persuade people that whatever nonsense they found on the internet is not
medicine, that vaccines are essential, that raw cinnamon is not...
5...a miracle drug. And often, when they are unable to persuade the
patient that maybe a doctor with years off education knows more than
some guy who did a quick internet search of blogs, they must relent and
let their patients engage in harmful behavior. Scientists, from....
6...climatologists to biologists to geologists - have to confront people
who couldn't pass high school chemistry saying they don't "believe"
science they have never read, as if "belief" has any role in science
whatsoever. You read the research, you find the flaws, and report....
7...them,. If you cant do that, your "opinion" has as much worth as
people who scream "fake news" at well-reported stories simply because
they don't like them, or scream "butter will cure diabetes." The
internet has given us access to greatest knowledge available. But it has....
8...also given us access to "facts" - out of context, poorly understood
pieces of information stacked in deceptive piles for the purpose of
creating an outcome and convincing the very ignorant that they know more
than people who have worked for knowledge. If what you do is....
9...watch networks or read magazines or websites because you KNOW that
they will always feed you what you already believe, you are not
informed. You are a moron. And if you don't have a million pages of
documents from reporting, or medical research at your hand, or
peer-reviewed....
10...literature on the non-medical sciences, and if you can't discuss
all of those intelligently based on KNOWLEDGE, not cherry-picked facts
and spin, then you are part of the problem of this country. I don't know
more than a climatologist about climate. If you don't do the....
11...work on ANY speciality, you don't have the knowledge. And if you
think you do, then look up Dunning Kruger. That is you, and you are
destroying America in a cesspool of arrogant stupidity.
12....some people seem to be taking this to mean I am giving up. Nope.
Never. Journalism is too important for the health of this country for
reporters to abandon it - even if more than half the country has no idea
why.
[Dunning-Kruger Effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
OK, now take a minute and a half to enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQH7fjtmREc
