It’s not just NBC’s Ken Dilanian out there trying to terrify people in his role as whatever kind of -ist it is who terrorizes or frightens others. It’s what most journos do and have been doing for over a year.
Today’s example is the New York Times, who got CALLED OUT by liberal pollster Nate Silver.
One other point I'd highlight re: the current Delta Panic is that it's driven media innumeracy rather than by what the Actual Experts™ think. Here e.g. is the White House pushing back vs. an extremely misleading and harmful @nytimes tweet that NYT is too stubborn to correct. https://t.co/D82YbtJZsq
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 30, 2021
It’s the same thing as Dilanian. They are inflating the parts that sound scary and playing down or simply leaving out the parts – like the percentages – that make it not scary. It’s so bad, in this case, that Silver thinks it worthy of remedy.
Honestly @twitter should probably flag that @nytimes tweet for being misinformation.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 30, 2021
Fat chance of that. But guess who the Twitter censors DID flag?
Facebook censors CDC link.
We’ve come full circle. pic.twitter.com/0xXrpTWbIM
— Zach Vorhies (@Perpetualmaniac) July 30, 2021
What a complete mess.
I mean who would’ve guessed, though, that putting a bunch of techie dorks in charge of the world’s free flow of information would present so many problems? I ASK Y’ALL, WHO COULDA GUESSED IT???