"...
The result is pseudo-journalistic artifice designed to look like useful reporting. It's function is to sell ads (which it doesn't even do very well), coddle power, normalize corrupt corporatism, and provide a fake sense of understanding to MBAs who don't want to think too deeply about the ethics of their personal pursuit of wealth.

Like most Carr reporting I've read, the Financial Times is able to discuss Carr's censorship, but never mentions that Carr has taken a hatchet to corporate oversight and consumer protection. His real world policy impact on people, workers, and consumers genuinely isn't of interest to them.

...
It used to be a point of pride for a journalist to land an interview with a major public figure. Now, it's more than likely that you were chosen specifically because people in power know you lack the chops to meaningfully push.

... a vast sea of artifice, designed to distract, normalize, and give the vague impression of the thoughtful conveyance of useful information, but with all pointed, truthful edges sanded off to a harmless nub."

#journalism #media #reporting #fascism #bothSides #viewFromNowhere #literacy #education #propaganda #disinformation

htps://karlbode.com/brunchlord-patty-cake/

Mel Andrews on the connections between a naive belief in scientific objectivity (facts and data are "real" and "correct" and "neutral") and eugenics:
Francis Galton, pioneering figure of the eugenics movement, believed that good research practice should consist in “gathering as many facts as possible without any theory or general principle that might prejudice a neutral and objective view of these facts” (Jackson et al., 2005). Karl Pearson, statistician and fellow purveyor of eugenicist methods, approached research with a similar ethos: “theorizing about the material basis of heredity or the precise physiological or causal significance of observational results, Pearson argues, will do nothing but damage the progress of the science” (Pence, 2011). In collaborative work with Pearson, Weldon emphasised the superiority of data-driven methods which were capable of delivering truths about nature “without introducing any theory” (Weldon, 1895).
From The Immortal Science of ML: Machine Learning & the Theory-Free Ideal.

I've lost the reference, but I suspect it was Meredith Whittaker who's written and spoken about the big data turn at Google, where it was understood that having and collecting massive datasets allowed them to eschew model-building.

The core idea being critiqued here is that there's a kind of scientific view from nowhere: a theory-free, value-free, model-free, bias-free way of observing the world that will lead to Truth; and that it's the task of the scientist to approximate this view from nowhere as well as possible.

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #science #DataScience #ScientificObjectivity #eugenics #ViewFromNowhere
The Mainstream Media Is Catastrophically Failing To Meet The Moment

Earlier today we wrote about Trump’s extraordinary admission that he was basing military deployment decisions on old Fox News footage and lies from his advisors. But there’s an even mor…

Techdirt
Against Ironic Detachment

I’m going to say something that will make many of you deeply uncomfortable: our culture has confused ironic detachment with intelligence. We’ve mistaken cynicism for sophistication, distance for de…

Techdirt
More Washington Post Staffers Resign Over Bezos’ Mismanagement And Authoritarian Ass Kissing

Last month U.S. oligarch Jeff Bezos gutted what was left of the paper’s op-ed section, declaring that they’d only publish pieces that supported “personal liberties and free market…

Techdirt

#JaredFreid is a performance artist who invoked #MentalTahiti to describe a woman in the suburbs with a 6-month old baby.

This is the audience for NPR voice’s #ViewFromNowhere

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81712329?s=i&trkid=14170286&vlang=en&clip=81715846

#comedy

Watch Jared Freid: 37 & Single | Netflix Official Site

Comedian Jared Freid sounds off on the highs and lows of being single at 37, from dating app frustrations to awkward setups to breakup justifications.

"Partisan bickering" over gun control. -- @NPR newscast, 10am ET. 😳
I appreciate NPR, but this s**t's gotta stop. It's not directly killing us, but it's helping.
#guns #news #viewfromnowhere #journalism #bothsidesism #rightwing #deathcult