Mastodawn

Jun 19, 2023

Still my favorite segment about why it's a bad idea to participate in bad-faith "debates" about science. They only result in further amplifying disinformation.

"People still think this issue is open to debate, because on TV it is. It's always one person for one person against. When you look at the screen, it's 50/50, which is inherently misleading."
— @iamjohnoliver

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Juggling With Eggs Jun 19, 2023

@luckytran reminds me of Emily Maitlis’ powerful speech last year after leaving the BBC:

“it might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it. But by the time we went on air, we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn’t.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/25/bbc-agent-tory-party-bias-news-media-emily-maitlis-mactaggart-lecture

When an agent of the Tory party decides the BBC’s ‘bias’, it’s a huge problem

All too often, news media are primed to back down, even apologise, to prove how fair they are. That can be exploited, says journalist Emily Maitlis

The Guardian

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Jeri Dansky

@JugglingWithEggs Ah, Emily Maitlis! Being in the US, I just recently discovered her on The News Agents, where she sometimes sounds gleeful about being free of BBC constraints.