“Briefly stated, the
Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an
article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In
mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has
absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the
article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing
cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories.
Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or
amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to
national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the
newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you
just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
Now throw in the proviso that an awful lot of people, having caught so many errors or- in some cases- flat-out lies, stop believing the media about ANYTHING. Which is a real problem.
1 comment:
Indeed, there is very little reason to believe that the average journalist or editor of a major media outlets has a single clue about what he is saying.
Many years back I laughed so hard I thought I might get kicked off my flight because the front page of my complimentary USA Today had an article from the AP entitled, “Missouri River Sinking, Scientists Suspect Erosion”
Post a Comment