Suppose someone asked you to name the ten biggest cities in Ohio. Most people would not be able to do that without help, but they also would be able to name some of these cities. The two that would seem to be the easiest to identify are Cleveland and Cincinnati. After all, those are the two with MLB and NFL teams. Columbus, which actually has more people than any other city in the state might also come to mind.
I mention the list of Ohio cities, because in the wake of this morning's non-shooting "active shooter" at Ohio State, the media rushed to put together a picture of gun deaths in Ohio. One group put out a list of the murder rates in Ohio's ten largest cities. Remember, this is something that reporters and editors first compiled from reference materials and then published to inform their readers. The interesting thing is that the list was missing the city of Cleveland. One has to wonder how these geniuses could put together the list while leaving off such a major metropolis.
I just saw another example of "great" reporting in an AP story about the fears of government workers now that the Trump Administration is approaching. The AP mentions that Trump might abolish the Department of Education and cut the IRS and the EPA. Then it provides a list of all federal departments and the dates when they were established. You probably guessed that the AP left the Department of Education off the list. Maybe the reporter thought that by not mentioning that department on the list, he would be able to protect it from being abolished. That makes about as much sense as anything else.
These two are just examples of a major trend towards "junk news" or, more precisely, "news that is junk". What's the point of reporters putting together stories that are easily seen as wrong?
I mention the list of Ohio cities, because in the wake of this morning's non-shooting "active shooter" at Ohio State, the media rushed to put together a picture of gun deaths in Ohio. One group put out a list of the murder rates in Ohio's ten largest cities. Remember, this is something that reporters and editors first compiled from reference materials and then published to inform their readers. The interesting thing is that the list was missing the city of Cleveland. One has to wonder how these geniuses could put together the list while leaving off such a major metropolis.
I just saw another example of "great" reporting in an AP story about the fears of government workers now that the Trump Administration is approaching. The AP mentions that Trump might abolish the Department of Education and cut the IRS and the EPA. Then it provides a list of all federal departments and the dates when they were established. You probably guessed that the AP left the Department of Education off the list. Maybe the reporter thought that by not mentioning that department on the list, he would be able to protect it from being abolished. That makes about as much sense as anything else.
These two are just examples of a major trend towards "junk news" or, more precisely, "news that is junk". What's the point of reporters putting together stories that are easily seen as wrong?
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