Viral (or Vile) Media
I start my morning reviewing the headlines of the major news media on RealClearPolitics to see if there is anything worth reading. Of course, RCP now juxtaposes the ying with the yang on every issue in order to drive engagement and traffic. Today I came across these two articles and was struck on how they captured the manufactured controversy over ending or maintaining virus lockdowns. Give them a read and see if you can perceive the difference.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/opinion/coronavirus-economy-reopen.html
How to reopen the economy with a reality-based approach
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/how-to-reopen-the-economy-with-a-reality-based-approach
The first, published in the esteemed (sic) NYT, is written by a professor of pediatrics. I read it through, hoping to gain some insights. Sadly, incredibly obtuse, he makes assertions about epidemiology and public opinion and dismisses experts from the fields of psychiatry, politics, economics, and social behavior with a fairly baseless argument that only the medical experts know. We must follow their advice without question (okay, let's ignore the fact that every medical projection has been off by a country mile). Then he adds that public opinion agrees. Okay, a public survey poll is an obvious contradiction of expertise: if 60% of the lemmings say we need to go over the cliff, the other 40% better follow?
He tried to obscure this error with a survey of economists. As a trained economist I happen to know the profession is one of the most risk-averse in academia (note the quoted economist who doesn't want to be a restaurant guinea pig). Why? Because we are painfully aware of how much we don't know (and make sure to maintain plausible deniability for those bad forecasts - Paul Krugman take note). There is no actionable intelligence in this opinion piece, as that's what it is, unqualified opinion.
The second piece is published by the less esteemed (?) Washington Examiner (hmm, presenting a perfect opportunity to shoot the messenger and kill the message?), written by an MD and JD trained in economics. This writer offers a nuanced strategy with actionable intelligence for opening up parts of society while maintaining certain social behavior protocols to manage the risks. Okay, not bad.
My advice: trash the NYT piece and don't take the WE piece as gospel, as that is not how it is intended, but give it careful consideration. There's no equivalence here. Our media seems committed to misguiding at least half the country's citizens. Ugh!