Thank you as usual for your clear headed analysis of the media landscape here and at the Guardian.
I must confess that this latest episode with the overt nazi imagery really got to me. One would think that if one of the major American presidential candidates starts aping Hitler in public, the headlines and ledes would be easy to write and utterly dominate every single news outlet in the country—and instead, it feels like this was met with not much more than a shrug. What does Trump have to do for the media to wake up?
It’s called flooding the zone with shit, in the execrable Steve Bannon’s memorable phrase. No sooner has he committed one outrage than he commits another. It’s simply too much to keep up with, resulting in an amorphous accumulation of outrages each of which gets swallowed up by the next one.
It's pretty scary to think that advances in technology allowing the knowledge of the world to be available to everyone instantly has indeed dumbed down a large part of the American, and probably world population. I've been thinking that myself, wondering it that is true. Well, I'm now convinced it's true. OK, now I'm really worried what AI will bring us. Clearly intelligent robots to do all the work, then what? I'm always just amazed by any interview with a MAGA supporter, their answers to questions. These truly uninformed people are a significant piece of our population! Please, lets have voters first pass a very basic intelligence test before going to the booth.
While I share your concern about uninformed voters—especially if the MAGA variety—any sort of litmus test to allow for voting would be profoundly illiberal. We can’t ever do that. There must be a different solution.
One possible solution is good, robust civics education. Make basic Civics/US Government mandatory in schools. It no longer is in most schools. And offer free civics education to adults, along the lines of what new citizens must learn to pass the citizenship test. The League of Women Voters, among other organizations, is a great resource for this.
This comment does not address the solemnity and self sacrifice of Memorial Day. It addresses an ongoing battle of great consequenc....
There is one person who has caused Joe Biden more headaches than any of his Republican enemies. That person is the New York Times charlatan polling "guru", Nate Cohn.
Cohn is responsible for the design and results of the monthly Times/Sienna presidential preference poll.
We should ignore the Times' polls and any journalist or news reporter comments about Biden's popularity based on these polls.
As a quantitative research tool, presidential political polls should be predictive of future elections results. However, like all quantitative consumer research, political polling requires a participant group reflective of the actual voting population and rejects any participants not likely to vote.
However, the Times/Sienna polls does the opposite. So as not to be accused of "liberal bias" the Times purposely includes an overly high proportion of low propensity, disengaged voters in its polling groups. Regardless of party affiliation, these "voters" tend to be unknowledgeable about issues and lean MAGA conservative. Cohn clearly admits his results are suspect in his latest NYTs article about the vagaries of political polling.
Because the Times is considered the authority of record for journalists and news reporters across all media, the Times has a greater responsibility to avoid biased polling. Unfortunately, the Times/Sienna results have undermined Biden's support for months and has been the primary data driving efforts to get one of America's greatest presidents, not to run in Nov. resulting in serious damage to our democracy.
Thousands of lifetime subscribers to the Times have cancelled in disgust in the past 6 months. The Times' leadership pretends the paper is just being "objective" when in fact it's reporting is based on knowingly false data.
As Americans, we will keep pushing the Times to stop supporting Trump and correct its biased polling results. More than the 81 million Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 will be back in Nov.to give him the largest vote total in history.
Thank you as usual for your clear headed analysis of the media landscape here and at the Guardian.
I must confess that this latest episode with the overt nazi imagery really got to me. One would think that if one of the major American presidential candidates starts aping Hitler in public, the headlines and ledes would be easy to write and utterly dominate every single news outlet in the country—and instead, it feels like this was met with not much more than a shrug. What does Trump have to do for the media to wake up?
It’s called flooding the zone with shit, in the execrable Steve Bannon’s memorable phrase. No sooner has he committed one outrage than he commits another. It’s simply too much to keep up with, resulting in an amorphous accumulation of outrages each of which gets swallowed up by the next one.
It's pretty scary to think that advances in technology allowing the knowledge of the world to be available to everyone instantly has indeed dumbed down a large part of the American, and probably world population. I've been thinking that myself, wondering it that is true. Well, I'm now convinced it's true. OK, now I'm really worried what AI will bring us. Clearly intelligent robots to do all the work, then what? I'm always just amazed by any interview with a MAGA supporter, their answers to questions. These truly uninformed people are a significant piece of our population! Please, lets have voters first pass a very basic intelligence test before going to the booth.
While I share your concern about uninformed voters—especially if the MAGA variety—any sort of litmus test to allow for voting would be profoundly illiberal. We can’t ever do that. There must be a different solution.
One possible solution is good, robust civics education. Make basic Civics/US Government mandatory in schools. It no longer is in most schools. And offer free civics education to adults, along the lines of what new citizens must learn to pass the citizenship test. The League of Women Voters, among other organizations, is a great resource for this.
This comment does not address the solemnity and self sacrifice of Memorial Day. It addresses an ongoing battle of great consequenc....
There is one person who has caused Joe Biden more headaches than any of his Republican enemies. That person is the New York Times charlatan polling "guru", Nate Cohn.
Cohn is responsible for the design and results of the monthly Times/Sienna presidential preference poll.
We should ignore the Times' polls and any journalist or news reporter comments about Biden's popularity based on these polls.
As a quantitative research tool, presidential political polls should be predictive of future elections results. However, like all quantitative consumer research, political polling requires a participant group reflective of the actual voting population and rejects any participants not likely to vote.
However, the Times/Sienna polls does the opposite. So as not to be accused of "liberal bias" the Times purposely includes an overly high proportion of low propensity, disengaged voters in its polling groups. Regardless of party affiliation, these "voters" tend to be unknowledgeable about issues and lean MAGA conservative. Cohn clearly admits his results are suspect in his latest NYTs article about the vagaries of political polling.
Because the Times is considered the authority of record for journalists and news reporters across all media, the Times has a greater responsibility to avoid biased polling. Unfortunately, the Times/Sienna results have undermined Biden's support for months and has been the primary data driving efforts to get one of America's greatest presidents, not to run in Nov. resulting in serious damage to our democracy.
Thousands of lifetime subscribers to the Times have cancelled in disgust in the past 6 months. The Times' leadership pretends the paper is just being "objective" when in fact it's reporting is based on knowingly false data.
As Americans, we will keep pushing the Times to stop supporting Trump and correct its biased polling results. More than the 81 million Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 will be back in Nov.to give him the largest vote total in history.
Merrill Weingrod
401-480-8003
If you agree, please directly email:
Joe.kahn@nytimes.com
nate.cohn@nytime.com
ruth.igelnick@nytimes.com
david.halbfinger@nytimes.com