Never have so many MSM been so factually wrong about so much so consistently

It is appalling how so much of the mainstream media reporting is so factually wrong so much of the time. They were on an already notable downward spiral before Corona virus - financial decline compounded by, and compounding, reporting omissions (leaving out pertinent information), selective reporting (focusing on a few pet issues), motivated reporting (choosing what to report based on commercial or ideological concerns), innumeracy, absence of empirical curiosity (happily reporting contradictory facts as if not aware that they were in contradiction with one another.) And always driven by the need for clicks, not facts. They were careening towards a National Enquirer culture of reporting where what gets printed is determined solely by whether it will get eyeballs, unconstrained by factual accuracy, empirical utility, respect for the reader's intelligence, pride in profession or any other factor.

The Russia Collusion seemed peak media delusion followed by the revolting spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearings and finally by the sham of the impeachment theater. Nothing usefully true produced and much reality denied.

And then along came the corona virus to prove that the depths of media incompetence and malevolence were as yet unplumbed. At a time when the tragic reality of the disease is unmasking the incompetence and unpreparedness of a range of institutions (WHO, CDC, FDA, all come promptly to mind) and when real news is all around, the media has chosen this moment to take the game of gotcha to a new level of foolishness and irresponsibility. When given the opportunity to make a bad choice in terms of their brand value, they eagerly and reflexively seize that opportunity with squeals of glee.

The reality is that we desperately want and need to understand the causal mechanisms behind Covid-19 - where it originated, how it originated, what impact is has had on affected populations, how contagious it is, how fatal it is, etc. We want to know and we don't. It is new. We don't have nothing like clean, consistent, quality data. Covid-19 appears quite different every place it affects. We don't understand why Japan seems unaffected and why Italy is devastated. We don't understand why some populations seem untouched while others are ripped apart.

We don't understand. Yet. We will, eventually, but we don't now.

In this interim of epistemic void, the mainstream media remains flushed with press release journalism masquerading as truth (accepting Chinese Communist Party representations as obviously true), propagating opinions as established fact, insanely pushing solutions without quantifying costs and benefit or examining alternative course of action.

The cognitive pollution is overwhelming. Empirical uncertainty is bad enough but the mainstream media is making it far worse.

In this hurricane of misinformation there occasionally occur crystalizing moments of clarity. One such was the news report zinging around the media a couple of weeks ago.

Trump had just touted a new combination of drug treatments which showed distinct promise in early testing. Following their ideological proclivities, the mainstream media were all over reporting why this was foolish, reckless, ignorant, etc. So eager to demonstrate that this hated representative of the unwashed was fatally wrong.

And then they had their miracle story to support their fevered imagination of reality. Within a day or two, screens were flooded with the tragic news of a couple in Arizona who self-medicated themselves with Trumps suggested drug, leading to the death of the husband and the hospitalization of the wife. Trump tweeted, people were deleted!

Except, of course, that was not what happened at all. From The mysterious case of the people who ate fish tank cleaner by Andrea Widburg. The wife, with a history of mental illness and domestic violence, as well as a rabid Democrat partisan and prolific donor to Democratic causes, fed her husband a poison which had a chemical component similar to that which Trump had touted. Similar but not at all the same.

Following their habit of press release journalism, the mainstream media reported the story exactly as the wife wished. It took the messy alternative press, Twitter, conservative sites, blogs, Reddit, 4-Chan, etc. to ask the questions the mainstream media would not. Read Widburg's piece for the current state of play. You can't read it in the mainstream media.

On March 20, President Trump expressed his hope that chloroquine (also prescribed as hydroxychloroquine) might be an effective way to treat COVID-19, especially when used in conjunction with Azithromycin, an antibiotic. The next day, he reiterated that hope in a tweet.

Two days later, Axios reported, "Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate." Axios articles have bullet points to guide readers. In the case of what was a brief, and seemingly bizarre, news squiblet, the bullet points said "Why it matters," "Worth noting," and "Go deeper." That last bullet point led readers to an article entitled "Trump touts drugs not yet approved by FDA for treating coronavirus." The reader could almost hear the Axios editors adding, "hint, hint."

[snip]

Even as that lie was racing around the world, the truth was struggling to get out. In this case, the truth was that the couple hadn't taken chloroquine at all. Instead, they'd ingested a fish tank cleaner that had "chloroquine phosphate," a deadly chemical.

Even though a fish tank cleaner has nothing to do with a long recognized and legal anti-malarial drug, the media and the woman herself pushed the anti-Trump narrative. Indeed, the woman explicitly condemned Trump: "Don't believe anything that the President says and his people."

Read the whole thing.

In statistics and forecasting, there is an old adage - All models are wrong but some are useful.

The same might be said of the media. Of course, they can't get everything right. They are, after all, writing the first draft of a story as it is happening. Historically though, like complex modeling it could be claimed that all mainstream media are wrong but some are useful.

We are edging closer and closer to the point where only the first half of the adage is true.