this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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[–] [email protected] 122 points 2 months ago (8 children)

News outlets are generally graded by their historical reputabilitiy. If you find yourself continuously fact checking it, maybe consider following a better news outlet (even if they publish more "boring" stories that aren't as "up to date"): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources

I would also love to see a better place for keeping news outlets accountable for their bad publishing actions. Wikipedia does, but it happens on discussion pages and it relies on human editors who know where those discussions happened to string it together

[–] Carighan 13 points 2 months ago

Was about to post this list, it's a very good overall quick reference. It correctly identifies most of the tabloids posing as "real" newspapers, too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That is a good recipe for sneaking lies into the newspaper. Journalists should just be doing their job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Journalists have one job: produce revenue one way or another. Informing the public of factual or fictional events is a byproduct of running this business.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Some definitely do that

[–] JubilantJaguar 2 points 2 months ago

This is a cynical take that would be disputed by the people you are denigrating.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Agreed. Imo, if the journalists simply cited their claims, then this question of whether its safe to appeal to authority wouldn't need to be asked.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's a balance to hit in article sharing communities too.
Too much leniency, and you just end up with people posting DMG articles, and tiny un-sourced blogs with snazzy titles.
Too tough, and you end up spending your entire life justifying why various borderline sources are not suitable.

[–] spankmonkey 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] AngryCommieKender 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing Dungeon Master's Guide

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Yep. Damn Wizards infiltrated the UK commercial media a decade ago, and they never left.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

[…] Too much leniency, and you just end up with people posting […] tiny un-sourced blogs with snazzy titles. […]

Imo, in a perfect world, if everyone cited their sources, there would be a perfect chain of sources that leads directly to the original. If one collectively cited source was found to be inaccurate, then, logically, all connected references would be nullified.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

News outlets are generally graded by their historical reputabilitiy. […]

While that's good data to have, I think that any claims should be immediately verifiable. I think it's a disservice to the truth and public discourse to rely on appeals to authority for trust in one's published news. Imo, an argument is either sound or unsound — an atomic claim is either accurate or inaccurate.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hard to believe that when I've seen many of the "historically reputable" sources on that list flagrantly lying and spreading pro genocide props over the past 13 months

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Being pro genocide is an opinion technically. If you have a "flagrant lie", however, please post it. There was another wanker in the thread who claimed equal grand claims of lies but failed to come up with a link showing an actual lie

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I see your sources. I will check Wikipedia to see if there has been discussion on it, if not, I will bring it up and get back to you.

(On phone right now so I can't)

EDIT: Will not be posting this on Wikipedia, see response in https://lemmy.ml/post/23416718/15472127

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well good. Luck with that, but my experience trying to get changes through on Wikipedia is that it just takes one person with an agenda to stubbornly go "nuh-uh" and there nothing you can do about it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I used to edit Wikipedia for a long time, so I know what you're saying - but if you're actually correct, you'll generally win (may require pinging some other people who know you to come in to mediate)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

So I read through this, and unfortunately there's nothing concrete. Every error has been corrected, and the errors that remain are opinion pieces which can't be listed as a source on Wikipedia. Due to WP:RECENT, this means no place where Wikipedia refers to the New York Times as a source will be asserting incorrect information.

This probably isn't the response you want, but that's the truth about their reporting.

Edit: If you still want to try and bring it up, this is what I had written in my draft:

The following article has been brought to my attention: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537121.2024.2394292#abstract

While the issues raised in this paper tend to focus on bias, and factual errors were later corrected in many cases (which should be suffice due to WP:RECENT), the section of "Misquoting Israeli leaders" refers to multiple errors in reporting from the New York Times that remain uncorrected.

~~~~

(This is before I noticed the uncorrected parts are Opinion pieces, so I stopped)

You can post it here, but you will probably be shut down for the same reasons I mentioned above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard

[–] surph_ninja 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

LoL. I guess manufacturing consent for wars does absolutely nothing to harm their credibility. This list is dogshit.

The New York Times has been a full-throated government mouthpiece since at least 9/11. At this point, Teen Vogue has more credibility.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This person thinks that Ukraine invaded Russia, FYI.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but that doesn't make them wrong and the NYT

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

This person thinks that Ukraine invaded Russia, FYI.

[…] that doesn’t make them wrong […]

Nice catch of their strawman 😉

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you have evidence of them lying, you're more than welcome to submit that on the discussion pages. I don't know which articles you're referring to, but given my historical knowledge of wars in the Middle-East, they likely sourced US mouthpieces or analysts, rather than making the claims themself

[–] surph_ninja -5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

LoL. Are people unaware of the NYT’s culpability?

Acting as a stenographer for the state isn’t “journalism.”

[–] Lennny 10 points 2 months ago (15 children)

He asked for sources and you just act superior and yet didn't provide sources.

The sources

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_York_Times_controversies

Take those with necessary salt and tequila if wanted. One of them is literally "nyt is mean to apartheid musk"

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

[…] I would also love to see a better place for keeping news outlets accountable for their bad publishing actions. […]

It's not immediately clear to me what you mean. Are you referring to increased transparency when a news outlet makes a mistake? Are you referring to legal action? Are you referring to something else?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just a place where people can call out and crowdsource lies that news outlets publish

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What do you mean by "crowdsource" in this context?