... that I am skeptical of reliance on experts (it being, after all, just a variation on the argument from authority). So I am glad to link to this (which has finally led me to understand why I am a fox, not a hedgehog): How Accurate Are Your Pet Pundits?
I do demur on one point, however: "Imagine your job as a media executive depends on expanding your viewing audience. Whom would you pick: an expert who balances conflicting arguments and concludes that the likeliest outcome is more of the same, or an expert who gets viewers on the edge of their seats ..." I don't like hysterical news coverage anymore than I would like someone panicky beside me in an emergency. Moreover, the media's hysteria is itself tendentious, not reflexive. With all the blather about the public's right to know, you'd think someone would figure out that what the public needs is sound conclusions grounded in comprehensive data, not selective data marshaled on behalf of one more apocalyptic screed.
Passionate pundits are going to attract a greater readership, for sure. Hedgehogs are generally more passionate than foxes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I encounter a hedgehog on the web, I pause to read. It's like slowing down on the information superhighway to look at a car wreck - not an information sign.
I do not think of my foxy self as lacking in passion. I just don't let it run it away with me. Moreover, I may not jump up and down and scream at the track, but I cash in as many winning bets as anybody I know.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I'm a hedgefox.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone has scored those pundits who like to classify and pin labels on everthing.
Yes, I think that most of us are chimaeras to some degree, on most things.
ReplyDeleteI like to read opinion articles if written well, even if I am in total disagreement with the opinon. But, knowing what passes for "reasearch" and "accuracy" even in so-called news reporting, I won't believe any of it. I have read so many authoritative statements by pundits of all shapes and sizes that I know for a fact to be untrue, that it is best to take it all with a good dose of salt, ie treat as fiction.
News and punditry is almost entirely hype and selective reporting.