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by phyller 3072 days ago
I wish I could upvote this twice. I know its just anecdotal data, but the rare occasions I have had personal knowledge of news articles they have been grossly inaccurate, every time.

Where is the quote from? Edit: from another comment: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...

2 comments

> Where is the quote from?

Michael Crichton. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann#Quotes_about_...

Oh. Crichton coined that phrase? That's some potent unintentional irony right there.
How so?
He vocally let his political ideology direct his selective interpretation of facts around climate change. So it's perhaps a little ironic that he would make an observation about biased reporting coming from other people or organizations. I would argue that it's not ironic, it's expected. IMO people most easily observe the faults in others that they themselves exhibit.
I'm guessing he is just saying that Crichton's writing was known for sensationalizing science, rather than accuracy.

So he basically did the same thing he criticizes reporters for.

(Which isn't totally fair imo, because the news should be held to a higher standard than a book about a dinosaur park)

He's not purporting to report news. So no irony that I can see?
It comes from his amazing essay called 'Why Speculate' which you can read here: http://docdro.id/4wgVecr