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Given that this is NPR, a reference to Gell-Mann amnesia[0] seems appropriate:

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

[0]: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/



I didn’t know this had a name, but it’s long been a cause of amusement (or despair!) for me. I too have noticed that any time I read an article on a subject on which I have even a passable level of expertise, I find it chock-full of errors.




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