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Maggie Koerth Profile picture
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20 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
I am just getting around to reading a 1996 Joan Didion evisceration of Bob Woodward's writing that a colleague sent me after the Trump interviews first came out. And holy hell ...
One thing that really stands out here is the way Didion highlights Woodward's obsession with process over outcome. Lots of discussion of how the reporting was done. How much research. How many files. But nothing illuminating or insightful to show for it.
I have no idea if his books are still like this. But damn this is a gutting review and it certainly feels relevant to the conversations that have happened around his Trump reporting. nybooks.com/articles/1996/…
Ultimately, this whole thing becomes a VERY prescient take down of not just Woodward ... but media false objectivity more broadly.

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More from @maggiekb1

Maggie Koerth Profile picture
6 Oct
And now, a few science reminders ... this will have to be a thread because there's a lot going on here.
1) Flu deaths seldom top 100,000. Estimated flu deaths are a spread, and there's only one year they got close to that in the last decade: 2017-2018, when the estimated death spread for this country was between 46,000 and 95,000.

Also at least 200,000 people have died from COVID
Here's a link where you can see flu death numbers for the last decade. Also, you know, those flu deaths are numbers that happen WITH vaccination in place. Which is not a thing we have for COVID yet.

cdc.gov/flu/about/burd….
Read 16 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
16 Jul
I've decided I'm going to regularly tweet about the resource disparities I am noticing between South and North Minneapolis as I move. Mainly because I don't think the white, wealthy, politically connected part of the city realizes what they have access to that North doesn't ...
I mean, I sure didn't.

Right now, I'm not talking about schools and public safety. Disparities that you, white South Minneapolitans, have probably heard about. I'm talking smaller conveniences, the lack of which make life more frustrating and complicated ...
You know that handy mobile Walgreens pharmacy you've probably got in the parking lot of your otherwise closed location? North never got one. Folks up here are still having to go find a pharmacy in another part of town. With less transportation access @WalgreensNews @WAGSocialCare
Read 9 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
31 May
The "outside agitator" thing is complicated. We know now that vast majority of people being arrested are Minnesotan. But don't have data on where in Minnesota they're from Frankly, the neighbors in Whittier I spoke to last night considered the armed kid from Maplewood an outsider
Relatedly, during the protests at the 4th Precinct over the Jamar Clark killing in 2015, dudes from the suburbs drove into town to start violence in the encampment. They had explicitly racist motivations, which we know because they posted about their plans online first.
There is currently a Bloomington man sitting in prison because he chose to be an outside agitator at a Minneapolis Black Lives Matter protest.

mprnews.org/story/2017/04/…
Read 8 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
29 May
I am now home, after an evening where I both saw community uniting in peaceful mourning, and also, elsewhere, experienced a mild to moderate risk of being exploded. @JaredGoyette was riding shotgun with me. This will be a long thread.
First off, it turns out that I’m inept at simultaneous reporting and tweeting (also, the cell connection pretty quickly devolved to uselessness). So all of what I’m writing about happened hours ago. We left my house in Uptown around 9:00/9:30.
One of my big takeaways tonight is that there is not a single uprising. If you’ll forgive a tortured analogy, this event is less like a human brain and more like an octopus brain. It’s decentralized. There’s a brain in every leg. I may not be making sense ...
Read 44 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
28 May
I'd like to take a moment to use my big platform to push you towards some great, hardworking local Minn. reporters who are covering the hell out of the murder of George Floyd, the protests, and the violence that followed ...
.@rljourno and @StribJany were on the ground last night at Minnehaha and Lake. They were getting solid interviews with protesters and with people who were looting.
.@LizNavratil and @WedgeLIVE both cover city hall. Watch this space for political responses.
Read 11 tweets
Maggie Koerth Profile picture
28 May
Walking through my extremely quiet neighborhood, heading down to Lyndale. I’m awake. I have a press credential. If there’s stuff happening in my neighborhood I may as well go do my job. I can hear helicopters.
Walked down a long stretch of Lyndale and saw no other people outside of cars. As I get to Lyn Lake, I can see some folks mulling around.
Talked to a man who didn’t want to give his name. He went out to see what was going on and ended up following small groups of smash and grab looters as they worked their way down Lake.
Read 27 tweets

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