Since I'm doing threads, I'll do one more. Someone asked me last week why I tend to get so many stories right early on that much of the mainstream press and partisan press gets wrong? It's a combination of common sense, research, curiosity, and skepticism.
When people see a story (myself included) they tend to think about whether it aligns with a narrative they already believe. That often leads to people falling for things that are false, but fit with what they want to believe.
(Happens to everyone!)
(Happens to everyone!)
But I've developed a habit of often (not always!) then pausing and asking some questions: 1) Does it make sense? 2) Is the sourcing reliable? 3) What are people who would disagree w that narrative saying? 4) Does it need more evidence?
The problem with a lot of the press (partisan and MSM) is they are surrounded by people who agree with them so they definitely don't look at 3 and rarely consider 1,2, and 4. If it fits the narrative, they run with it.
Example: I remember seeing the Russia bounty story. I'm predisposed to believe it. Russia def. wanted us out and doesn't mind American troop deaths. My view of Trump suggests he cd ignore it. But then I saw the sourcing was very questionable so I paused & decided to wait 4 more.
Another: When Kavanugh thing was going down, I had a major writer ask me about an NBC story that just came out. I did some quick searching of the underlying evidence and found the source was an anonymous random letter w/ 0 proof. But a ton of reporters just ran with it.
I could give a thousand other examples where I've had popular threads debunking major narratives bc I asked simple questions and did some basic research that anyone can do (Kavanaugh, Covington Catholic, GA election law, voter fraud, Covid-19 conspiracies, lab leak etc.).
Anyways, the point of this thread is that anyone can do these things and we would be much better off if more journalists started doing exactly that. Until then, I will keep writing about their errors each week: patreon.com/user?u=1427827…
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