Thread by @BaldingsWorld

So let's return to China energy and journalism and what is really the problem with journalism is that by providing bad information it provides distorted understanding of how to solve the problem. When the China energy issue first started coming out the two issues mentioned 1/n

Were this was because of Xi's deeply held environmentalism (ok little embellishment here) and those freaking Australians. Why those two? Well they were in the news and vaguely had some link to the problem so let's mention them as the reason why even though any basic 2/n

Research would have shown that Australia coal plays a tiny part of Chinese energy and the environment well let's not go down that smog lined road but that what journos said it was. Why does this matter? It provides a very distorted really false or inaccurate picture of the 3/n

ACTUAL problem causing energy shortages. The reality matters because it helps you diagnose the problem but we are clearly working with faulty data. Mentally what happened was like reading the score of a game and then creating a game story with no knowledge of the game 4/n

Seeing an score or result with really no or minimal knowledge of how a result was obtained typically provides a very distorted view of how to solve the problem. In other words, a narrative was created regardless of truth. In this case, two handy narratives were created 5/n

That were very simple and news worthy that played into convenient narratives: conflict with Australia and this time Xi really means his environmentalism. It wasn't and he didn't. Fast forward a couple of weeks and what do we see? China buying every spare piece of coal 6/n

It can find, stimulating coal output, and yes, even offloading Australian coal though that has no impact on the overall picture. Sorry environment. If I was cynical it would be easy to argue journos were trying to pave the way for a Kerry Xi deal given how often they 7/n

Charlie Brown Xi's football. In reality, there is a pretty mundane answer that central planning failed yet again due to bureaucratic price caps they are now easing. However, that is not a political narrative that draws page clicks however that's the reality. When truth 8/n

is prioritized over simple politically convenient narratives better diagnoses are provided. Journalism is needed but it must move away from political and simple narratives with a focus on the truth. That's why it needs to do better.