Thread by @_cingraham

New on The Why Axis: It's Halloween, which means that Serious Reporters are writing up literal ghost stories as if they were factual. And we wonder why so many are no longer able to tell fact from fiction. thewhyaxis.substack.com/p/the-press-is…

I honestly had no sense of the scope of the problem until I started looking at all the ghost coverage this week. It's insane! "Why do people believe things that aren't true," an entire industry asks as it advises people on which healing crystals to buy

https://twitter.com/joshsternberg/status/1453408077886144520?s=20

I think of stories as happening along a continuum that runs from "endeavor to find out what the truth is, no matter what people say" to "just repeat what people are saying, no matter how crazy." And right now way too much coverage is weighted heavily toward the latter.

Reporters shouldn't simply act as passive megaphones for whatever bullshit their interview subjects want to spew. Stand up for the facts, for heaven's sake! thewhyaxis.substack.com/p/the-press-is…