James Fallows Profile picture
Jan 4 7 tweets 2 min read
1/
Geographic aspect to current Kevin McCarthy coverage:

If he were from some place that is household name for cycle of struggle, recovery, tough survivors, canny politics, modern recovery, whatever, we'd hear that constantly.

Imagine if he were from ... /cont:
2/
—Hills of West Virginia;
—Former steel town in Midwest;
—Now-recovering textile town in South;
Family farm in Iowa;
—Ex-tobacco country of Ky;
—Border town in Tx;
—Wind-lashed settlement on Maine coast;
—Rocky mtn place Co/Wy/Id
—Las Vegas
—Anyplace in Louisiana
3/
The political profiles of him *could not help* personifying the region as part of the story. "People in XXX are used to hardship. [Flood / hurricane / mill closure / etc,] Now we'll see how a son of this stubborn territory can manage his own feat of miraculous recovery..."
4/
But because few people on national beat / national discourse know "Central Valley of Calif," people don't know how to caricature McCarthy's homeland of Bakersfield into the profile.

The wonderful 'Ladybird,' set in Sacramento not Bakersfield, is best recent pop-culture ...
5/
... presentation of Central Valley life.

(See also, with wide range of difference in time and tone: Movie 'McFarland USA'; classic movie 'American Graffiti'; great TV series 'Baskets' ; and the country-music scene).

If this goes on long enough, maybe we'll get ...
6/6 some profiles of McCarthy specifically *as* son of Bakersfield and Kern County.

Get on it!

From, a son of San Bernardino County. (A lot in common with Kern County, but some big differences.)
/end
7/bonus

This is basically the area we're talking about, rendered three ways.

Main point: it's not part of the pop-culture familiar-reference mental landscape, the way a lot of east coast, southern, midwest, Appalachian, etc places are. /end

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More from @JamesFallows

Dec 16, 2022
1/n Here's something about flying "general aviation" airplanes— basically everything but airliners or the military, from tiny crop dusters to big corporate jets.

Most of what you do is *public information.* Registration and tail numbers of airplanes. Certificate info on pilots.
2/
Audio of you talking to air traffic controllers. Flight plans you have filed, with origin and destination. "ADS-B" info identifying specific planes en route.

It is nothing like driving a car. (Even with occasional license-plate scanners.)

Everything is "on the record."
3/
There are a million ways that people can vague up info — with LLCs for ownership, and other baffles.

But the basic assumption is, What goes on in the skies, is known on the ground, and is publicly available. Just fyi.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 27, 2022
1/n

Worth reading as example of headline skewing, separate from story.

Step 1: Current NYT headline.

Tl:DR tech problems prefigure larger econ problems.

nytimes.com/2022/10/26/tec…

BUT ... Image
2/n

Next part of story says that tech woes are not that bad. Image
3/n

And very nice graf says that the problems are not about general economy but specific industry issues. Image
Read 4 tweets

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