James Fallows Profile picture
Aug 5 4 tweets 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Framing, as always, is in the details.

Look which word is in quotes ["we're keeping our distance from this"] in the subhead: Lies.

Look which term is presented straight ["no need to question or caveat this"]: Free speech.

This can only come from decades of working-the-refs. Image
2/2

And they absolutely went with it on the inside page.

Essay question: How does this differ from the way Fox would have framed the news? Or Trump's own team? Image
3/
And while I am at it, on framing:

Lead story on front page of NYT one week ago.

Essay question: Compare with
"Old OJ Habit Is Seen at Heart of New Charges."

"Old KKK Habit Is Seen at Heart of New Charges." Image
4/
To underscore a point well known in journalism but not so much in civilian world:

99% of the time, the issue w NYT framing is headlines, subheds, "social sells"—presentation on Xitter et al.

Rather than stories themselves.

Alas, 99x more people just see the headlines.

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More from @JamesFallows

Jun 30
1/4 Superb article by my friend Lincoln Caplan on realities of elite-admissions system and the affirmative action ruling.

He knows aff action (wrote a book about it); knows law; knows Harvard; knows how to write.

Please read it all here ,
But highlightsharvardmagazine.com/2023/06/harvar…
2/4

On the realities of a purely "merit based" system: Places like Harvard could fill their entire class several times over with people who have perfect GPAs and SAT scores.

So admissions is by definition subjective and purposeful.
3/4

On how the weighting given to race factors in among the other *necessarily subjective* factors that any highly selective institution considers.
Read 4 tweets
May 9
If you're wondering, Fox is playing the Trump / E Jean Carroll relatively straight. (Testimony was 'devastating' etc)
2/ But now they have Ronna Romney McDaniel, 'I think people's attention will be on the southern border.' And fentanyl, TikTok, etc. Waiting for trans and CRT
3/ And Biden gas prices! (Down approx 80 cents/ gal since last year.)

So far Fox not tipping its hand.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 18
1/ On Carter / Reagan / Ben Barnes / Iran:

-Most of today's US population *had not yet been born* at the time of 1980 Carter / Reagan election.

-Roughly 1/5th were of voting / news-consuming age back then.

So collective memory is faint on reality that at the time ...
2/ ... MOST PEOPLE ASSUMED that Iranian hostage takers, and regime, were pulling for Reagan.

-They hated Carter.
-They did everything they could to humiliate him.
-His (failed) rescue mission was huge millstone for re-election

OF COURSE the Iranians were anti-Carter and pro-RR
3/
And of course both the Carter and the Reagan teams were aware of this.

Think way, way back in history to the 2016 election, and the general awareness of which foreign leaders and interests were pulling for which prez candidates.

And think back, or read back, to 1968....
Read 5 tweets
Jan 4
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..."
Read 7 tweets
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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