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While watching Democracy Now! interview two journalists about Biden's climate change policy, I decided to check if one of them had any science education background and found they had a liberal arts degree focused on social science, and nothing physical science related. I have a lot of trouble with taking seriously the curated opinions of someone who doesn't have the subject area knowledge necessary to make educated opinions or conclusions on a subject.
I welcome reporting regardless of educational background as long as the reporter puts down significant collateral that they lose should what they say is proven to be wrong.
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Yeah but we all know this is not what happens. It's mostly not "reporting" to start with, or some of it is, but it comes tainted with opinion in some cases, or outright here's-what-you-should-think-of-this packaging from so called "pundits".
And of course there's no accountability if one of these happens to actually make a prediction that can be proven wrong. Bitcoin mining was going to consume all the world's energy by 2020, remember?
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Journalism, like all forms of mass media, is a form of entertainment. It can occassionally inform, but "if it bleeds [it is exciting], it leads". Journalists and editorial staff who understand this wind up doing well. Journalists who are just trying to inform people wind up getting side-lined.
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It's a double edged sword. You don't want to listen to any idiot with an opinion (or agenda for that matter) who has a microphone (whether that be literal or digital via social media) but you also don't want to fall victim to the appeal to authority cognitive bias. DYOR (proof of work) for the win.
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Mixed feelings...
Remember, a lot of bitcoiners don't have economics degrees either. Probably a good thing too!
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