News - SB Hopper

Houston, we have a lot of problems

In my previous post I said I wasn't going to talk any more about the election or COVID's influence on the election. It's still the same day. As the owner of this obscure, quiet corner of the internet, I'm exercising my right to a

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October 2020

This is the last time I'm going to discuss the election or how COVID-19 relates to the election. Is there really anyone who hasn't made up their mind about who they're voting for? Anyone claiming to be undecided at this point is likely an

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On the Streets

On the Streets: Sirens beckon

Sirens and bangs have returned to Capitol Hill. On 22 September it sounded like the police turned every siren on in the city. I was working on some stuff at home and thought there must have been a 10 alarm fire somewhere. It's always

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Consuming Journalism

Consuming Journalism: What is evidence?

There are still loads of good journalists, but they're stuck in the Death Star's trash compactor. I hope we find some capable droids to free them. Tucker Carlson had Dr. Li-Meng Yan on his show recently. I haven't got cable, so recently is as

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On the Streets

Looks pretty, feels ugly

The West is on fire. I knew about the California fires, but I somehow ignored the fires raging through Oregon and, to a lesser extent, Washington. On a walk the

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Consuming Journalism

Madness

I didn't want to do an addendum to the previous post about Jeffrey Goldberg's collection of unnamed sources saying things, but I have to. I promise I will try to keep it short. I recommend not reading it. This is largely for my own

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Consuming Journalism

Consuming Journalism: Jeffrey Goldberg and the declining credibility of unnamed sources

[Note: I botched this in its original form. I started writing Consuming Journalism features a couple of years ago as an exercise in reading journalism more critically. In the original post, I let my frustration with unnamed sources steal the spotlight. I want Consuming

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shoulda been a tweet

Shoulda been a tweet: The Marshall Project on former prisoners fighting fires

Our prisons and justice system are a mess. I'm not a journalist, so I'm not going to lay out the justification for that assertion. Here are a couple of statistics to chew on from Wikipedia. In September 2013, the incarceration rate of the United

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Consuming Journalism

Consuming Journalism: Los Angeles sheriff's deputies shoot and kill man

This post is about the preliminary coverage of a fatal shooting of a black man (some articles identify him as Dijon Kizzee) in Los Angeles by L.A. sheriff's deputies. I saw that both the L.A. Times and Fox News covered the shooting,

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Shoulda been a tweet: WSJ article on lockdowns

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about the current thinking on lockdowns. I think most of us are trying to limit our COVID-19 reading levels. I know I'm trying, not all that successfully. If your instincts say not to read it, don't

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Consuming Journalism

Consuming Journalism: Trump, SATs, and circular reporting

Did Donald Trump pay someone to take the SAT for him? I don't know, and I'm not any closer to knowing despite the media bolstering the allegation through lazy, shoddy reporting. I don't know if there's a running history of similar allegations. The current

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Consuming Journalism

Consuming Journalism: Something's wrong at the New York Times

Obviously, I cannot be trusted on my claims to have permanently retired the Consuming Journalism feature. I'd be better off (healthier, happier) if I could stick to that claim. We're back to the kompromat in a bad article by Michael S. Schmidt. (The article

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Shoulda been a tweet: Beirut

I'm critical of CNN. If you watch them on cable, you're just becoming less-informed. It's visual twitter. A stupid game. I'm not faulting the on-air personalities. They're hard-working, and I think they want CNN to be informative. But there's too much working against them.

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On the Streets

Stasis

Went for a morning walk. No destination in mind, but every few minutes the internal voice would say, "egg sandwich." Heard. It was beautiful out. Not too hot. The pandemic

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The table is set

I've promised myself, unsuccessfully, to take long, meaningful breaks from the news. There's an awful pandemic, we need a vaccine, Trump's handling of it has been a disaster, X country that was doing well is now seeing new hotspots. That's going to be the