Daily Ramble
Objectivity. That’s the golden standard in journalism. We writhe and shake with rage when it’s violated, acting like it’s a God-given right for all of us to expect this from journalists. But is it?
Historically, no. The idea of objectivity in journalism rose its head in the mid-1800s but didn’t become the guiding principle in journalism until the early 1900s. That means humanity survived until the early 1900s, consuming biased journalism. How’d we manage that, and why did we change?
I have no answer to either question, but I have been thinking about this a lot as we now live in an age where virtue signaling has become a norm. This principle in physics called the observer effect says it’s impossible to view a system without impacting what’s being observed. Ever felt someone looking at you and turned around to find it to be true? Yeah, that’s the observer effect. Or be nice and natural until a camera is trained on you and then you go into some bionic version of yourself? Again, observer effect.
So why is it that we believe that journalists can observe an event and manage to convey it to the rest of us in a completely unbiased way? Maybe I’m just opinionated, but it’s hard to find many topics that I don’t have an opinion about in life. Especially as it relates to politics and how it impacts me. Do we really anticipate journalists reporting the news to be unopinionated people? I mean, they were attracted to report the news for some reason…because maybe they care what’s going on?
What I’m trying to state in my horrible version of the Socratic method is that there’s no way in hades that humans are unbiased — we’re not machines. Why should we hold ourselves to that standard? I mean, I like that journalism uses objectivity as a north star guiding their efforts, but as readers, should we pillar and plunder them when they inevitably fall short? And on the flip side, why can’t journalists admit to their humanness, doing their best at objectivity, but knowing that the brass ring they’re reaching for will never be realized? Sure, focus on getting better and being more objective, but more importantly, accept and own your journalistic bias.
Then we can do something important like rename cable news networks appropriately - CN Infotainment and Fox Infotainment seems a lot more realistic to me. Deluding ourselves into believing in the purity of unbiased journalism seems stupid no matter which side of the newspaper or television you sit.
You’re right. I should have renamed this one to Daily Rant. I’m off my soapbox now.
Favorite Things on the Interwebs Today
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $34.2k - $38k
Today: $34.6k - $40k
Tomorrow: $33k - $40k
The chop-chop of consolidation continues to define Bitcoin’s price movements over the last 24 hours. I don’t see that changing in the immediate future. There’s been an uptick in Bitcoins entering the exchanges today, which suggests an increase in selling pressure. At the moment, the charts aren’t showing it, though. That suggests that the most likely path is a push into resistance in the $38k-$40k region before a rejection and a push back to the range lows in the $32k-$34k region. Not all that exciting until either side of this range is broken, which might take another week to happen. Like a cannonball hitting the water, the market is still digesting the ripples spreading across the pond from the sell-off two weeks ago. The longer we can stay in consolidation, the more likely it becomes that the bulls can strengthen their nerve and push up out of it.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: What is the Bitcoin Lightning Network?
A: A second layer network built on top of Bitcoin that increases privacy and decreases transaction costs.
It became clear in 2016/17 that the Bitcoin network would not be able to scale to accommodate global transactions without either increasing the size of blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain or pushing the scaling to a second layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The latter approach was decided after a difficult conflict known as the Bitcoin Blocksize War. The Bitcoin Lightning Network was born as a result. The Lighting Network has been growing rapidly as competition for block space on Bitcoin has increased transaction fees. In the long term, the Bitcoin blockchain will likely be used for large transactions like a long-term savings account and the Lightning Network for daily transactions like a checking account.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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What infuriates me about opinionated columnists is not their bias, but their false or misleading interpretation of fact to support their bias. I don't believe UK columnists are aware they can obtain up to date covid data on the Office for National Statistics website. They appear to believe what they're told by government and MPs. Zero deaths in the UK, lower weekly deaths than the 5 year average, and columnists seem to be anticipating cancellation of 21st June unlock due to a mysterious "third wave".