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OK, ReasonKatherine Manguward, Editor-in-Chief, already discussed the giving levels. But I’d like to emphasize the possibility of making a steady monthly donation. This is something you can do and forget about. Nick Gillespie, Editor at Large, introduced you to the Reason Roundtable NFT Auction. Here’s a topic: ReasonIt has done well for half-century. This includes the last 12 months of this annual, fun and enjoyable exercise called media correctives.
We all remember Senior Editor Robby Soane’s heroic debunking back in January 2019 of the Covington Catholic School fracas. Senior Editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown has been a one-woman dismantler of sex-trafficking-related junk stats for years. Some older readers may recall the 1981 Love Canal cover story.
This valuable correctional service is provided on a regular basis, however. This is a sample of what we did over the past 365 Days:
* “The Washington Post Tried To Memory-Hole Kamala Harris’ Bad Joke About Inmates Begging for Food and Water,” by Eric Boehm.
The article was published just two days following Joe Biden’s inauguration as president. It received 415,000 pageviews. The hubbub is over. The Washington PostBoehm corrected the wording and said, “We should’ve kept both versions on the page.” Post“The original site and its updated counterpart are available at, rather than redirecting you to the new version.
* “CDC Took Mistaken Data on Delta Variant Transmissibility From a New York Times Infographic,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown.
In a classic example of bad journalism merging with bad public-health bureaucracy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had asserted, falsely, that the delta variant of COVID-19 is “as transmissible as” chickenpox, which it concluded not from Following the Science, but by…cribbing from an illustration in the Paper of Record. Brown concluded: “Apparently the federal agency responsible for disseminating COVID-19 information and setting public-health policy.” It is drawing its inspiration from an infographic in a newspaper. “Oh my!”
(Such disinformation more commonly travels in the other direction—from an administration distorting science for political reasons to a media eagerly lapping the claims up like truth. Jacob Sullum is a Senior Editor and has written pieces like “The Evidence from the CDC Doesn’t Show That Vaccinated or Unvaccinated COVID-19 Carriers Are Equally Likely of Transmitting the Virus” (“The Biden Administration Continues Exaggerate COVID-19 Breakthrough infections Risk while Blaming The Press for the Same Thing”)
Sometimes, it is the media’s role of encouraging the spread of modern and most severe pathologies. Robby Soave’s article, “This” explains why.The New York Times Helped a Vindictive Teen Destroy a Classmate Who Uttered a Racial Slur When She Was 15.” This is the tale of a boy who kept a video of his classmate using a racist slur for three years and only released it to try and get her out of college.
“This story is a powerful example of several social phenomena: the militant streak in social justice activism, the naivety of today’s teens and their not-actually-disappearing Snapchat messages, social media’s hunger for mob justice, and even the capacity for elaborate cruelty that has always existed among high schoolers,” Soave wrote. “But the wildest thing about this incident is that most people will learn about it by reading The New York Times…. You won’t find this anywhere. [the]This article is based upon a fundamental fact. The New York Times A teenager who made a stupid comment at 15 years old, has chosen to help her.
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