Why trust in the media is returning to zero

Because as “news” is reported and edited, it’s nothing but a crock of sh*t, printed and aired with the cynical knowledge that 90% of its audience won’t go past the headline or 15-second sound bite. You could pick any example, from major issues like global warming, COVID panic, or the economy, but the slanted, distorted writing extends into every cranny, even the most trivial and mundane.

Take this editorial from Hearst’s New Haven Register, reprinted today in that paper’s Greenwich Time. Hugh Bailey, “CT Bows to the Almighty Parking Spot”.

Before Bailey proceeds to attack cars in general and urging the forcible eviction of citizens from their suburban homes and placing them into cities where they can be prodded to walk, ride bicycles, and board (solar-powered, one presumes) buses, he sets the stage by sounding an alarm: it’s about the children, damn it! — And if it saves just one child’s life …”

Children are more likely to be fatally struck by a vehicle on Halloween than any other night of the year, research shows. A 2019 study showed a 43 percent increase in the risk of pedestrian deaths on Oct. 31 compared to other days, with the risk as much as 10 times higher for children.

Wow, that’s an awful toll, eh? C’mon, Brandon, let’s go ban cars, pronto! But, uh, before we do, how many, exactly, children are we taking about? How many young lives could potentially be saved? Bailey thoughtfully provides a link to the study he cites, and sure enough, it looks bad: “Pedestrian fatalities increase on Halloween, particularly among children.”

But wait, scroll down below the scary headline, and, five paragraphs down you’ll finally find this:

The investigators found that the average Halloween resulted in four additional pedestrian deaths. The increase in risk occurred throughout the U.S. and almost all additional fatalities were children or young adults.

So, even less than 4 rosy-cheeked trick-or-treaters.

Either Bailey was incurious, and didn’t go beyond the report’s headline, or he did, and deliberately chose to omit the actual number and go with “43% increase” so as not to dilute his manufactured scare lede. He may be a fine individual; he sucks as a journalist.

But he does continue Heart’s tradition of yellow journalism, so there’s that. I’d say shame on Greenwich Time’s editor for reprinting this garbage, but there is no longer an editor. The likes of Bernie Yudain will not be seen again in Greenwich (especially since Hearst has moved operations to Bridgeport), and any “editing” is now performed by a 27-year-old Hearst employee who knows nothing and operates remotely from his Brooklyn walk-up studio apartment.

Sad.