Content from an established media site is credible, right? Not when it’s contributed content. Media sites need content; people need to promote their ideas — the web makes it easy to connect them. The only thing lost is editorial judgment. Unlike the native advertising I discussed yesterday, contributed articles are unpaid, unlabelled self-promotion. The person placing the…
If you like sausages, don’t ask how they’re made. But I’m happy to explain how waffles are made, including this piece about CIOs from the Wall Street Journal, titled “CIOs Redefining Role to Fuel Integration, Innovation.” VMware, the technology company, wants to impress CIOs. CIOs read articles in the Wall Street Journal‘s “CIO Journal” section. But…
Since there’s so little actual campaign news, we now get meta-analysis of trivia. Meta-trivia tastes flat, has zero calories and no nutrients, and leaves a sour aftertaste. Flavors of campaign news, non-news, and meta-news: Actual campaign news. Positions that might influence your vote. For example, Hillary Clinton’s position on the Iran negotiations. Extremely rare at…
Harry Truman supposedly longed for a one-handed economist. As he pointed out, “All my economists say, ‘on the one hand . . . on the other . . .’ ” When the title of an article is a rhetorical question, I long for a one-handed reporter. I know there’s a real issue here. When a reporter…
The word “expected” is a clear sign of bullshit in any written material. Here’s why: Writing contains two kinds of easily distinguished statements: facts and opinions. The writer vouches for the facts. And over time, you can see if the opinions turned out to be true. But a statement with “expected” is an opinion stated…
The Boston Globe did a whole section focused on Red Sox slugger David Ortiz today, including a Q&A interview. I was struck by just how direct Ortiz is, especially in contrast to the bullshit-laden interview with an NBA Players Association official that I wrote about last week. Athletes of this stature usually have two modes:…
Every single day, the Wall Street Journal and other financial news outlets publish a financial wrapup. And you can count on it including a healthy helping of bullshit every day, too. Here’s the problem: the numbers are facts, but news requires a “story” to wrap around the facts. Creating a story from the fluctuations of…
While generalization in writing is a sin, drawing broad conclusions about a whole generation is far worse. Alexandra Levit’s piece about Generation Z in the New York Times is a great — that is, awful — example. The sin of generalization has three basic flavors: generalizations hedged with weasel words; unsupported broad, sweeping statements; and generalization from one…
The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn interviewed NBA Players’ Association executive director Michele Roberts and got nothing but spin. So he published it. Look, I feel for sports reporters. There is so much fan appetite, so much space to fill, and so little content. But everyone knows negotiators want to negotiate, are willing to compromise, and say…