There's No Such Thing as Your Truth
Some people talk about truth as if it's personal. They say things like "Speak your truth" or "That's my truth." US officials say that...
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JUSTIN P. MCBRAYER
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Justin McBrayer
Mar 29, 20225 min read
When You Won't Change Your Mind
Humans are tribal thinkers. Our minds aren't wired to get to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's not to say...
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Justin McBrayer
Nov 15, 20213 min read
Clickbait 101: How to Frame for Effect
News organizations are in the business of making money. And making money requires having an audience. That means everyone in the news...
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Justin McBrayer
Oct 5, 20215 min read
Vaccines, Unknown Risks, and Expected Value
News last month that the FDA has granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine for COVID should relieve the vaccine hesitancy of some...
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Justin McBrayer
Jun 8, 20213 min read
Can You Spot Fake News?
The answer to the question is "only sometimes." Further, the vast majority of us are worse at it than we think, and those of us who are...
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Justin McBrayer
May 24, 20213 min read
How Quickly We Forget
Everyone knows that much of the news is fake. And the main problem isn't disinformation from abroad. Instead, the main problem is...
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Justin McBrayer
May 10, 20214 min read
Possibility vs. Probability
To say something is possible is one thing. To say something is probable is quite another. The two are routinely confused in popular...
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Justin McBrayer
Apr 27, 20214 min read
Four Types of News
News comes in many different flavors. That goes for fake news, too. Not all fake news is created equal. If you want to know how to...
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Justin McBrayer
Apr 19, 20215 min read
Social Media Censorship Fallout
Last fall, I noted that Facebook took the unprecedented step of censoring certain sorts of content on their site. Posts making false...
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Justin McBrayer
Apr 6, 20214 min read
Being Right Vs. Having a Right
These days, I talk to a lot of people about fake news. Many of them want to know how to have productive conversations with their friends...
154 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Mar 30, 20214 min read
Finding What You're Looking For
Two weeks ago, Atlanta resident Robert Aaron Long killed eight people in cold blood. Why? In the aftermath of the shooting, news outlets...
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Justin McBrayer
Feb 23, 20216 min read
The Theoretical Case for Liberal Bias in the News
Evidence for empirical claims comes in two sorts: data about a particular case and data for a general pattern. For example, suppose I...
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Justin McBrayer
Jan 28, 20214 min read
How Left-Leaning Framing can Bias the News
Nearly everyone concedes that many corporate news organizations are biased towards the political left. It’s beyond argument that places...
247 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Dec 29, 20203 min read
Why I'm Not on Twitter
I'm not on Twitter. That drives many of my friends and colleagues crazy. My editor advises me to use Twitter to build an audience and...
161 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Nov 18, 20203 min read
Big Questions, Little Questions, and Stolen Elections
It's going on week three after the 2020 election, and still the incumbent president has not conceded the race. The putative reason for...
130 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Oct 27, 20204 min read
Social Media Censorship
Last week, Facebook announced that it would be banning any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust from its platform. Doing so...
158 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Oct 10, 20203 min read
The Problem with 'Opinion'
Everyone has an opinion about everything. That's not so much a problem. The problem is that we LABEL our commitments as opinions. ...
557 views0 comments
Justin McBrayer
Sep 10, 20203 min read
Space to Think
Deep truths about the world are rarely obvious. The world is vast and complex. And our evidence is often ambiguous.
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