Why Old Media is Dead

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

--"Why Speculate." Michael Crichton, 2002

Podcasts

I started listening to real (amateur) podcasts... these people need to learn brevity and how to be succinct. The last one that I listened to was 40 minutes long and only made 3 points.

I've noticed the same thing on call-in podcasts. Callers go on and on and on to say something that could have taken one sentence.