The basic skills of our upper-end press!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017

Do such skills exist:
We feel completely sure that Nicole Lewis is a good decent person.

She's also part of the "Intern Class of 2017" at the Washington Post. On that basis, we wouldn't necessarily expect as much of her as we would of an experienced upper-end journalist.

Lewis written an interesting analysis piece for the Post. It appears beneath this provocative headline:

"Think millennials are woke? A new poll suggests some are still sleeping on racism."

We think the piece is larded with interesting analytical shortcomings. That said, we'd say the shortcomings land on the head of Lewis' editor more than on Lewis herself.

We expect to review that piece next week. That said, how weak are the analytical skills of our upper-end journalists?

Those skills often seem remarkably weak. Consider today's Here to Help feature, on the reimagined page A3 of the New York Times.

We found the piece quite puzzling. It appears beneath this headline:
Here to Help
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT WHEN FLYING
Reducing your carbon footprint when flying? That sounds like a good thing to do! That said, for better or worse, here's how the text begins:
Here to Help
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT WHEN FLYING

Take one round-trip flight between New York and California, and you've generated about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.
If you're flying, you're adding a significant amount of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere—there's no way around it. But there are some way as to make your airplane travel a bit greener:
Does that opening passage make sense? The problems seem to start rather quickly. Let's commence with this:

If you take a commercial flight from New York to California today, will you be adding a lot of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere? Assuming the plane was going to go whether you were on it or not, it seems to us that you aren't exactly adding any gases to the atmosphere at all.

Eventually, the feature seems to come to terms with this apparent fact, at least in a tiny way. In terms of carbon emissions, "it's certainly better to fly cross-country than to drive solo," the feature helpfully says.

Before long, though, we'll have to admit, Here to Help had us baffled. We found ourselves puzzled by this:
Fly coach
According to a study from the World Bank, the emissions associated with flying in business class are about three times as great as flying in coach, and a first-class seat could have a carbon footprint up to nine times as big as [sic] economy one.
Say what? "A first-class seat could have a carbon footprint up to nine times as big as [an] economy one?"

We have no idea what they're talking about. Nor did they bother explaining.

Of course, we could always fire the Google machine and peruse that World Bank study, which seems to be located here. But it seems to us that isn't the way a Here to Help feature should work.

That piece by Lewis is fascinating, in large part for what it doesn't notice about the data it reviews. More on that piece next week. But unless it's familiar script you seek, we're going to say that Lewis' editor did a very poor job.

For the record, Here to Help features exist in the hard-copy Times alone. This morning's carbon footprint confusion recommends no specific link in the on-line paper if you feel you need extra help.

We felt we needed a lot more help. But as with the prophets of old in the desert, no one was there to help us out, to hear our pitiful cries!

22 comments:

  1. Did you know - surprising fact! - that each one of the nytimes pathetic journos emits more hot air every day than a whole fleet of commercial airplanes over a whole year? And that's nothing, comparied to the nytimes editors...

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    Replies
    1. Whereas Mao emits more methane, arguably worse for our planet.

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    2. Not to change the subject, but it would be interesting to see Bob's take on Bill Curry's piece about Trump's mental impairment.

      http://www.salon.com/2017/08/12/my-meeting-with-donald-trump-a-damaged-pathetic-personality-whose-obvious-impairment-has-only-gotten-worse/

      Leroy

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    3. @10:40 - you're kidding, right?

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    4. 11:52

      Yeah, I guess I was. Bob critiques his heroes, like Drum, but I don't recollect that he's ever said boo about Curry. Maybe in the archives?

      And sorry for directing anyone to Salon, if they bit. A lot of crap (and the ads are horrendous, Firefox helps a lot with that), but ignore the chaff and some good stuff is there.

      Leroy

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  2. One can compute the carbon footprint of a single flight. Then that amount of carbon must be allocated among all the passengers.

    But, there are various ways to do this. One could allocate an equal amount to each passenger. One could argue that first class passengers should get 3 times the coach allocation per passenger because they use 3 times as much floor space. Put another way, if everyone flew coach there could be planes with no first class, and these planes could carry more passengers with the same carbon footprint.

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    Replies
    1. The arguable problem with that logic is that “floor space” doesn’t process carbon. Take those passengers on that flight and crowd them all together or space them apart absolutely evenly, it will make no difference to the flight’s fuel consumption (assuming the plane remains balanced). There is already a price differential for larger seat areas.

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  3. If I read something I don't understand in a newspaper, I look it up elsewhere and try to answer my questions. The concept of carbon footprint is widely discussed and anyone who has participated in such discussions knows what the article meant. They also know why the footprint would be larger in first class -- because they know what a footprint is and how it is calculated. They would not expect any given article to go back to the beginning and explain the mechanics of carbon footprint to neophytes like Somerby -- who illustrates how behind the curve he is as a person who cares about climate change.

    When an editor gives you a certain length of article to write (measured in words these days, not column inches), you don't have the space to go back and explain what a carbon footprint is to someone like Somerby.

    I am so tired of this abusive nit-picking by a person who is demonstrably doing nothing whatsoever to improve our society and achieve liberal goals. He is worse than Mao and David, in my opinion.

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    Replies
    1. David and Mao are the only friends Somerby has left. And in the case of Mao, that's pretty depressing. I don't read his blather anymore.

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    2. "achieve liberal goals"


      Judging by your and most other comments here, the most obvious liberal goal - dumbing down the population to the lowest level of dogmatic cliches, and blind hatred towards anyone and anything nonconformist - is being advancing quite nicely...

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    3. "and blind hatred towards anyone and anything nonconformist "
      Like transgenders in the military?

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    4. Yes, like hating anyone who doesn't believe that transgenders should be allowed to enlist. And dogmatically and pretentiously framing this perfectly reasonable opinion as 'hating trangerders in the military'. Thanks for a good example.

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    5. Mao,
      Why are you so intolerant of my opinions? Haven't you heard that intolerance is America's greatest sin?
      Tsk, tsk. I was really hoping you were better than this but, alas, it turns out your just another close-minded hack addicted to hypocritically preaching to others on the internet.
      Sad!

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    6. Which opinion are you complaining about? There's a whole bunch of anons here, you see, and it's hard to tell you fellas apart. If you believe that transgenders should be allowed to enlist, that's perfectly fine with me.

      Make sure to call your congress person and leave a message. It'll get all the attention it deserves.

      Delete
    7. As another Mao Cheng Ji might have said, just 69 years earlier:

      “Yes, like hating anyone who doesn't believe that [blacks] should be allowed to enlist. And dogmatically and pretentiously framing this perfectly reasonable opinion as 'hating [blacks] in the military'. Thanks for a good example.”

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    8. Exactly. Thanks for illustrating my point. Dogmatic self-righteous bullshit.

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    9. @8:44 - as you are a shameless disseminator of self-righteous bullshit, I'll take your word for it. Your apparently unwitting projection, time and time again, is precious.

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    10. 11:50 Naw - they's just a youngin'. Just getting their feet wet in the world. It's all good.

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  4. Since it consumes more fuel to lift a greater mass to a cruising altitude, and more fuel to keep a greater mass at a cruising altitude, one could argue that first class passengers should get carbon-footprint medals, as they keep two passengers(and their seats and luggage) off the plane. Granted, the first class seats are more massive than coach seats, so we should allot them carbon credit equal to the mass of two bodies but only 1 1/2 seats. You do the math.

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  5. Why does Bill Maher think things will improve in our country if he bashes the Democrats?

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