YOU’RE GONNA NEED A MUCH BIGGER BLOG: The things we got wrong in 2024.
The news media is wrong all the time — though not exactly as its loudest critics claim. Reputable outlets get most of their facts right, and correct fast when they’re wrong. In fact, one way you can tell a reputable American news media outlet from an untrustworthy one is who admits they’re wrong, and corrects. Of course, when a big outlet makes a big error, it’s a news event, the subject of lawsuits, public embarrassment, and critical coverage from their competitors and in newsletters like this one.
More often wrong are the assumptions we in the information and “content” business make. Lacking in all of the necessary information or a crystal ball, members of the media nonetheless post their takes on social media, pop off a little too much on a podcast, or let our biases seep into reporting and analysis, only to be surprised when life proves more interesting than we expected.
At the end of 2023, we asked some of our most perceptive readers, up and down and across media, to share where they felt they missed the mark. That turned out to be one of your favorite editions, so we’re bringing it back in 2024, a year with some notable news events that yielded some major unexpected twists. While last year’s list varied, one of 2024’s most consequential news events, Joe Biden’s failure on the debate stage and subsequent decision to leave the presidential race, was clearly top of mind for many of our respondents this year.
Including this banger:
Good to see Matt reverting to form: Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias advocates lying on Twitter.
I don’t know if our current class of Democratic Party operatives with bylines realize the enormity of their gaslighting over the last four years, though some tried to warn them of what they were doing. QED, this 2023 Substack by Brian Cates: Brutal Honesty: You’re Not Really In the ‘News’ Business — You’re In the Propaganda Business. And the Propaganda Business SUCKS.
And the bill is coming due: CBS reporter Jan Crawford says most ‘underreported’ story in 2024 was Biden’s ‘obvious cognitive decline.
This is what Ive been saying; it’s bigger than Watergate. Nixon lied about a third-rate break in he had nothing to do with; the people around @JoeBiden, the Dem Party leadership, @KamalaHarris misled the country about the ability of the President to carry out his duties as he was… https://t.co/YTgLXYqmkh
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) December 31, 2024