“Gell-Mann Amnesia effect”

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is 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 as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

– Michael Crichton

About Tony Heller

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8 Responses to “Gell-Mann Amnesia effect”

  1. Gamecock says:

    “Journalism: a profession whose business it is to explain to others what it personally does not understand.” – Alfred Harmsworth, founder of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror

  2. Fred Harwood says:

    Media “journalism” is about circulation, the numbers that set advertising rate.

  3. arn says:

    I’ve observed a similar effect with my Mom.

    She exactly knows how the weather tomorrow will be.
    The next day she’ll get angry because there is rain instead of the predicted sun.
    But you can ask her a second later how the weather will be tomorrow and she will take a look at her weather app that lied so many times to her and tell you with 100% confidence and trust what the app says.
    She never learns to get a bit more sceptical no matter how many times they are wrong.

    I’d call it the benefit of doubt ignorance instant reset
    where the person willingly always starts from zero as soon as a new topic or phase begins.

  4. czechlist says:

    ”Well, there you are, you see, Give ’em what they want.”
    George Jessel ?
    “Many people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    IMO
    Most consumers are seeking validation of biases (guilty of seeking sources I trust). Most news sources’ income is based on providing that confirmation. Most reporters aren’t journalists, they are stenographers.; And, most editors/publishers are obsequious to the source of their income.

  5. “You open the Newspaper” … nope … why would anyone read something they knew was lying to them?

  6. conrad ziefle says:

    Ar one point in my life, I had to deal with journals on a regular basis. I remember time and again explaining situations over and over to them, only to read the opposite in the story when it was published. They either don’t believe what you tell them, or have a very low level of language comprehension.

  7. Independent says:

    Most of the people who call themselves “journalists,” at least in the United States, are actually propagandists. They have no interest in truth, only what they can do to advance the narrative they are being paid to advance.

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