bezos is almost entirely hands off with the washington post, so i don't think this really works as a line of criticism. he basically does nothing but own it, and as far as i know it's editorially...
bezos is almost entirely hands off with the washington post, so i don't think this really works as a line of criticism. he basically does nothing but own it, and as far as i know it's editorially independent of him completely.
And I'd expect them to use a proprietary system that will outflank all the media that aren't controlled/bankrolled by Bezos. Forget the Russians and hackers. Let the corporations handle it. Yes,...
Breaking down the data before the election wave comes: “We have a much broader span of data than just results,” Bowers said. “The lab is going to be working on fingerprinting every county, congressional district, and — if we can get around to it — precinct in America with info that gives us a descriptive understanding of who the voters are, how they’ve previously voted, and how they might vote in the future. One way we might do that is through large-scale analysis of a voter file, but we also have BLS data that helps us get a good understanding of who the folks there are. That’s one level, we could write a story or build a graphic about that.”
And I'd expect them to use a proprietary system that will outflank all the media that aren't controlled/bankrolled by Bezos. Forget the Russians and hackers. Let the corporations handle it. Yes, news organizations 'project' winners, and have done this before polls closed. Now they'll be able to claim to know the outcome in each precinct before the wave comes. If the media already 'knows' then why should I even vote? This is what has been going on for years now, and it's about to start again.
this seems like a gross overreaction to something that can literally already be done by people--and is--irrespective of their backing by corporations or not. there are dozens of groups which do...
Yes, news organizations 'project' winners, and have done this before polls closed. Now they'll be able to claim to know the outcome in each precinct before the wave comes. If the media already 'knows' then why should I even vote? This is what has been going on for years now, and it's about to start again.
this seems like a gross overreaction to something that can literally already be done by people--and is--irrespective of their backing by corporations or not. there are dozens of groups which do literally that exact thing with varying degrees of sophistication--hell, one of those groups is the highly respected 538 and that's their bread and butter. the washington post is literally just building upon what's already there, and it has absolutely no impact on why you should or should not vote, or relevance to that matter frankly.
To be honest, I'm really confused at what you're trying to say. Just because a media company makes a prediction... it's pointless to vote? What is the relation? And remember, there's a different...
To be honest, I'm really confused at what you're trying to say. Just because a media company makes a prediction... it's pointless to vote?
What is the relation? And remember, there's a different between a projected winner due to exit polls (which are fueled by y'know, the people voting) which are only declared given basically complete certainty, and pre-voting predications, which are A) probabilistic, not a binary prediction and B) of course not perfectly accurate.
And either way, what other people predict or project or calculate shouldn't affect what you do.
Honestly, I'd prefer it if we had similar insight into the candidates at such a granular level. Voting records for incumbents or holders of other public offices, funding sources, criminal or...
Honestly, I'd prefer it if we had similar insight into the candidates at such a granular level. Voting records for incumbents or holders of other public offices, funding sources, criminal or malpractice records, public statements, scorecards from various public policy organizations, the whole shebang.
I try to do extensive homework for local elections, and it's difficult to get that level of detail for "minor" elected offices like county judges, treasury, school board, agriculture and other administrative titles. Yet these are the officials that most of us depend on for local quality of life, justice, environment, education, and other crucial government services.
It's unlikely Jeff Bezos has a vested interest at that level, but if we actually cared about the quality of journalism as a service to communities, this information would be made available in clear, intelligible and well-interpreted formats other than flat newspaper endorsements for selected positions.
the problem with that is, that requires actually having money, and most newspapers either don't have money because they're no longer profitable or only barely breaking even or have money but have...
It's unlikely Jeff Bezos has a vested interest at that level, but if we actually cared about the quality of journalism as a service to communities, this information would be made available in clear, intelligible and well-interpreted formats other than flat newspaper endorsements for selected positions.
the problem with that is, that requires actually having money, and most newspapers either don't have money because they're no longer profitable or only barely breaking even or have money but have shitty management that siphons that money and slashes spending and reporters, making it literally impossible for that to be viable for the lot of them. most papers aren't like the NYT or WaPo.
I was comparing specifically to the data-rich platform for elections, not the newspaper ecosystem as a whole. Most of the information I was referring to is publicly available without costly...
I was comparing specifically to the data-rich platform for elections, not the newspaper ecosystem as a whole. Most of the information I was referring to is publicly available without costly investigation needed, it's just diffuse and hard to get to through search engines, even for well-informed and diligent researchers.
That being said, I don't think most county-level elections offices have convenient standard APIs for pulling the data the Post will be using - if they've got the resources for compiling all those numbers manually, maybe they can spare some to present candidate information for the voters.
I just can't wait for the Washinton Post, alias Jeff Bezos, to tell all of us who and what to vote for before we enter the election booth.
bezos is almost entirely hands off with the washington post, so i don't think this really works as a line of criticism. he basically does nothing but own it, and as far as i know it's editorially independent of him completely.
And I'd expect them to use a proprietary system that will outflank all the media that aren't controlled/bankrolled by Bezos. Forget the Russians and hackers. Let the corporations handle it. Yes, news organizations 'project' winners, and have done this before polls closed. Now they'll be able to claim to know the outcome in each precinct before the wave comes. If the media already 'knows' then why should I even vote? This is what has been going on for years now, and it's about to start again.
this seems like a gross overreaction to something that can literally already be done by people--and is--irrespective of their backing by corporations or not. there are dozens of groups which do literally that exact thing with varying degrees of sophistication--hell, one of those groups is the highly respected 538 and that's their bread and butter. the washington post is literally just building upon what's already there, and it has absolutely no impact on why you should or should not vote, or relevance to that matter frankly.
To be honest, I'm really confused at what you're trying to say. Just because a media company makes a prediction... it's pointless to vote?
What is the relation? And remember, there's a different between a projected winner due to exit polls (which are fueled by y'know, the people voting) which are only declared given basically complete certainty, and pre-voting predications, which are A) probabilistic, not a binary prediction and B) of course not perfectly accurate.
And either way, what other people predict or project or calculate shouldn't affect what you do.
Honestly, I'd prefer it if we had similar insight into the candidates at such a granular level. Voting records for incumbents or holders of other public offices, funding sources, criminal or malpractice records, public statements, scorecards from various public policy organizations, the whole shebang.
I try to do extensive homework for local elections, and it's difficult to get that level of detail for "minor" elected offices like county judges, treasury, school board, agriculture and other administrative titles. Yet these are the officials that most of us depend on for local quality of life, justice, environment, education, and other crucial government services.
It's unlikely Jeff Bezos has a vested interest at that level, but if we actually cared about the quality of journalism as a service to communities, this information would be made available in clear, intelligible and well-interpreted formats other than flat newspaper endorsements for selected positions.
the problem with that is, that requires actually having money, and most newspapers either don't have money because they're no longer profitable or only barely breaking even or have money but have shitty management that siphons that money and slashes spending and reporters, making it literally impossible for that to be viable for the lot of them. most papers aren't like the NYT or WaPo.
I was comparing specifically to the data-rich platform for elections, not the newspaper ecosystem as a whole. Most of the information I was referring to is publicly available without costly investigation needed, it's just diffuse and hard to get to through search engines, even for well-informed and diligent researchers.
That being said, I don't think most county-level elections offices have convenient standard APIs for pulling the data the Post will be using - if they've got the resources for compiling all those numbers manually, maybe they can spare some to present candidate information for the voters.