Month: April 2015
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New NYT: Our short attention span on foreign disasters
From my new Upshot column: Saturday’s huge earthquake in Nepal killed at least 5,000 people, injured more than 8,000, and affected millions more. Relief efforts are underway to aid the survivors. The extent of American aid may be limited, however, by our collective attention span. In the days since the quake, the riots in Baltimore
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New NYT: Fact-checking improves citizen knowledge
From my new Upshot column: Fact-checks of politicians’ statements have become increasingly prominent in media coverage of American politics. With dedicated fact-checkers like PolitiFact and recurring features in newspapers like The New York Times and news agencies like The Associated Press, more journalists are trying to assess the accuracy of claims made by public figures
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New NYT: Why CA approach to vaccines could backfire
From my new Upshot column: In a number of states, parents are allowed to opt out of legal requirements to have their children vaccinated before entering school by claiming a “personal belief” or “philosophical” exemption. These provisions have raised a great deal of concern since the Disneyland measles outbreak, including in California, where it began.
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New NYT: How Walker dodged the inauthentic label
From my new Upshot column: It may be called waffling, flip-flopping or evolving, but every four years new presidential candidates find themselves adjusting inconvenient positions that might hinder their bid for the nomination. What’s striking, though, is how some candidates who make these changes are portrayed as inauthentic by party elites and primary voters, and