(The below text version of the notes is for search purposes and convenience. See the PDF version for proper formatting such as bold, italics, etc., and graphics where applicable. Copyright: 2022 Retraice, Inc.)

Re25: Reading The New York Times and Fox News

Retraice^1

Because why not.

Air date: Friday, 21st Oct. 2022, 11:30 PM Eastern/US.

Side note:
three hidden assumptions

  1. By asking `What's GOOT?', we're implying that the answer is not readily available. We don't know--and you don't know. This is probably because biology has not equipped us for this new environment. Our only (?) hope is mental and cultural adaptation.^2 2. Further, we're implying that new work is needed to find out what's GOOT (what we're doing). And perhaps even new workers are needed (us, of course!). 3. We're also assuming you have a motive to find the answer(s).^3 Ours is a belief that NINFA and the related belief in real deadlines.^4

World Model 2

World Model 1 is so yesterday.^5

  1. Computer control^6 is suffusing GNR, GCR, B&R^7 , and the three kinds of intelligence^8 (NI, AI, SI).^9

  2. To check^10 this, we need information^11 from trusted^12 and integrated^13 sources^14 .

The news

Collection and analysis are two different disciplines within intelligence agencies^15 but when you read the news you're doing them both at the same time, on the fly. Use our cheatsheet (below) to compensate.

Mainstream news sources focus on variety and appeal, like a grocery store. Ultimately they're selling hard-to-get information and readers' attention, in unknown proportion.

They're a good starting point, but there's no obvious way to trust them systematically, the way we would trust a bridge.

Eight M's: a cheatsheet for
quick collection and analysis

While reading, look for and distinguish these things:

  1. medium / the physical layer;

  2. message / signal and noise sources, deception^16 ;

  3. math / Paulos^17 / Hamming-Fermi calculations^18 ;

  4. matter / physical resources and terrain;

  5. money / allocation of resources on the medium-message-sender side, and the cost-of-collection^19 (price of information^20) collector side;

  6. motives / MICE: money, ideology, compromise, ego^21 ;

  7. makers / detailers, workers in the shop (who are about tactics)^22 ;

  8. masters / allocators, owners (who are about strategy).

Impressions of the Times and Fox

  • advertisements: for self-subscription and other businesses;
  • subscriptions protect news sources from attack by advertiser boycott (I vaguely recall hearing that Fox started focusing on subscriptions after an advertiser boycott of Tucker Carlson, but don't quote me on this.);
  • news, culture, opinion, weather;
  • the content we're consuming is free, notwithstanding the advertisements;
  • some overlap between the Times and Fox (the Biden student loan court decision);
  • more ads on Fox homepage, but the Times might do more ads elsewhere (e.g. in articles);
  • as far as the homepage, above the fold, the Times really wants you to subscribe; Fox is more about serving ads;
  • the Times has much more whitespace on the homepage; Fox uses every inch;

Applying the eight M's

  1. medium: webpage/website, not TV; but we can assume that many if not most consumers are not getting content via these websites; they're using social media (the Times) and TV (Fox);

  2. messages: plenty to analyze here;

  3. math: didn't see any obvious calculations to do;

  4. matter: think `people hunched over computers or out pounding pavement';

  5. money: subscriptions, advertisements, paychecks and share prices;

  6. motives: this is hard to tease out from such a cursory glance, but maybe we can assume there's no `compromise' motivating anybody? Maybe not! But money, ideology and ego are surely the main drivers.

  7. makers: see `matter' above;

  8. masters: both are publicly traded; Fox is largely owned by the Murdoch family; the Times' largest shareholder is Carlos Slim (source: glancing at Wikipedia pages);

Messages and the messengers

Once you've read one news website, you've read them all: same format, same reasons for and methods of getting your attention; they're trying to be your personal private intelligence organization, and/or selling your attention to advertisers.

What we care about is the messages, the information that might or might not be present. Once we've gathered a message, we have to analyze it and decide if it's `really what's going on out there'. Biases are at play. Unknowns among the eight M's are at play.

Think of how hundreds or thousands of engineers are working full-time to capture and keep our attention in aps and phones. The same is happening behind `the news'. What are their motives? It's easy to guess but hard to check. Consider the filtering of reporters and stories described by Chomsky and Herman.^23

_

References

Charney, D. L., & Irvin, J. A. (2016). A guide to the psychology of espionage. In Oleson (2016).

Grabo, C. M. (2002). Anticipating Surprise: Analysis for Strategic Warning. Center for Strategic Intelligence Research. ISBN: 0965619567
https://www.ni-u.edu/ni_press/pdf/Anticipating_Surprise_Analysis.pdf Retrieved 7th Sep. 2020.

Hamming, R. W. (2020). The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn. Stripe Press. ISBN: 978-1732265172. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781732265172
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9781732265172

Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Pantheon. ISBN: 0679720340. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0679720340
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0679720340
https://lccn.loc.gov/88042614

Lowenthal, M. M. (2020). Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy. CQ Press / SAGE Publications, 8th ed. ISBN: 978-1544358345. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1544358345
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1544358345
https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027254
Other editions available at:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=Intelligence%3A%20From%20Secrets%20to%20Policy

Margin (2022/10/14). Ma21: Delusion Hunting 1 - Content Delivery. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/ma21 Retrieved 15th Oct. 2022.

Meek, J. (2018). The club and the mob. London Review of Books. 6 Dec. 2018.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n23/james-meek/the-club-and-the-mob Retrieved 30th Sep. 2022.

Oleson, P. C. (Ed.) (2016). AFIO's Guide to the Study of Intelligence. Association of Former Intelligence Officers, 1st ed. Citations are of the pbk. edition, ISBN: 978-0997527308. PDF edition available at:
https://www.afio.com/40_guide.htm Retrieved 10th Sep. 2020.

Paulos, J. A. (1995). A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper. Basic Books. ISBN: 0465043623. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0465043623
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0465043623
https://lccn.loc.gov/94048206

Retraice (2020/09/07). Re1: Three Kinds of Intelligence. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re1 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2020/09/08). Re2: Tell the People, Tell Foes. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re2 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2020/09/09). Re3: Tell Everyone. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re3 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2020/09/10). Re4: Trust No One. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re4 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2020/11/02). Re10: Living to Guess Another Day. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re10 Retrieved 2nd Nov. 2020.

Retraice (2020/11/25). Re15: Trust and Sources. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re15 Retrieved 28th Feb. 2022.

Retraice (2022/03/02). Re16: Trust is a Response. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re16 Retrieved 6th Mar. 2022.

Retraice (2022/03/07). Re17: Hypotheses to Eleven. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re17 Retrieved 17th Mar. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/10). Re19: Nature Is Not F-ing Around. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re19 Retrieved 12th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/16a). Re20: The Deadline Problem. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re20 Retrieved 17th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/16b). Re21: Time's Up. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re21 Retrieved 18th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/19a). Re22: Computer Control. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re22 Retrieved 19th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/19b). Re23: You Need a World Model. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re23 Retrieved 20th Oct. 2022.

Retraice (2022/10/20). Re24: Now, Anything Goes. retraice.com.
https://www.retraice.com/segments/re24 Retrieved 21st Oct. 2022.

Vallee, J. (1979). Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. And/Or Press. ISBN: 0915904381. Different edition and searches:
https://archive.org/details/MessengersOfDeceptionUFOContactsAndCultsJacquesValle1979/mode/2up
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0915904381
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0915904381
https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=0915904381

Footnotes

^1 https://www.retraice.com/retraice

^2 Margin (2022/10/14) note 4: "Isn't it true that...."

^3 Cf. Meek (2018), last paragraph.

^4 Nature is not f-ing around; Retraice (2022/10/10); Retraice (2022/10/16a); Retraice (2022/10/16b); Retraice (2022/10/19b).

^5 Retraice (2022/10/20).

^6 Retraice (2022/10/19a); cf. Retraice (2022/03/07), the original eleven hypotheses which are now rolled up into H12, Computer Control.

^7 Retraice (2022/10/10).

^8 Retraice (2020/09/07).

^9 Genetics, nanotech, robotics; global catastrophic risks; blue-and-red politics; natural, artificial and strategic intelligence.

^10 Retraice (2020/11/02).

^11 Retraice (2020/09/09).

^12 Retraice (2020/09/10); Retraice (2020/11/25); Retraice (2022/03/02).

^13 Retraice (2022/10/20).

^14 Retraice (2020/09/08), see `Problems of Trust', pp. 3-7.

^15 Lowenthal (2020) pp. 94-95.

^16 Lowenthal (2020) pp. 95-96; Grabo (2002) p. 119 and Retraice (2020/09/07).

^17 Paulos (1995).

^18 Hamming (2020) pp. 5-8.

^19 Lowenthal (2020) pp. 83-85.

^20 Vallee (1979) pp. 67-69 on `Major Murphy'.

^21 Charney & Irvin (2016) p. 465.

^22 Herman & Chomsky (1988).

^23 Herman & Chomsky (1988).

See All 145 Episodes of "Notes by Retraice"