Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Krugzilla Vs. The Gay Math Wizard


I've only been mildly interested in the feud between Nate Silver and Paul Krugman.

I do think that Silver risks becoming a mere contrarian, rather than a data driven journalist as he proclaims.

And I do think Krugman has a point when he says that there are such things as "experts" in certain fields, though we can all agree that Op-Ed columnists rarely qualify.  Unfortunately for Silver, Krugman IS an expert and has a prognostication record about as good (and much longer) than Silver's.

I get that Silver might be picking fights in order to drive web traffic, but that's not a long term tactic to make himself the place I think he wants to establish in American journalism.

Anyway, this is a good take on it:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/taking-sides--2

No comments: