Media "science" tells partial truth to make better hype

On Tuesday the Telegraph, the Independent, the Mirror, the Express, the Mail, and the Metro all reported that a coroner was hearing the case of a toddler who died after receiving the MMR vaccine, which the parents blamed for their loss. Toddler 'died after MMR jab' (Metro), 'Healthy' baby died after MMR jab (Independent), you know the headlines by now.

On Thursday the coroner announced his verdict: the vaccine played no part in this child's death. So far, of the papers above, only the Telegraph has had the decency to cover the outcome. The Independent, the Mirror, the Express, the Mail, and the Metro have all decided that their readers are better off not knowing.

{ snip }

They have been systematically and vigorously misled by the media, the people with access to all the information, who still choose, collectively, between themselves, so robustly that it might almost be a conspiracy, to give you only half the facts.

The Guardian

The media always tells half-truths and leaves out the boring part: reality is as you might expect it to be.

They specialize in promises of some new, weird, funky interpretation of reality -- sounds a lot like liberalism -- that means you don't have to just get to work and apply what's flamingly obvious.

Maybe the space unicorn will save us all. Or at least have a few affairs, get fat and then date Amy Winehouse.