2.262. On Facts

There is this commercial on CNN about fruit. Well, it is really about truth and distortion. In the commercial there is an Apple. The voice over reminds you that it is an apple and argues that people will try to convince you that it is a banana. The story is a clear analogy for the rise of alternative facts and narratives driven by personal feelings vs. truth. The other day I saw another version of distortion that is as if not more common and less discussed: The lack of information creating a narrative.

Recently a pedestrian was killed in Tempe, AZ by a self-driving Uber taxi. All of the information and attitudes I heard about the event following were very negative in regards to the car and to the human that was sitting behind the wheel as a safety mechanism that supposedly failed. Then I saw the video.

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According to one poster, the woman “emerges from the dark like batman.” I agree here. Other posters on the youtube feed blame the driver, but this is not the discussion we are having in this ten minute window. What appears clear is that this is not the case of a car senselessly ramming a woman like KITT’s evil brother KARR. Instead what we see is an accident in which the jaywalking biker couldn’t be seen and that resulted in injury. I hope that story comes out, but our first media impression was way different. That is a problem–perhaps the problem with media. Unfortunately the news wants to create a narrative that all too often falls along the classic lines of good and bad. If you do that without all the facts, you end up casting someone in the wrong role.

 

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