I wish there would be journalists out there bringing facts first and leave the opinion about the facts for the reader. When reading the first lines it becomes clear to me, that I am reading a opinion based article, not fact based.
I am tired and exhausted of articles like this in the media coverage these times. They don't get my attention. How did this land here on hackernews?
> I wish there would be journalists out there bringing facts first and leave the opinion about the facts for the reader. When reading the first lines it becomes clear to me, that I am reading a opinion based article, not fact based.
It's an op-ed essay. "The media" has always published stuff like this, and newspapers have a section dedicated to it. People are interested in facts, but they're also interested in what other people think and the ideas they have.
The content in a typical newspaper is extremely varied, and rightly so. Did you know they even publish cartoons, and have done so for more than a century?
I decided to look into this. And there's some interesting facts on the op-ed [1]. Up until 1921 op-eds didn't exist. In 1921 they were invented by an editor who remarked, "It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America ... and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."
Oh the times when we were more honest. That paper went out of business 10 years later. He only allowed employees to publish said pieces. The modern editorial where papers began allowing "anybody" to publish opinion based articles only began in 1970, with the NYTimes.
> I decided to look into this. And there's some interesting facts on the op-ed [1]. Up until 1921 op-eds didn't exist. In 1921 they were invented by an editor who remarked...
Oh, interesting. I was interpreting "op-ed" to be the backronym "opinions and editorials page" rather than the more trade-jagon "opposite the editorial page," and as meaning a place for opinion content (which the OP was broadly complaining about) rather than news. Opinion content, in the form of editorials, has a much longer history, according to the bio of the editor you mentioned:
> ...thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."
> Oh the times when we were more honest.
That part of the quote seems like something that's very easy to misinterpret if one was so inclined. Opinions themselves aren't facts, but I'm sure some would be tempted to interpret "ignoring facts" as meaning an embrace of falsehood or lies, in order to take a swipe at the media. That's almost certainly a misinterpretation.
It’s an essay, not a field report. Persuasive writing. I thought it was interesting, and this isn’t some random letter-to-the-editor. You can read his opinion and form your own rebuttal (I’d love to read it, too!)
Your comment is also for Abiturienten. It would have been a real good comment 20 years ago on some PHP forum, but it doesn't fit to hackernews nowadays.
Keine Ahnung was php damit zu tun hat aber Du kannst das überprüfen wie schlecht der Spiegel geworden ist. Einfach mal lesen was die damals geschrieben haben.
The thesis of the article is that Russians have a long standing fear from the USSR days that the border would one day be closed, and then they couldn't get out of Russia. That fear followed by the recent airspace closures, has led to significant emigration. And this fear has an even earlier trauma of closed borders from the 1917 revolution, which also saw hundreds of thousands emigrate from Russia.
It goes on to make comparisons between the two emigrations, then and now. But also the different perspectives: those who flee and those who stay. Those who stayed following 1917 were very critical of those who fled, the same is happening already today. The author doesn't question whether history will repeat itself, it shows it is. Including for those who leave.
>That they will be welcomed abroad as "Putin’s people," and not at all as those who fought desperately, although unsuccessfully, against him for 20 years.
>Lenin called intellectuals the "shit" of the nation and did everything in his power to make them leave or disappear. Putin has rid himself of this "shit" just as effectively.
"The emigrants are forbidden from taking their money with them, and parliamentarians have already introduced proposals that emigrants be stripped of their citizenship and their property be nationalized."
These laws will not only hit the emigrants of today, but also many people who left Russia long time ago, but might still own an apartment or still have some money in the bank there. I know people who rent out their apartment in Russia or offered it on AirBnB and made a living from it. These are not oligarchs. These are pretty average Russian people. They will suffer badly.
18 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] threadI wish there would be journalists out there bringing facts first and leave the opinion about the facts for the reader. When reading the first lines it becomes clear to me, that I am reading a opinion based article, not fact based.
I am tired and exhausted of articles like this in the media coverage these times. They don't get my attention. How did this land here on hackernews?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay
It's an op-ed essay. "The media" has always published stuff like this, and newspapers have a section dedicated to it. People are interested in facts, but they're also interested in what other people think and the ideas they have.
The content in a typical newspaper is extremely varied, and rightly so. Did you know they even publish cartoons, and have done so for more than a century?
Oh the times when we were more honest. That paper went out of business 10 years later. He only allowed employees to publish said pieces. The modern editorial where papers began allowing "anybody" to publish opinion based articles only began in 1970, with the NYTimes.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed
Oh, interesting. I was interpreting "op-ed" to be the backronym "opinions and editorials page" rather than the more trade-jagon "opposite the editorial page," and as meaning a place for opinion content (which the OP was broadly complaining about) rather than news. Opinion content, in the form of editorials, has a much longer history, according to the bio of the editor you mentioned:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Bayard_Swope: "Although standard editorial pages have been printed by newspapers for many centuries, Swope established the first modern op-ed page in 1921."
> ...thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."
> Oh the times when we were more honest.
That part of the quote seems like something that's very easy to misinterpret if one was so inclined. Opinions themselves aren't facts, but I'm sure some would be tempted to interpret "ignoring facts" as meaning an embrace of falsehood or lies, in order to take a swipe at the media. That's almost certainly a misinterpretation.
I couldn’t disagree with you more.
Most of them want to relocate outside Russia.
I think it's more than an opinion though.
It goes on to make comparisons between the two emigrations, then and now. But also the different perspectives: those who flee and those who stay. Those who stayed following 1917 were very critical of those who fled, the same is happening already today. The author doesn't question whether history will repeat itself, it shows it is. Including for those who leave.
>That they will be welcomed abroad as "Putin’s people," and not at all as those who fought desperately, although unsuccessfully, against him for 20 years.
>Lenin called intellectuals the "shit" of the nation and did everything in his power to make them leave or disappear. Putin has rid himself of this "shit" just as effectively.
It should be obvious that Russians fleeing from their home country nowadays are definitely not "Putin's people" .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJVYqP6eF2U
I sympathize with anyone trying to escape from such rhetoric.
These laws will not only hit the emigrants of today, but also many people who left Russia long time ago, but might still own an apartment or still have some money in the bank there. I know people who rent out their apartment in Russia or offered it on AirBnB and made a living from it. These are not oligarchs. These are pretty average Russian people. They will suffer badly.