Tech beat: Wikipedia’s Un-‘Reliable’ Sources
Wikipedia users “who accessed the ‘List of executive branch czars’ article on July 24” would’ve seen Kamala Harris listed, reports Ashley Rindsberg at Pirate Wires.
But after that date, the list had “no mention of Harris at all.” Behind that change is the way the site classifies “outright leftist or socialist outlets” as mainstream sources while “conservative outlets like Fox News” are rated unreliable.
“Reducing our understanding of knowledge to assertions made by a small subset of supposedly ‘reliable sources’” adds “bias into the encyclopedia.”
“Wikipedia is a testament to the limitless power of collaboration and an odds-defying wonder of human achievement.”
But it may be “fated to achieve exactly the opposite of what its founders intended.”
From the right: Trump Got Crime Trend Correct
ABC moderator David Muir’s claimed, in the Trump-Harris debate, “The FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country,” stats Trump retorted are “a fraud.”
The Washington Examiner’s editorial board fact-checks: New data from The Bureau of Justice Statistics last week “show Trump is right about crime and Muir is wrong.”
Under President Biden, the FBI made the process for how “local law enforcement agencies report crime to the bureau . . . more complicated and burdensome,” so now “some of the largest and most troublesome cities [are] failing to report at all.”
“The DOJ, however, did not change its methodology,” and per its latest numbers, “crime is much higher under the Biden-Harris administration than it was during [Trump’s] presidency.”
Eye on NY: State Gov’t Hikes Insurance Costs
“The latest round of health insurance premium hikes announced by New York regulators adds to evidence that state policies are drowning consumers instead of helping them,” warns the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond.
The Department of Financial Services’ premium hikes averaged 13%, “or four times the inflation rate, for non-group or individual policies.” Small-group policies rose 8%, “or more than double the inflation rate.”
Albany also “drives up health coverage costs through heavy-handed taxation and regulation” — imposing “coverage mandates without properly weighing the costs against the benefits.”
Thus, a new proposal barring “copayments or coinsurance for asthma inhalers” would boost “costs for everyone else.”
“Instead of making hollow boasts, state officials should focus on truly improving the affordability of health coverage — which starts with rolling back the taxes and regulations that make things worse.”
Culture critic: Exposing the ‘Anti-Racist’ Con
In his new film “Am I a Racist?” Matt Walsh “poses as a liberal activist who is earnestly and hilariously seeking the counsel of unsuspecting DEI experts” — performing “a public service,” cheers The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley.
Walsh “isn’t mean-spirited or adversarial. He poses straightforward questions and lets his interlocutors discredit themselves. Along the way, the DEI industry is revealed to be something of a racket.”
The film may prompt more companies to scrap their DEI programs, which studies show do little if any good.
“If your main focus isn’t ending racial bias but merely changing the color of the person on the receiving end, you aren’t seeking justice” but “prolonging racial tensions.”
And as Walsh’s film makes clear, “you’re part of the problem.”
Social-media watch: Meta’s ‘River-Sea’ Mistake
“The recent decision by Meta’s oversight board legitimizing the slogan ‘from the river to the sea’ is shameful and dangerous,” thunders Michael Herzog at The Hill.
“This slogan is overwhelmingly used in the context of expressing hatred toward Israel and rejecting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination,” typically “by Palestinian terrorist organizations and their sympathizers.
Hamas’s 2017 charter” uses the phrase. “Oct. 7 to the end of 2023” saw “more acts of antisemitism ‘than in any full year on record,’ ” per the Anti-Defamation League.
“In this fraught environment, the slogan” has become “an integral part of the scenery and increasingly dangerous.”
“Respect the right to free expression” but admit “that this call cannot be disassociated from violence or threats thereof.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
