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Comment by salimmadjd | Hacker News Reader

I’m becoming weary of all these Facebook scare tactics. This types of misinformation has been on Fox and the rest of cable networks. Not to mention radio talk shows of the past 20-30 years.

IMHO, additionally this kind of data investigation needs someone with a good data science background. Otherwise all we're doing is using very limited observable dataset to make bold statements, which ironically what is happening with scaring public about voting by mail.

The author of this article is some former pentagon and possibly a military spook and not a data scientist https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/ryan-mcc...

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Do you know of a news agency with a better record with data science?

Propublica is the gold standard in this space as far as I know. (538 is a close second in my book, but they’re narrowly focused on politics and sports).

I suggest browsing their homepage to see what I mean. Well over fifty percent of the stories are backed by datasets they gathered themselves, and a good chunk of the remaining ones are about problems with lack of government transparency that directly impacted them:

https://www.propublica.org/

If you are a data scientist, you might be interested in other data sets they curate. These are mostly useful for social scientists, journalists and policy makers:

https://www.propublica.org/datastore/

Disclaimer: I’ve donated to them in the past.

Propublica has done some of the best reporting I've read recently. Example the story with the USS Fitzgerald [0]. I don't remember anything as good in recent memory.

However, that doesn't mean everything they do has the same standard nor all their journalists approach their work with the same type of journalistic rigor. I think we need to judge every article on its own merit and not just based on some brand value alone.

[0] https://features.propublica.org/navy-accidents/uss-fitzgeral...

> The author of this article is some former pentagon and possibly a military spook

This is literally a strawman argument.

> this kind of data investigation needs someone with a good data science background. Otherwise all we're doing is using very limited observable dataset to make bold statements

Some of the research mentioned was funded by:

> The Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust

> Craig Newmark Philanthropies

> Democracy Fund

> Facebook Journalism Project

> Ford Foundation

> Google News Initiative

> John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

> Open Society Foundations

> Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust

Do you mean literally an ad hominem argument? /pedant

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