We have recently been considering the direction of ODT, and coincidentally been involved in fact checking. We have found the Guardian consistently wanting:
https://ourdecisiontoo.com/Issue/journalism-2021-assumptions-trump-the-facts/308
https://ourdecisiontoo.com/Issue/does-this-count-as-a-hate-crime/298
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/memo-to-the-guardian-have-you-muzzled-the-facts-on-face-masks/
We have contacted every author with our evidenced concerns but had no reply.
Given this, it seems that further fact checking of individual journalists is not going to persuade them to pay proper regard to journalistic standards. We really don’t need any more evidence than to look at their overwrought publications on daily basis. But who in their right mind would want to?
Tsunamis everywhere?
This, for example, is not responsible, balanced journalism, it is a ‘tsunami’ of quotes and charts without context or analysis, offered to citizens who will struggle to make sense of it: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10295777/No10s-Plan-C-fight-Omicron-limit-care-home-visits-Christmas.html - there have been many thousands of similar articles in all manner of ‘newspapers’ for the past two years.
By contrast, this article from HART, seems almost anachronistic in its respect for critical thinking: https://www.hartgroup.org/omicron-not-ebola/
Should we support groups like HART in investigating carefully what is known about the Omicron variant, and updating this on a page on the site as new evidence emerges?
This will not be hard to set up.
Standing questions?
Possible ‘standing questions’
Should ‘omicron’ be considered to pose any more risk than any other variant of SARS-CoV-2?
What do we know so far?
What are the risks?
What interventions if any might offer benefit?
What are the costs and risks of interventions?
What are the main ethical concerns? (For example of restrictions on behaviour, of spending billions of public money on ‘vaccines’, and of enforcing medical interventions without informed consent.)
And we might use these issues here also: https://www.libertynation.com/omicron-just-the-facts/
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This should not impact other efforts but may be a useful public service that will help people reach their own informed opinions. These opinions could be surveyed by ODT.
It is proposed that in addition to other projects, ODT should establish an updateable page reporting the simple facts about the omicron variant