1 Analysis of 600,000 news articles finds bias
2 Shipping companies suspend operations in Red Sea
3 Without aid, Ukraine could lose war by summer
4 Ozempic is breakthrough of 2023
5 Southwest Airlines hit with $140 million fine
NFL playoff odds
1903 First airplane flies
1 Analysis of 600,000 news articles finds Democratic bias
“A popular government,” wrote James Madison in 1822, “without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.”
Analysis of over 600,000 pieces of written and television journalism shows that the language of the mainstream American media has drifted away from the political centre, towards the Democratic Party’s preferred terminology and topics.
In Madison’s and Jefferson’s day, narrowcasting was the norm: small-circulation partisan journals spoke to different factions of a small elite. Later, the spread of the telegraph and the penny press created mass media. Narrow partisanship was no longer good business. Advertisers wanted to reach as many people as possible and scarce electromagnetic spectrum, which limited the numbers of radio and television stations, led to a system of regulation. All that favoured objectivity: journalists should try to put their opinions aside and stick to the facts.
Today, however, the smartphone has caused fragmentation and American media are back in a narrowcast age. As much of the advertising revenue that once paid for reporters has flowed to Google and Meta, this has created new business models.(Economist)
Editors note: Ad Astra strives for the center
2 Shipping companies suspend operations in Red Sea
Several shipping companies, including Maersk, a Danish freight giant, have told customers that they are suspending journeys through the waterway after missile attacks by the Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni militant group that claims to target ships heading towards Israel. Fully 10% of globally traded seaborne oil transits through the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a narrow Red Sea waterway between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. (Economist)
3 Without US, NATO aid, Ukraine could lose war by summer: US intelligence
As the Ukraine aid package faces delays in the US Congress, concerns are growing about the potential impact on Ukraine’s defense and its longer-term prospects in the war, according to multiple US and European officials. The loss or further delay of US support could also impact aid from its allies. Western officials fear that if the US fails to continue providing support, European nations may follow suit. Western intelligence agencies are currently calculating how long Ukraine could hold out without US and NATO help, with estimates ranging from months to a worst-case scenario of significant setbacks or defeat by summer. (CNN)
4 Ozempic is journal Science’s breakthrough of 2023
a new class of therapies is breaking the mold, and there’s a groundswell of hope that they may dent rates of obesity and interlinked chronic diseases. The drugs mimic a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and they are reshaping medicine, popular culture, and even global stock markets in ways both electrifying and in discomfiting. Originally developed for diabetes, these GLP-1 receptor agonists induce significant weight loss, with mostly manageable side effects. This year, clinical trials found that they also cut symptoms of heart failure and the risk of heart attacks and strokes, the most compelling evidence yet that the drugs have major benefits beyond weight loss itself. For these reasons, Science has named GLP-1 drugs the Breakthrough of the Year.
obesity is thought to power type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, fatty liver disease, and certain cancers. (Science)
5 Southwest Airlines hit with $140 million fine for holiday 2022 meltdown
Southwest Airlines faces a civil penalty totaling $140 million after the U.S. Department of Transportation said the airline violated consumer protection laws during its holiday meltdown last year.
The penalty, which the agency said is 30 times larger than any it has levied for consumer protection violations, includes a $35 million payment directly to the government. (WSJ)
NFL playoff odds
(NYT)
This day in history
1903 First airplane flies