Utopia, you are standing in it!

Media Myth Alert directed attention periodically in 2022 to the appearance of well-known media-driven myths, those prominent tales about the news media that are widely believed and often retold but which, under scrutiny, dissolve as apocryphal or wildly exaggerated.

Here’s a look at the year’s five top posts at Media Myth Alert, a year in which myths associated with the 50th anniversary of the origins of the Watergate scandal figured conspicuously, although not exclusively. (The demands of other projects necessarily trimmed the volume of blog posts in 2022.)

■ ‘I’ll furnish the war’: 25 reasons why it’s a towering media myth (posted January 10): William Randolph Hearst’s supposed vow to “furnish the war” with Spain at the end of the 19th century is one of the best-known anecdotes in American journalism. The aphorism has been presented as genuine in innumerable histories, biographies, newspaper and

I noted a month ago that President Xi and the CCP have taken credit for relatively low (reported) deaths from COVID, due to strict lockdown protocols. By “strict” we mean locking down whole cities and blockading residents in their apartment buildings for months at a stretch. However, public protests rose to an unprecedented level, and so the Chinese government has done a surprising full 180 policy change, towards almost no restrictions.

According to Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel in the Wall Street Journal, the way this policy is being carried out has the makings of a mass human tragedy:

Zero Covid was always untenable and had to be ended. But it could have been done responsibly.

Among other things, that would involve buying Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines and administering them to the elderly and other high-risk people, and purchasing Paxlovid and molnupiravir to treat those who test positive. Supplies of…

Stardate: 4372.5 (2268)
Original Air Date: December 20, 1968
Writer: John Meredyth Lucas
Director: John Meredyth Lucas

“Mister Spock, the women on your planet are logical.
That’s the only planet in this galaxy that can make that claim.”

On a top-secret diplomatic mission, the Enterprise has entered the Tellun star system –a border region which is also claimed by the Klingons– in order to pick up the ambassador from Troyius, Petri (Jay Robinson). Troyius is the outer planet within the Tellun system. Next, the Enterprise heads for the system’s inner planet, Elas, for a covert escort mission. The Elasians are a demanding race and their women are rumored to possess strange mystical powers over men –a man who is touched by the tears of a woman of Elas has his heart enslaved forever. Nevertheless, Kirk is not excited about this transportation mission, he calls it simply…

I’m a big believer in looking at long-run trends, particularly whether countries are experiencing convergence of divergence with regards to per-capita economic output.

Poor nations normally should grow faster than rich nations, so we can learn a lot when we see exceptions to this rule based on several decades of data.

• Why does/did South Korea out-perform North Korea?
• Why does/did Chile out-perform Venezuela?
• Why does/did the United States out-perform Western Europe?
• Why does/did West Germany out-perform East Germany?
• Why does/did Hong Kong out-perform Cuba?
• Why does/did Taiwan out-perform China?

I think the answer to these questions is obvious, for what it’s worth.

Today, let’s consider another example. Mike Bird of the U.K.-based Economist tweeted about how the United Kingdom is diverging from Australia.

Since Australia and the United Kingdom have similar levels of economic liberty, some people speculate the divergence we’re seeing has a lot to do with regional…

Stardate: 5718.3 (2268)
Original Air Date: January 3, 1969
Writer: Jerry Sohl and Lee Erwin
Director: Herb Wallerstein

“I’m afraid that subjugating you won’t be enough. You must be confined.
And all the people of the galaxy who do not bow to me must be confined, or be destroyed.”

The Enterprise is orbiting Elba II, a planet with a poisonous atmosphere where the Federation maintains an asylum holding a few remaining incorrigible criminally insane people. The Enterprise is transporting a revolutionary new medicine which might permanently eliminate mental illness and thereby cure the inmates on Elba II.

Upon arrival, Kirk and Spock beam down to meet with the governor of the colony, Dr. Donald Cory (Keye Luke), who invites them to dinner despite his skepticism of the new medicine. Apparently, the rehabilitation program has not been going well. A new inmate arrived named Garth (Steve Ihnat), bringing…