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Some readers may disagree with those analytical judgments. Abortion may be somewhat more or somewhat less available, but the debate over it will probably look not so different than it does today. The most likely scenario – a decade or two from now – is that same-sex marriage will be the norm in many places.
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Young people have roughly the same views on abortion as older people. With abortion, both sides make a rights-based argument, and the polling shows no clear trend. This view is also consistent with the history of this country, where civil rights tend to move in only one broad direction: expanded rights.Ībortion is different. All the polling – especially the age breakdowns – suggests as much. Over the long term, it will become much more widespread. The likely future of same-sex marriage seems pretty clear. Let me offer an example of these judgments, involving two hot-button issues: abortion and same-sex marriage. We’ll take you behind the curtain of our data and our judgments. We will tell you where we think the evidence points, and we will occasionally look backwards to examine mistakes that we – or others – made in the past. We will, too.Īlong the way, we will make analytical judgments about which parts of a story matter most and which are secondary. Sometimes she plays off the news, and sometimes she introduces readers to new ideas. She talks to readers directly, using the first and second person. One model for our work is Tara Parker-Pope, who runs The Times’s health-focused Well blog. And I knew a column succeeded when readers wrote to say, “Ah, I finally get it” – even, or especially, when they told me they didn’t agree with every part of the column. My reporting was really an exercise in sorting through my own uncertainty.
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In six years as an economics columnist for The Times, I often chose column topics by tackling subjects I didn’t understand as well as I wanted to. But data is powerful only to the degree it helps clarify reality.įrom my own experience as a journalist – and as a reader – I know there is a large audience for the kind of plain-spoken, analytical journalism we are setting out to do. We view data as a tool – a powerful tool, thanks to the explosion of digital information and computing power – for describing the world.
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We don’t view data as some kind of foreign language or secret code. Graphics will be at the heart of what we do because they fit our mission: They help people without any pre-existing expertise to understand important, complex subjects.ĭata will also be at the heart of what we do, but you shouldn’t expect to see too many numbers on The Upshot. It’s no accident that the lead creators of some of our most popular graphics in recent years – the social-mobility package, the deficit calculator and the dialect quiz – are all full-time members of The Upshot team. We will also feature a rich stream of graphics and interactives, one of The Times’s great strengths. We will build on all of the excellent journalism The New York Times is already producing, by helping readers make connections among different stories and understand how those stories fit together. We’ll be conversational without being dumbed down. We aim to appeal to the many people out there who wish they understood the world a bit better. Our biggest goal is to serve as navigators for the news. You can also expect to see our work frequently in the print version of The New York Times. I’m the editor of The Upshot, as well as one of its writers, and I want to give readers a preview of what we’ll be doing when the new website launches this spring. These are the kind of direct questions that our new Times venture – The Upshot – will focus on. Which parts of Obamacare are working, and which parts are not? Is Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, really in danger of losing his seat this year? Is it better to buy a home or rent one in your metro area right now? Imagine that you were sitting down with a journalist and could ask any question about the news. Here’s more about the project from The Upshot’s editor, David Leonhardt: We’re looking forward to the launch of The Upshot, the new policy and politics web site coming soon to.