[Outages-discussion] [outages] [EXTERNAL] Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: ATT cellular network 2024-02-22

[Rusty Dekema]

I'm not Andy, but I will say this:

You seem to be very offended at Andy's criticism of the mainstream
media's lack of understanding of what Downdetector is and is not, and
his sentiment that it is lazy for a news organization not to have
found this out before relying on it as a source. Be that as it may, I
believe that his criticism is entirely correct.

The Associated Press article was factually incorrect when it stated
that "Verizon had more than 2,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than
1,400 outages. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages", as Andy explained.

Reuters was somewhat less incorrect in their claim that "Users of
Verizon (VZ.N), T-Mobile (TMUS.O), and UScellular (USM.N), also faced
disruptions" because they attributed that claim directly to
Downdetector, which did publish those reports. It was still an act of
poor-quality journalism not to have explained the unreliable nature of
Downdetector when using it as a source. At least the article did go on
to note that Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular had been contacted and
stated that their networks were operating normally.

I understand that it may no longer be the norm, but I do not think it
should be unreasonable to expect factual reporting and some basic
level of understanding of sources in large mainstream news
organizations and their work product.

Sincerely,
Rusty D.



On Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 3:25 PM Chapman, Brad (NBCUniversal) via
Outages-discussion <outages-discussion at outages.org> wrote:
>
> Andy,
>
> Respectfully, no amount of “garbage” reporting is worth that kind of flaming and vitriol.
>
> Or, if you prefer, I can forward your comments to someone in our News department, since I work for one of those organizations.  I’m sure they’d love to hear your insightful feedback on their research skills.
>
> Do I have your permission to share the email unedited?
>
> -Brad
>
>
> > On Feb 22, 2024, at 12:11 PM, Andy Ringsmuth via Outages-discussion <outages-discussion at outages.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Feb 22, 2024, at 1:41 PM, Christopher Conley via Outages <outages at outages.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> There have been numerous articles on it, including by AP & Reuters:
> >> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://apnews.com/article/cellular-att-verizon-tmobile-outage-02d8dfd93019e79e5e2edbeed08ee450__;!!PIZeeW5wscynRQ!p1ahQFSwDiuas79nPV3ZYaWPjS76vEGU0wRxGX8UsZDT-u2Ah0ihceAZOrVTxOgUk6bkhuqP3jehcW4XiquMRswC2yUcj0Q$
> >> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.reuters.com/technology/cellular-outage-us-hits-att-t-mobile-verizon-users-downdetector-shows-2024-02-22/__;!!PIZeeW5wscynRQ!p1ahQFSwDiuas79nPV3ZYaWPjS76vEGU0wRxGX8UsZDT-u2Ah0ihceAZOrVTxOgUk6bkhuqP3jehcW4XiquMRswCiEKouZs$
> >>  If you don’t trust newswire agencies like AP/Reuters, then you have a different problem entirely.
> >> And here it is directly from the horse’s mouth:
> >> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://about.att.com/pages/network-update__;!!PIZeeW5wscynRQ!p1ahQFSwDiuas79nPV3ZYaWPjS76vEGU0wRxGX8UsZDT-u2Ah0ihceAZOrVTxOgUk6bkhuqP3jehcW4XiquMRswC3TzLv0Y$
> >
> > FTA above:
> >
> > "A number of Americans are dealing with cellular outages on AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other service providers, according to data from Downdetector. AT&T, who was the hardest hit, is actively working to restore service to all of its customers.”
> >
> > So no, of course I don’t trust AP or Reuters or anyone else when it comes to nitty gritty tech topics. They write an entire article based on “data from Downdetector” which as we know is garbage.
> >
> > The AP article you cited goes on to say:
> >
> > "Verizon had more than 2,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,400 outages. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.”
> >
> > NO THEY DIDN’T.
> >
> > Gahhhhh. An even halfway competent reporter would have said “Downdetector users reported more than 2,000 outages on Verizon, 1,400 on T-Mobile and 700 on Boost Mobile. Downdetector information consists of unconfirmed reports from individual users and do not represent official statements from those carriers."
> >
> > The media is so freaking lazy it is beyond disgusting. They take information from Downdetector, which is 100 percent user-submitted and is NOT an official source of anything, and build their entire article on it.
> >
> > So no, none of us should trust the media on these issues. None of us. I specifically DO NOT trust AP/Reuters/etc. because I am more technically competent than their reporters. All of us here are.
> >
> > -Andy
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Outages-discussion mailing list
> > Outages-discussion at outages.org
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/outages-discussion__;!!PIZeeW5wscynRQ!p1ahQFSwDiuas79nPV3ZYaWPjS76vEGU0wRxGX8UsZDT-u2Ah0ihceAZOrVTxOgUk6bkhuqP3jehcW4XiquMRswCtc2Uqbo$
>
> _______________________________________________
> Outages-discussion mailing list
> Outages-discussion at outages.org
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/outages-discussion