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Comment by ramanujan | Hacker News Reader

1000 upvotes. Let's keep both the regular NYT and WSJ opinion page writers off HN. The regular columnists provide zero signal as you can predict their positions on any issue (does anyone think Krugman will counterintuitively oppose OWS? Or that James Taranto will support it?)

These editorials carry zero information in the Shannon sense.

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I'm in favor of Shannon based assessments of information. But you've assumed that the only information that could be carried is whether or not the author agrees with OWS. In addition to that (predictable / null) information, he also puts forward a theory on how WS reacts to criticism:

In fact, the more reasonable and moderate a critic sounds, the more urgently he or she must be demonized

He may or may not be right, but either way it's a valid viewpoint, and one I find interesting. IMO, that's where the real signal is in this piece.

The substance -- not the source -- is what should be considered in every encounter with an idea.

There are too many ideas to consider them all. Source is a valid filter.

There is a lot more information in an editorial than a directional vote.

  > These editorials carry zero information in the Shannon sense.

Hyperbole much?

Yeah you could've seen Krugman's article coming from a mile away. Nothing surprising, really.

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