“Jurassic Park and the Daily Newspaper”
The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect was invented by the popular author, Michael Crichton. Yes, the same author who wrote Jurassic Park. Here is his original quote:
“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward — reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
– Michael Crichton
This happens to me when reading about investing. It happened to my wife after an interview she gave. A writer interviewed her for a magazine and reading the printed article she found herself misquoted and incorrect facts sprinkled through. The interview had been recorded, yet still, the reporter had not gotten multiple basic facts correct.
When reading something in print, we have a habit of taking it to be true. This applies to newspapers and more recently to the internet. It is one of the reasons @nntalebrecommends reading books that have stood the test of time versus current events. Not only will the majority of what you read today not be important in six months, let alone 6 years, it is also highly likely to be riddled with inaccuracies and half-truths.