Steven Pinker said on 2022-12-19 that he had just appeared on BBC World Service to discuss why 99 positive stories from 2022 got "virtually no coverage" in (other) mainstream media.
Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
What would count as true or false
Judged as of 2022-12-19. True: records show Pinker appeared on BBC World Service on or shortly before 2022-12-19 and discussed a list of 99 positive stories from 2022 (for example Future Crunch's '99 good news stories') and the lack of media coverage of them. Mostly true: the appearance happened and covered that topic, but a minor detail differs (the exact programme, the date within a few days, or the wording about coverage). Mixed: he appeared on the BBC, but on a different service, or the discussion was mainly about another topic. Mostly false: an appearance happened but not on BBC World Service and not about this topic. False: no such appearance took place, as shown for example by BBC programme schedules for that period.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (3)
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E1 What Could Go Right? - 99 good news stories The Progress Network · 22 December 2022
“That’s how our partner Future Crunch put it in our collaborative roundup of 99 of the best good news stories from 2022.”
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E2 "Start With Why..." Plain English Finance · 12 January 2023
“Towards the end of each year they publish a piece called "99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn't Hear About in 20xx".”
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E3 Media and Appearances stevenpinker.com (Steven Pinker's own site) Own record
“February 19, 2018 13:30 PM UTC, BBC World TV – Impact”
Reasoning
E1 and E2 confirm that a list of 99 good news stories from 2022 existed, compiled by Future Crunch and The Progress Network, but neither mentions Steven Pinker or a BBC World Service appearance. E3, from Pinker's own site, lists a 2018 BBC World TV appearance, not one in December 2022. No evidence confirms or rules out the claimed appearance on or around 2022-12-19.
Cite this claim
Steven Pinker, “Steven Pinker said on 2022-12-19 that he had just appeared on BBC World Service to discuss why 99 positive stories from 2022 got "virtually no coverage" in (other) mainstream media.” (said 19 December 2022). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_600dd5e42dff, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_600dd5e42dff
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
More factual claims by Steven Pinker
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Resolved true
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Pinker's arguments on AI risk were laid out five years before the release of LLM chatbots.
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Mostly true
“I’ve got to say that I’m one of the ones who said that’s just not how language works.”
Pinker was among those who argued that predicting the next word is not how language works.
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Resolved true
“discovered and edited by me & Harvey Silverglate”
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Resolved true
“Social and Political Bias: Newest lecture in Gen Ed 1066, Rationality.”
The newest lecture in Gen Ed 1066, Rationality, is titled Social and Political Bias.
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Resolved true
“Perhaps recklessly, I took on this assignment from the Financial Times for their end-of-year issue.”
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