Even worse than “trend pieces”
The New York Times and other major publications get a lot of flak for writing “trend pieces,” which are essentially articles that try to splice together a pattern in culture by simply using a few anecdotal interviews to show said pattern.
But at least in those instances there are some anecdotal examples. Even worse is when a reporter for a major outlet sets out to write a trend piece that criticizes a particular group without providing a single example to back up the assertion: Salon’s Glenn Greenwald goes after the AP for committing such a journalistic crime.
Even worse than that is when the NYT provides full-time employment to a hack like David Brooks, who has made a career out of such “sweeping generalization” writings.