Fake News

[Belsnickel]

So what do you think about the prevalence of fake news? For the most part we have done a good job of calling it out around here, but how much have you seen around your friends and family on social media? I just found this whole thing interesting. I don't think it influenced the election, those that fall for these things were going to vote the way they did with or without the fake news, but it's still concerning.

Here was an interesting story based on an interview with someone behind the fake news. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

[hollodero]

(11-26-2016, 06:05 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: So what do you think about the prevalence of fake news? For the most part we have done a good job of calling it out around here, but how much have you seen around your friends and family on social media? I just found this whole thing interesting. I don't think it influenced the election, those that fall for these things were going to vote the way they did with or without the fake news, but it's still concerning.

Here was an interesting story based on an interview with someone behind the fake news. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

I thought about creating a similar thread. I don't see it that lightly. It's not about the voting alone, but also about what people start to believe.

Here in Europe there are tons of made up stories, mainly about refugees... how they have illnesses, how there are rampages, mass rapes, mass killings, how residents are ordered to give up living space for immigrants, how Sharia became the law of western countries, the media keeps things secret from its citizens and all that. It's BS, but not harmless at all, it creates hatred. 
And it's willingly shared by the right-wing partys to mobilize the protest movement.
And - often Russia is somehow involved in those; and that's consequently what all the modern right wing movements have in common: They love Putin. There's much more to fake news than just Russian influence, of course. But we more and more become the target for Russian propaganda, and many fake news stories can be traced back to Russian influence; an aspect people are surprisingly casual about, here and in the US. Surprisingly casual.

I fuel that claim by wondering why it seems to be no biggie that Russia hacked into one of your major party's databases. Allegedly. Putin says it wasn't him, of course, and maybe people trust him more than the own government - and how devastating would that be. And how devastating is it that Russian espionage - allegedly - had a big part in your election's outcome. Just like they have a big part in building the "protest movement" with fake news - a goal they openly admitted to.

Sorry about the Russian angle, could not avoid it.
Fake news, Russian or not, are a cancer of the information age and I for one am very much for starting to think about what to do against them. Some kind of digital cachet for "news" maybe. But I don't know. I just know that it's a real concern.

[GMDino]

I literally so such much spread I said Id have to quit my job if I wanted to correct it all.

Much more so from my conservative friends.  Especially the "less educated" who were more prone to WANT to believe everything they read about "Killary" and "Obummer".

But there WAS some from the left about Trump that were flat out wrong too.

My take though is that stupid people (ones who fall for obviously fake news) get to vote too unfortunately.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

How would creating fake news hurt the Alt-Right? I'm confused by all this.

I mean, the guy created websites with addresses that look like actual legitimate businesses and organizations then created a fake news story and people are surprised they spread?

http://www.washingtonpost.com.co
http://www.nationalreview.com.co

Just a quick glance and the average person will think its a legit story.

Unless, this guy though by people believing it he could then say that the Washington Post is putting out fake news and they can't be trusted and anything they say isn't true hoping it would help Hillary?

Seriously, I'm confused and think this guy over thought this and it backfired.

I don't remember seeing any stories on Facebook though about Hillary or Trump except for how great they are by doing or saying something good somewhere, but my friends on Facebook are pretty smart and don't argue on Facebook. It's bad to argue on Facebook for all to see how truly stupid you really are, lol.

[HarleyDog]

Fake news is ridiculous. People who fall for it are ridiculous. Believe nothing you read on the internet. EXCEPT HERE OF COURSE!

[samhain]

I remember seeing one from a site called Conservative Daily Post back in October. It ran a story saying that Putin stated that he was giving the US government 24 hours to apologies for all of the negative things said about him. If they (Obama and Hillary) did not choose to abide by his request, he was going to launch missile strikes against US targets. 24 hours.

Problem was, the post was dated something like October 23rd. I read it on October 26th. People were still leaving replies freaking out, apologizing to Putin for all the mean things Obama said, and of course trashing the president and praising Putin. Apparently they couldn't deduce that 72 hours had already passed and no WWIII.

Side note: Interesting how all the war with Russia talk virtually disappeared post-election.

[Rotobeast]

(11-26-2016, 06:26 PM)hollodero Wrote: I thought about creating a similar thread. I don't see it that lightly. It's not about the voting alone, but also about what people start to believe.

Here in Europe there are tons of made up stories, mainly about refugees... how they have illnesses, how there are rampages, mass rapes, mass killings, how residents are ordered to give up living space for immigrants, how Sharia became the law of western countries, the media keeps things secret from its citizens and all that. It's BS, but not harmless at all, it creates hatred. 
And it's willingly shared by the right-wing partys to mobilize the protest movement.
And - often Russia is somehow involved in those; and that's consequently what all the modern right wing movements have in common: They love Putin. There's much more to fake news than just Russian influence, of course. But we more and more become the target for Russian propaganda, and many fake news stories can be traced back to Russian influence; an aspect people are surprisingly casual about, here and in the US. Surprisingly casual.

I fuel that claim by wondering why it seems to be no biggie that Russia hacked into one of your major party's databases. Allegedly. Putin says it wasn't him, of course, and maybe people trust him more than the own government - and how devastating would that be. And how devastating is it that Russian espionage - allegedly - had a big part in your election's outcome. Just like they have a big part in building the "protest movement" with fake news - a goal they openly admitted to.

Sorry about the Russian angle, could not avoid it.
Fake news, Russian or not, are a cancer of the information age and I for one am very much for starting to think about what to do against them. Some kind of digital cachet for "news" maybe. But I don't know. I just know that it's a real concern.

Podesta's password was "p@ssw0rd", for goodness sakes.


So... I thought this was good reading, about stuff popping up on newsfeeds.

http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/#/

[Belsnickel]

(11-26-2016, 08:17 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: How would creating fake news hurt the Alt-Right? I'm confused by all this.

I mean, the guy created websites with addresses that look like actual legitimate businesses and organizations then created a fake news story and people are surprised they spread?

http://www.washingtonpost.com.co
http://www.nationalreview.com.co

Just a quick glance and the average person will think its a legit story.

Unless, this guy though by people believing it he could then say that the Washington Post is putting out fake news and they can't be trusted and anything they say isn't true hoping it would help Hillary?

Seriously, I'm confused and think this guy over thought this and it backfired.

I don't remember seeing any stories on Facebook though about Hillary or Trump except for how great they are by doing or saying something good somewhere, but my friends on Facebook are pretty smart and don't argue on Facebook. It's bad to argue on Facebook for all to see how truly stupid you really are, lol.

It definitely makes you think this was his model:

1. Create fake news site.
2. ???
3. Laugh as the alt-right falls over their belief in the fake news sites.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(11-27-2016, 02:52 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It definitely makes you think this was his model:

1. Create fake news site.
2. ???
3. Laugh as the alt-right falls over their belief in the fake news sites.

It makes no sense to me.

Maybe he was trying to gauge the legitimate sites patrons then tell everyone that those sites cater to the Alt Right?

I don't know, it's perplexing, lol.

EDIT: Then again, he could be a Trump supporter and now that he's found out he came up with a story about being a Hillary supporter to make her and the Left look stupid...

I'm really confused by all this. Maybe it's the pain meds I'm on

[Dill]

(11-27-2016, 03:30 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: It makes no sense to me.

Maybe he was trying to gauge the legitimate sites patrons then tell everyone that those sites cater to the Alt Right?

I don't know, it's perplexing, lol.

EDIT: Then again, he could be a Trump supporter and now that he's found out he came up with a story about being a Hillary supporter to make her and the Left look stupid...

I'm really confused by all this. Maybe it's the pain meds I'm on

His story doesn't really make Hillary and "the left" look stupid, though.

He says he makes money from advertising by putting up sites to get lots of clicks.  Apparently fake news doesn't work so well with liberals, but the right eats it up. Even the president elect retweets information that most any liberal would see through. So that is where you make your money--with stories of Clinton opponents found murdered.  

This guy may have been trying to make point about media illiteracy, but I think that given the money, perhaps unexpected, that is really what is driving him now.

[Dill]

(11-26-2016, 06:05 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: So what do you think about the prevalence of fake news? For the most part we have done a good job of calling it out around here, but how much have you seen around your friends and family on social media? I just found this whole thing interesting. I don't think it influenced the election, those that fall for these things were going to vote the way they did with or without the fake news, but it's still concerning.

Here was an interesting story based on an interview with someone behind the fake news. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

The bigger issue here, as the fake news publisher points out, is that there was already a large population of media illiterati  created long before the recent election. This I very much agree with, and that is the main reason the election went Trump's way.

The constant undermining of the "lame stream media" to enhance the credibility of news organizations and commentators with much lower standards who report the world as their audience wants it--full of liberal hypocrisy, black thugs, a war on Christmas and police, "feckless" Obama foreign policy, criminal immigrants and Clinton corruption--has created a political divide in the country now almost as deep as it was in the 60s.

Right wing media are not the only player here, though. There are think tanks, foundations, and political organizations like ALEC whose express purpose is to push US politics to the right by coordinating across a number of fronts--pushing Gerrymandering and voter id laws, along with privatization of public schools, prisons, and the military, while denying climate change, opposing gay rights, equal pay for equal work, affirmative action, abortion, and the theory of evolution, etc.  They've been at work since the early 80s and their political values and beliefs require them to undermine other sources of social authority, like science and secular scholarship (especially history), secular universities and, of course, "big government," thereby complementing and supporting the right wing media undermining of the mainstream press.

[JustWinBaby]

At least most people can spot the "fake" news. The real "news" is much more sinister with it's spin, partisan agendas and half-truths.

Like the right-wing media, as the above poster points out. What the above poster failed to acknowledge is the failure of media to be objective and impartial is what created a void for the likes of Fox News, Drudge, etc...

Breitbart vs. VOX...CNN vs. FNC...Drudge vs. HuffPo...just about every major news source on the left or right has a near mirror image on the other. But probably more like 2-to-1 left vs. right. Differences or better/worse can really only be seen by the righties and lefties that take one or the other as gospel.

[Bengalzona]

(11-26-2016, 08:17 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: How would creating fake news hurt the Alt-Right? I'm confused by all this.

Clearly it wasn't about hurting the Alt-Right. It was about making money.

[GMDino]

(11-28-2016, 02:00 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: At least most people can spot the "fake" news.  The real "news" is much more sinister with it's spin, partisan agendas and half-truths.

Like the right-wing media, as the above poster points out.  What the above poster failed to acknowledge is the failure of media to be objective and impartial is what created a void for the likes of Fox News, Drudge, etc...

Breitbart vs. VOX...CNN vs. FNC...Drudge vs. HuffPo...just about every major news source on the left or right has a near mirror image on the other.  But probably more like 2-to-1 left vs. right.  Differences or better/worse can really only be seen by the righties and lefties that take one or the other as gospel.

Only because you count anything that criticizes the right as "spin" even when they simply print the facts and truth.

[treee]

Fake news wouldn't be an issue if people vetted sources better. Fake news is the symptom, not the problem.

[tigerseye]

It's not Main Stream News. It's Main Stream Propaganda.

What they do is easy to see once you figure it out.

But if you don't want to or you refuse to see through it, then you never will.

Your already were you want to be and your not listening to anything other than what fits your own narrative.

"The truth will set you free".

But not everybody wants to be free.

They're happy being right where they're at.

God Bless America