Fakenews from HuffPo

[Dill]

(12-21-2016, 12:29 PM)GMDino Wrote: Not to derail too much, but...

Just had a discussion on Facebook that started with someone demanding respect for Trump because he had respected Obama even though he disagreed with him.

I called him out and provided examples (thank you FB search) of multiple times he not only showed disrespect but flat out lied about the President.  He defended his outright false statements as his "opinions".  Which I reassured him he is welcome to have...but they are demonstrably false.

Over the course of the "discussion" one of his friends proudly announced that everything he said about the President (he's a Muslim, he's a racist, he's gay) was 100% true and as "proof" linked a video of Obama talking about "his Muslim faith".  

That was an honest to goodness true video with the words coming unedited from the President's mouth.  And from that she believed he admitted his was a Muslim.

When provided with the exchange that happened right BEFORE that statement to put the words into the context of the discussion and showing that Obama's words were accurate but not an admission of anything other than McCain was not trying to make an issue of saying Obama was of the Muslim faith she said I was providing "fake news" because the video was linked from a "Soros backed site" (Snopes).

So we both provided accurate, 100% true videos.

Hers was titled and described as the President admitting he was a Muslim.

Mine was the same video, only about 30 seconds longer, and provided context to the statement he made.

And she dismissed it because of the site it was linked to.

Neither was "fake".

One was false.

LOL I don't think that derails anything. That is a great story/example. And I think it sharpens the distinctions between fake, false, and misleading news.

I was also interested to hear of the easy dismissal of a "soros" site. I have a right wing acquaintance who frequently does the same. If it is from Mother Jones or Alternet he won't bother. He can always "already knows" what's on those sites.

The flip side of this is that he is uncritical of Fox and Rush. For him it is all about authority, who has it, who doesn't, and not about sifting news across different sites to get a more comprehensive picture of news.

PS about two years ago I met someone who swore up and down she had seen a video in which Obama claimed to be a Muslim. Maybe the same video?